The West Bank is the scene of daily confrontations as Israeli settlers keep seizing land in areas where Palestinians have lived for generations. The conflict even reaches caves in remote corners of the territory.

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Israelis and Palestinians usually keep their distance in the West Bank. They are, after all, on opposite sides of a conflict prone to violence. But NPR's Greg Myre recently witnessed an unusual meeting between the two sides in an even more unusual location.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: I'm inside a cave that's also the lifelong home of a Palestinian man and his family. He says, one night this year, several Israeli settlers pulled up and beat him badly. This man, Mohammad Abu Sabha, is telling his story to a group you'd probably never expect - retired Israeli military officers.

MOHAMMAD ABU SABHA: (Through interpreter) Two cars came up and seven men jumped out and immediately started beating me up. I immediately lost consciousness. I only woke up in the hospital.

MYRE: These attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank have risen dramatically in recent years. The settlers are seizing land for themselves and trying to drive out Palestinians like Abu Sabha. His family and others in these dry, dusty hills, an area known as Masafer Yatta, have turned caves into homes and lived in them for generations.

ABU SABHA: (Through interpreter) All my life, I spent here in this cave, and my father before me. The family, sheep and the donkey are all in one place.

MYRE: The rough walls and ceilings of this limestone cave are part of its natural formation. The floor has been smoothed out and covered with tile and carpets. There's electricity for lights and a refrigerator. There's a dining room table and mats for sleeping, and not a lot else. Abu Sabha, age 49, is married with six children. Like most Palestinians here, the family ekes out a living raising livestock. And due to the frequent attacks by Jewish settlers, Abu Sabha installed a security camera, which provided video evidence of the January assault that caused him serious head and leg injuries.

ABU SABHA: (Through interpreter) When you tell the police, they need evidence.

MYRE: He told the Israeli police and presented the video, but he has not received a response. He's now sharing his story with a group called Commanders for Israel's Security. They're generals who've retired from the military or other branches of the security forces. During their careers, they protected Jewish settlers. In retirement, they're speaking out against Israel's rapidly expanding settlements and the attacks on Palestinians.

YONI SHIMSHONI: What's happening in the West Bank is completely unacceptable from a human, Jewish, universal perspective.

MYRE: Yoni Shimshoni is a retired brigadier general. He recalls a moment in the late 1980s. He was a commander in the West Bank. A reporter asked him, what was the hardest part of his job?

SHIMSHONI: The toughest moment for me is when I come into a Palestinian community. The kids look at me and they start to cry because I represent force and occupation and power.

MYRE: A few days later, he made his weekly visit to nearby Jewish settlers. They'd read his comments in the article, and now they consider him too sympathetic toward the Palestinians. They told him...

SHIMSHONI: You're just not welcome. At which point, I was not insulted, but I realized that the problem had several layers that was going to be really difficult to solve.

MYRE: Today, he sees Israel's West Bank occupation, with its expanding presence, as an obstacle to any peace effort with the Palestinians, who claimed this land for a future state. He considers this Israel's most challenging security problem, more so than Iran, more so than Gaza.

SHIMSHONI: It is existentially the most dire threat to the future of Israel as a liberal, democratic, Jewish, secure state.

MYRE: Settlements have been going up in the West Bank since Israel captured the land in the 1967 Mideast war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition is considered the most pro-settlement government ever. Human rights groups say this strong government support has made the settlers more aggressive, yet they're rarely prosecuted. The United Nations has documented more than 1,000 attacks against West Bank Palestinians every year for the past four years.

They include beatings and killings, damaging homes and cars, stealing livestock. Militant Palestinians also attack Jewish settlers, though not nearly as often. Mendy Or is a retired Israeli major general who organized this West Bank visit. He says many Israelis are simply in denial about what's happening.

MENDY OR: It's taking us to a dirty place, to a dirty situation which no democratic countries should be close to it. And therefore, we have to do whatever we can do.

MYRE: Inside the cave, the Palestinian man, Abu Sabha, serves the retired generals chicken and saffron rice. He thanks them for visiting and for speaking up. As the generals leave, an Israeli military helicopter flies overhead on a training mission, a pointed reminder of life in the West Bank.

Greg Myre, NPR News in the West Bank.

(SOUNDBITE OF TAY IWAR SONG, "REFLECTION STATION")

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