In Their Own Words: Palestinian Women’s Stories of Settler Violence and Displacement in the West Bank

Stories from women of the West Bank, as written, photographed, and told by Palestinian women.

*Real names and locations in the story below are anonymous to ensure personal security.

Across Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank, Palestinian communities live under constant pressure from settler violence. Attacks are often indiscriminate — targeting people, homes, livelihoods, and land.

Everyone feels the impact of this violence — men, women, and children alike. For women and girls, it carries a particular weight. Disrupted education, threats to personal safety, loss of livelihoods, and the strain of displacement shape life at every stage: from girls trying to stay in school, to mothers protecting their families, to elders holding communities together under immense pressure.

The stories that follow are firsthand accounts from Palestinian women living this reality. Told in their own words, they document what it means to endure occupation not as an abstraction, but as a daily struggle.

Hala is eighteen and in her final year of high school, known as Tawjihi—the most critical and academically demanding year of her education. Having been displaced by settler violence, she and her twin sister are trying to complete their final year amid severe disruption to their education.

“I am in my final year of school, preparing for the Tawjihi exams. A Tawjihi student deserves the chance to attend additional courses – math, English, and others. But in our situation, it’s extremely difficult. Getting to school is in itself exhausting. After the displacement, the distance between school and home grew much longer. Tawjihi is already a huge responsibility. Imagine carrying it alongside everything happening around us. 

The area we had to move to is difficult, especially the roads. There is no car to take us. “My twin sister and I are both in Tawjihi [the final year of high school].  Look at our situation: we walk for more than an hour on dangerous dirt roads. If cars cannot drive on them, how are we supposed to walk them on foot? This is just to reach the place where the bus picks us up for school. This area we are in now brings consequences that are not normal, and they are unbearable. 

Today, I said to myself: I wish I had never entered Tawjihi. Sometimes, I wish I had never been born at all.” 

For Hala’s twin sister, Rana, displacement has also meant the collapse of routine and the loss of basic conditions needed to study:

“During the period of displacement, I had planned – as a Tawjihi student – that the subjects I hadn’t managed to study well, I would catch up on during the break between semesters. But because of the displacement, I couldn’t study anything at all. We were still taking end-of-semester exams during that time, and the electricity kept cutting off at night. A Tawjihi student studies at night – daytime is never enough in the final year. But when the electricity is cut off, how am I supposed to study? 

So, we wait until daylight, try to study a little, then go to school without having prepared. Our grades are terrible. We feel suffocated; our mental state is very bad. Just this morning I told my sister Hala: I wish I had never entered Tawjihi. I wish I hadn’t continued my education. 

After the displacement, our whole family, which is made up of six people, was living in one small, cramped room made of tent covers and unsupported walls. There is no space for me to isolate myself to study or focus. We can’t find any way to study properly. We go to school, write our names on the exam paper, then we leave the classroom, leaving the paper empty.  And when we get home, we still have to wait for the bus, which takes a long time, then walk a long, rough road. By the time we arrive, it’s nearly dark – and in the dark, there’s no electricity. 

So, when can we study? Not in the day, because there’s no space. Not at night, because there’s no electricity. There is no chance to learn.” 

Their older sister watches as the pressure of instability erodes the twins’ confidence and their future plans. She describes how frequently they come to her overwhelmed, discouraged, and exhausted. 
 
“Their grades used to be good, but now they are low. Why do they have to endure such pain in a critical year of their studies? 

I always try to encourage them, tell them that success is beautiful, that joy is worth it  despite all agony. But they are right – how can they study under these circumstances? When I was their age, I used to sleep late studying and wake up at 3 a.m. to resume until it was time to go to school.” 

Families in the West Bank often endure repeated threats and attacks, holding on until they are forced to leave. Fatima, a 50‑year‑old grandmother, recalls the settler violence and intimidation that drove her family from their home.

“We tried to resist, but the pressure grew unbearable. Eventually, we were forced to leave. Settlers attacked us almost every day, and they stole my sheep one year ago. They keep filming us, they come to our house, entering without permission, photographing everything.  We live in constant fear. Our grandchildren cry, saying they are scared to walk alone.”  

Another woman describes how her community endured escalating violence for months—until incidents explicitly targeting women marked a breaking point. 
 
“We left the area not by our own will, nor because we wanted to leave or abandon it. On the contrary, we left after long patience and suffering. They tried to drive us out in every way, using the worst methods against us. In the end, they resorted to targeting women and terrorizing them. They confined a woman in a room and placed a settler at the door while she was alone inside. This was the last incident that happened before we left – it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. This method is what forced us to leave our land in exchange for protecting our women.

We left and came to this empty place with no shelter; forced to take refuge because we had no other choice. The days of displacement coincided with the heavy rains that came this year. We were soaked in the rain. Some families had to adapt and set up tents and other unprotective shelters here. Other families don’t know where to start yet again.”