Meeting the Jews of the West Bank: ‘Life is good here – but how can we feel safe?’

“We teach them to shoot for the experience, not to become a super-soldier. They do an exercise of shooting under pressure, they run to get their heart rate up, do some push ups and then they shoot,” Boaz said.

“A lot of people who live here come, people who own guns, but they also come from all over. Last week, we had people from Ashdod and Ashkelon. The civilian squad from Kibbutz Be’eri came six months ago, and I trained them,” he added.

Tourists at the Caliber 3 range (אורן בן חקון)אורן בן חקון

“October 7 still affects them. A lot of them had been in combat before, but that was very different- it was the first time they experienced an attack on their home. They still understand the need to protect their families and neighbors no matter what personal price they have to pay,” he continued.

At the Gush Etzion Junction nearby, IDF soldiers hover between passing cars while others man security outposts. We turn towards Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, one of the region's Jewish communities, known to most of the world as "settlements."

Kibbutz Kfar Etzion is located between Jerusalem and Hebron, south of Bethlehem. Driving through the kibbutz, you can see deserted construction sites at which Palestinian workers from nearby villages would usually work, but after Oct 7, the Israeli government barred them from doing so and the equipment still lays silent.

In Kfar Etzion, surrounded by vineyards and cherry orchards, we meet Amichai Noam, the vice president of the local school who lives on the east side of Gush Etzion. We sit on wooden benches overlooking bordering Arab villages while he recounts the story of the community.

“Although this place is called a school, it’s not a regular one in the traditional sense of it,” Noam says. “It’s a place in which we educate people to love the land, Zionism and the story of Gush Etzion.”

Kibbutz Kfar Etzion was founded in 1927, before the State of Israel. Back then, the kibbutz flourished. When the War of Independence broke out in 1948, Kibbutz Kfar Etzion suffered tremendous losses. Almost all the men fell in battle, turning the children of the kibbutz into orphans.

The cemetery in Kfar Etzion (אורן בן חקון)אורן בן חקון

“This place came under the control of Jordan. My office used to be the quarters of Jordanian officers. But the children and the widows of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion always believed that one day they would come home, and inscribed prayers for this on the tombs of their loved ones buried at the Mount Herzl Cemetery,” Noam says.

By 1967, 19 years later, many of those orphans had been drafted into the Israel Defence Forces when the Six-Day War broke out and, much to the surprise of the Jewish people and the rest of the world, led to a significant expansion of Israeli-controlled territory, including once again Gush Etzion.

Led by then-Israeli lawmaker Rabbi Hanan Porat, negotiations began with the Israeli government to rebuild the region. In 1967, Kfar Etzion became the first settlement of Gush Etzion to be rebuilt. Porat was approached by David Ben-Gurion’s bodyguard Yehoshua Cohen, a man of faith, who advised him to build the field school to tell the stories of the heroes and pioneers of the village.

“We feel we have this duty to pass on this legacy to the next generations,” Noam says.

The school is the biggest tourist facility in the region, with 700 beds able to host everyone from pre-military students to soldiers to elected officials from across the globe.

“We brought experts in stone construction and rebuilt it in the spirit of the Land of Israel so that when people visit Kibbutz Kfar Etzion they feel that they are in nature while still being comfortable,” Noam says.

“Sometimes, it may feel to foreigners that this area is dangerous, but the truth is that from the moment you arrive at the kibbutz you don’t feel any danger, it’s pastoral and quiet, the roads are safe, the kibbutz is safe. It’s the Tuscany of Israel. Look at the almond trees blossoming,” he adds with pride.

The kibbutz consists of about 200 families, among the several tens of thousands of people overall who live in Gush Etzion.

The kibbutz’s economy is heavily dependent on agriculture and tourism. Kfar Etzion has the largest cherry orchard in the country, and is also known for its flowers, and chicken coops. It has a big commercial centre, with four coffeeshops, a pizzeria, falafel and meat restaurants, and all sorts of stores.

“Since the beginning of the war, we have not seen a lot of tourism from outside of Israel. It was mainly internal. Recently, we’ve started to see somewhat of a return of Jewish tourism mainly from the United States, but we believe that we will come out of this war stronger and there will be even more tourists than before,” Noam says.

Before the war, Noam said, the school was very proud to employ Palestinian workers.

“There was coexistence but at the beginning of the war some of those workers posted on Facebook messages supporting the massacre and this led us to give up our illusions and realise who our neighbours are. We understood that we could not give them all our faith,” he says.

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“Because we are ethical people, we continue to have a relationship with them. We have people we do business with. We are buying from them and we respect them when we see them outside of the kibbutz, but we decided not to let them work inside the school.”

Shelley Bloomאורן בן חקון

On our way out of Kfar Etzion, we stop by Gush Etzion’s main cemetery, busy with religious youth who have come to pay their respects. There, we meet Shelley Bloom, originally from Manchester, England, who now lives in Elazar and has come to visit her mother’s grave.

“We made aliyah in 1983 and lived in Gilo, Jerusalem. My husband got a job in Gush Etzion and we moved to Elazar where we bought a house with a garden as opposed to the apartment we would be able to afford in town,” Bloom tells us.

Bloom’s mother, 87 at the time, eventually came to live in Efrat.

“Life is very good in the area, people are very friendly. I can't think of any cons to the community. I don't think anyone feels fully safe in Israel since October 7. Didn’t you see what happened in Tel Aviv? Here it is as safe as anywhere else in Israel,” Bloom says.

“Security is always a concern. Not in our community but certainly on the roads surrounding the yishuv. Growing up our children could walk and bike around. It’s definitely a great place to raise kids.”

Bloom, a mother of four children, grandmother of nine and a retired businesswoman, carried a weapon for 30 years.

“They are going to let all the terrorists out now and they will start killing us again.”

On January 19, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement came into effect. As part of the first phase, 33 Israeli hostages, dead and alive were released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, some serving life sentences for terrorist acts, some of whom have been freed to Judea and Samaria as well as eastern Jerusalem.

“Since October 7, we have worried about our kids in the army, and we lost soldiers from our yishuv. Also, a neighbour's daughter was killed at the Nova festival on October 7. So we are grieving with them,” Bloom tells us.

Six kilometres from Kfar Etzion is Efrat, which was established some 40 years ago and is home to nearly 14,000 people. Dovi Shefler, who heads the municipality, is hoping to grow the population to 20,000 and become a full-fledged city in five to six years.

About a quarter of the residents of Efrat moved to Israel from the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia. Announcements from the municipality are circulated in both Hebrew and English. A high percentage of the local population works in health-related professions and also volunteer for the Magem David Adom or United Hatzalah emergency medical services.

“We have been living with terror for more than 100 years and unfortunately it’s here. What happened on October 7 made us realise that we must be prepared for a scenario where there could be an attack on 20 to 50 or maybe even 100 settlements, which could be targeted by hundreds or maybe even thousands of terrorists,” Shefler said.

To be prepared for such a scenario, Efrat has considerably expanded its civil defence squad.

“We had only 35 or 40 people in our squad but now we have more than 100. The army helps us give them equipment for attack and defence. We also got donations for 200 cameras around Efrat, we can see minutes before they come,” Shefler explained.

“We built with the army a unit for counter-terrorism as well. Now they know how to defend neighbourhoods with rifles they have in their homes. We know that on October 7, towns and villages with residents that had rifles fought and took out the terrorists. If they didn't, Hamas occupied the place.”

"Our demand is to not wait for them to attack us, attack them first like they started doing in Jenin, and take all the weapons from the terrorists in Judea and Samaria,” he continued.

Last month, Israeli security forces launched “Operation Iron Wall” to destroy Palestinian terrorist infrastructure in Jenin in northern Samaria. The operation has since been expanded to the Nur al-Shams camp near Tulkarem and beyond, with the IDF saying that dozens of terrorists have been killed and more than 100 captured.

“Now that the army has less of a front in Lebanon and Gaza, we hope they will attack full power in Judea and Samaria. We must ensure this dream of the Arabs to occupy our land never becomes a reality,” says Shefler.

Just north of Efrat, is a patch of Area A, under full Palestinian civilian and security control in accordance with the 1993 Oslo Accords.

“There are a lot of terrorists there and once a month, we hear shooting. Two years ago, one of the terrorists shot at a house in Efrat. In the bedroom and bathroom, there were bullets. The villages on our eastern side are more friendly,” says Shefler.

Before October 7, Palestinian villagers would come to Efrat to work in stores or get treated at the health centre. However, since then the IDF has blocked them from coming in. Four months ago, some were allowed to come back to work in construction but not in other sectors.

Shefler insists that while there is a comprehensive Arab terror campaign, there is no such phenomenon of Jewish terror, despite Palestinian claims that settlers are violent towards them.

“There are people who do bad things like burning cars in villages but let’s not be confused. There is Arab terror and then there are those people whom the police will find and take care of,” he explains.

“Those problematic youth are not coming from our area. It’s very uncommon and people condemn it. It is not in our interest, we don’t want them to be perceived as the voice of our people here because they are not,” he added.

According to the annual report published by the Shin Bet in December, Israeli forces thwarted more than 1,000 significant Palestinian terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem in 2024. Most of the attacks involved firearms (689) and explosive devices (326), but there were also stabbings, rammings, bombings and abductions.

Next we visit Neve Daniel, in western Gush Etzion. The highest point in the region, Neve Daniel sits at 1,000 meter above sea level and offers breathtaking views of the Jordanian mountains.

Rachel Moore אורן בן חקון

There, we meet Rachel Moore, who has been living in the community for over 12 years. From her spacious living room, surrounded by pictures of her children and grandchildren she gazes out at an unfinished construction project.

“Many of my neighbours have been waiting for a long time to buy their own home, they were hoping to move in at least half a year ago. If Palestinian workers aren’t allowed in, the work can’t be finished. That’s impacted everyone and people have different opinions,” Moore says.

In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, she felt extremely vulnerable in her otherwise quiet and pastoral community, describing a sense of security that was shattered.

“The fact that [southern] communities were infiltrated by [Gazan] workers hit way too close to home here, and I did go from floor to floor of my house with my gun and we had everything locked up. Our 11-year-old felt the amount that we were vigilant,” she said.

Moore previously lived in Jerusalem for six years and before that in New Jersey. She moved to Gush Etzion after admiring the close-knit familial nature of the place.

“It was important for us to find somewhere within Judea and Samaria. We wanted to live in a settlement but as close to the city as possible. My heart was in Jerusalem and this was a way to give us both,” she said.

“We really like Gush Etzion in terms of quality of life, having kids who speak English, it facilitated the transition. The school system was a big draw and we also had friends here,” she continues.

“On an ideological level, we felt very strongly that this was such an important decision for the future of Israel and that every person who lives here matters in terms of future negotiations determining the borders of the country, and also protecting the citizens that live here now,” she added.

The Jewish population of the West Bank is growing, much to the consternation of most of the international community. According to a report published last month by the Yesha Council, the Jewish population of the territories known as Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley grew by 12,297 in 2024. As of January 1 this year, 529,704 Israelis lived in the territories, amounting to over 5 per cent of the total population of Israel.

That figure does not include the 350,000 Jews living in the eastern part of Jerusalem.

The Yesha Council noted that the annual growth of the region’s Jewish population was 2.38 per cent—more than twice the national rate.

In January, reporter and podcaster Josh Hasten marked 23 years since he made aliyah with his family from Indiana. He initially lived in Jerusalem and was happy there. He bought a house. Then, he was invited to Gush Etzion for a Succot meal with friends in 2009.

Efratאורן בן חקון

"We saw that they were living an unbelievable lifestyle,” Hasten tells me from his home in Elazar. “The kids were running around free. The perception was that Judea and Samaria is a dangerous place but the kids were running from house to house and in the yard. We wanted to raise our kids like this,” he said.

A week later, Hasten was already looking for homes in the area.

Josh Hastenאורן בן חקון

“We decided we would live in Judea and Samaria for reasons related to the lifestyle but also ideological, the attachment to the land, the biblical heartland you see and feel here,” he said. “When you are with your kids here, you see the way they believe, their Zionism. Every kid has an iPhone or goes to the movies, but here they’re camping, hiking, it’s all about being in the field”.

Hasten said that while the security situation is a concern, for him being Jewish in the Jewish homeland is worth the risks.

“We made aliyah during the Second Intifada, buses were blowing up, we went through the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Here in Gush Etzion, there were more attacks than anywhere else in 2015 during the Knife Intifada,” he said.

“We don’t think about it when we go to the store. I don’t think twice before I leave my house. I’m armed but I don’t think it's the reason. We can’t live like that. We’d make ourselves crazy,” he added.

Hasten views the Jewish residents of the West Bank as being on the frontlines, noting that the centre of the country would be vulnerable to attacks if Palestinian terrorists gained control over the mountainous region surrounding it. He also believes that the Oslo Accords were a big mistake, noting that coexistence was stronger prior to handing over territory to the Palestinian Authority.

“Before Oslo, to get to Gush Etzion you had to go through Bethlehem. On Fridays, Jews used to shop in the markets of Gaza. The notion of separating did more harm and more damage and made things less peaceful. Now, there are big red signs saying it’s dangerous and illegal to go [to Area A]”, Hasten said.

“If there is a simchah in a Jewish family and they invite Arab coworkers from Palestinian areas, they can get an authorisation to get into the settlement, but if the Arabs marry off a son or a daughter in Area A, Israelis can’t ever go in. The coexistence we had before October 7 was limited because it was one way,” he adds.

“As long as the PA is in control with its education system teaching hatred of Jews, there will not be any type of real peace. We are nowhere near any type of peace or coexistence, not in the next generation.”