A telling footage circulating on social media on August 18 showed a group of settlers waving Israeli flags and hammering signposts into the ground in what they declared to be a new settlement near the border town Alonei Habashan.

Children, who outnumbered the adults in the video, clapped, danced and celebrated the founding of what they called the settlement of “Nave Habashan” on Syrian land, currently under Israeli military control.

The group called themselves the “Bashan Pioneers” – invoking a biblical name for the Golan Heights and southern Syria, and announced their intention to remain at the site for an “extended period of time”.

Leah Shefer, one of the settlers, told Channel 7 that it was her right “to enter, to establish settlements” that the Israeli military would eventually control in Syria.

“During the time of King David, we lived there,” she claimed, adding that the piece of land was the “inheritance” of her ancestors.

Soldiers, maintaining nine posts in southern Syria since the fall of Assad regime, later removed the settler group, though Shefer said they were “very much in favour of the complete land of Israel.”

“Israel acts like a spoiled brat. Settlers have been given a freehand to provoke Palestinians, Syrians and Jordanians,” Yousef Alhelou, London-based Palestinian filmmaker, tells TRT World.

“We see here the empty spaces of our land that call us to return and settle,” Shefer said. “We call on the Israeli government to remove the enemy from all areas of the Bashan and allow the pioneers to settle in them.” 

According to her: “In the end, (Israeli soldiers) told us that we should really get out so we wouldn’t get into trouble, and so we did.”

‘Impunity enables settler activists’

Settler activism has gained momentum since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. Far-right Israelis are pressing for Palestinians to be expelled from Gaza and the enclave resettled with Jews.

“What is emboldening these settlers is the fact that Israel enjoys impunity. This is a systematic violation of international law,” Alhelou says.

He blames Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, two extreme right-wing ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, for the growing appeasement of settlers wanting to build “new communities” beyond Israel.

In December 2024, a group of would-be settlers crossed Israel’s northern border to enter Lebanon under the leadership of a Zionist organisation, which claims southern Lebanon belongs to the Jewish people.

The settler group crossed into a part of Lebanon that is currently controlled by the Israeli military under a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia group.

“All of that is happening because of the blind, unlimited support of the US. Europe and the whole world are opposing the settlement construction and expansion,” Alhelou says.

Illusion of Greater Israel

The idea of “Greater Israel”, rooted in Zionist ideology, refers to a biblical tract said to include the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

While interpretations vary, the term is often associated with the settler movement and right-wing Israeli policies aiming to assert Zionist sovereignty over all lands considered part of ancient Israel.

Israel has always cited biblical references to justify its claim over Arab lands.

In fact, Netanyahu quoted religious references in his speeches to justify the genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed over 62,000 Palestinians in 22 months.

Israel’s settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank, deemed illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, are central to the expansionist Zionist vision. 

Since occupying the West Bank in 1967, Israel has built approximately 141 settlements on stolen land.

The number of “outposts”, settlements without government approval that are considered illegal even under Israeli law, is 224. As many as 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Gaza has borne the brunt of Israeli aggression since October 7, 2023. But the occupied West Bank has seen increased settler attacks and military incursions in recent months, leaving hundreds of people dead and injured.

The presence of Israeli settlements and the accompanying infrastructure, such as settler-only roads and military checkpoints, restricts the movement of Palestinians, thus reducing employment opportunities and hindering trade and commerce.

“All calls to stop these illegal settlements fall on deaf ears. Palestinians have been treated as subhumans for over seven decades,” Alhelou says.