If someone were to claim that the fate of an occupied land is being shaped by the movements of a cow, it would sound like satire—or propaganda at best. Yet, this is the grim reality in the occupied West Bank today. Here, the borders of Palestinian land are being defined by the path of a settler’s cow, guided, he believes, by divine command.
Behind this absurdity lies a sinister strategy: a messianic settler movement accelerating its mission to erase Palestinian existence entirely, while the Israeli state quietly hands them the reins of the West Bank.
“Pastoral Settlements” — A Colonial Tactic Disguised as Livestock Grazing
In recent years, Israeli settlers in the West Bank have pioneered a new strategy called “pastoral settlement”. After realising that traditional settlement expansion wasn’t fast enough to devour Palestinian land, they turned to grazing land grabs. And it worked: in just a few years, they’ve seized a third of the West Bank—a feat that three decades of construction couldn’t accomplish.
While international human rights organisations release occasional condemnations whenever the Israeli government approves new settlement units, these announcements are a smokescreen. The real expansion is taking place far from official records—dozens of illegal outposts mushrooming overnight, without documentation, without approval, and without objection.
The writer notes personally spotting two massive new outposts with over 50 housing units each—completely absent from Israeli government disclosures. These phantom settlements appear like cancerous growths across the West Bank landscape.
The Cow That Conquers Land
Enter the cow.
This isn’t satire. In large parts of the Jordan Valley—which comprises one-third of the West Bank—settlers have claimed over 90% of the land by unleashing cows to roam freely. According to this unwritten colonial law, any territory a settler’s cow steps into becomes settler property. If a Palestinian complains, the response is violence—and the claim that “the cow has spoken.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian shepherds are banned from grazing in any area the cows have crossed, regardless of ownership.
In this strange new world, the cow holds more power than the Palestinian Authority, the international community, or even the Israeli government.
Israel’s Push Toward Full Annexation
Now, the Israeli government is contemplating an official annexation of 65% of the West Bank, under a proposal pushed by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. Meanwhile, radical settler leaders such as Yisrael Gantz (backed by the American far-right) are demanding full annexation of the entire territory.
What’s the plan for Palestinians? To isolate them into 20 fragmented cantons—disconnected enclaves that erase any notion of a continuous homeland.
Compare this to the infamous Kidar Plan, which once proposed seven disconnected ghettos for Palestinians and was condemned globally as apartheid. Now, 20 cantons are being proposed—and the world is silent.
Toward a Physically Engineered Apartheid
Israel is now executing the final phase of racial separation in the West Bank:
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- Just days ago, Netanyahu’s government approved 22 new settlements, closing the last geographic gaps—especially in the North.
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- Palestinians are being banned from using main roads, like the Nablus–Ramallah and Bethlehem–Hebron routes, replaced by unsafe, isolated roads.
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- Settlement control has expanded from Area C to Area B, violating the Oslo Accords, with over 34,000 dunams of Area B already seized.
The goal is simple: to break Palestinian geographical and societal connectivity—villages, cities, families—until only disjointed fragments remain.
Zionist Control Beyond Borders
In today’s West Bank, even diplomatic protest is unwelcome. Israeli soldiers recently opened fire on a delegation of Arab and European ambassadors visiting Jenin.
In occupied Jerusalem, every framework of negotiation or oversight has collapsed. Religious Zionism, now deeply embedded in Israel’s military and government, has claimed exclusive authority over the future of the West Bank.
Yedioth Ahronoth quoted an Israeli general stating:
“The West Bank is the next big event. We know it.”
The military once operated under a concept focused on Gaza—but that collapsed. Now they fear the collapse of control in the West Bank, which is rapidly slipping toward full messianic Zionist dominion.
The PA’s Role in the Occupation Machine
The Palestinian Authority, once seen as a political counterweight, is now being weaponised by the occupation itself. It provides cover for Israel’s annexation and apartheid designs, believing that passive cooperation may secure its survival.
Netanyahu’s government has effectively cornered the PA—forcing it to participate in redesigning apartheid, rather than resisting it.
Silence on Gaza Has Strategic Costs
The silence of West Bank leadership toward the ongoing genocide in Gaza has not gone unnoticed. That silence is costing them political and strategic ground, emboldening Zionist settlers to push forward a final erasure of Palestinian presence in the West Bank.
This is no longer a slow burn. This is an active plan—expressed openly by Bezalel Smotrich in 2017—to remove Palestinians from the West Bank through gradual, strategic displacement.
Sunna Files Reflection: Between a Cow and a Bulldozer Lies a Nation Under Siege
The occupation has mutated. From bulldozers to cows, checkpoints to legislation, Israel is engineering the West Bank into a landscape of apartheid, colonisation, and divine settler entitlement.
As Zionist messianism seizes control of the military and state, the West Bank is entering an age of religious colonialism—more brazen, more aggressive, and more violent than ever before.
The world may laugh at a cow drawing borders. But for the Palestinians of the West Bank, this cow has teeth—and it bites through lives, land, and legacy.
