Settler expansion in the Jordan Valley displacing Palestinian pastoral communities
Original framing: “Israeli settlers are driving Palestinian shepherds from their grazing lands” — Al Jazeera
The dispossession of Palestinian shepherds echoes historical patterns of land expropriation by colonial powers, such as in Kenya and Algeria, where pastoral communities were forcibly removed to make way for settler agriculture.
The displacement of Palestinian shepherds is a symptom of a broader system of land dispossession and settler colonialism.
This system is reinforced by state policies that enable and protect settlers, while marginalizing Indigenous land rights. Drawing on cross-cultural and Indigenous models of land stewardship, and integrating scientific and artistic perspectives, offers a path toward sustainable and just land use. Future modeling suggests that community-led solutions, supported by international solidarity and legal accountability, can restore ecological balance and human dignity. The trickster lens reveals the absurdity of framing settlers as autonomous actors, when their actions are structurally enabled by the state.