The village of Mu‘arrajat is gone, ravaged and despoiled by savage settlers. There were years of harassment, large-scale theft, repeated violence, and death-threats.  On July 3, 2025, after a gruesome night, the villagers took apart their homes, loaded their few possessions onto trucks, and left. Remember that date of infamy.

As is now the norm, the army and police refused to intervene when the settler mobs invaded that night; that is, the security forces are fully complicit in this catastrophe, as are the government of the state of Israel, its prime minister, and the whole sordid gang.

Once the Jews knew all about expulsions, from long experience. I grew up with the stories. Over centuries, our ancestors were driven cruelly from place to place. Now Israel is the world expert in brutal evictions and terminal expulsions, on a huge scale. I suppose some perverse logic connects these two statements.

We know the people of Mu‘arrajat. We have long-standing friendships with the families. We have slept there, been offered coffee at sunrise or at sunset, shared meals during festival days, spent countless hours accompanying the shepherds to their grazing grounds, savored speaking with them in their language. This time we couldn’t save them. They are good people, brave, who wanted only to live their lives in peace.

In great pain and sorrow, we offer these photographs of Mu‘arrajat from the last few years. They are what is left.

Margaret: Taken by its beauty, David and I have photographed Mu’arrajat repeatedly over the last several years. Below are a few of our photographs. Click on the first image to start the slide show. Then click on the arrows to advance the slides.

text:  David Shulman © 2025. photographs Margaret Olin © 2025, except where credited to David Shulman