Israel's settlers and the Palestinians they live among

Michael Netzer moved to Ofra in 1985, about a decade after the settlement was established, one of Israel's first in the West Bank.

"It’s ridiculous to say that Jews can’t live here," said the 63-year-oldcomics artist. "The Bible is a part of it. I would ask anybody: Is it so easy to lose your connection to your ancestors and your land? Of course it isn’t. For the Jewish people, that history is what made us what we are."

The red roofs of Ofra's homes are easily seen from Ein Yabrud, the Palestinian village across the road.

Azmi Musleh, 53, a local farmer, said Ofra sits on land his family used to cultivate.

"That land is my heart and soul. It is my family's heart and soul. We used to grow sesame, figs, olives, back to the time of my father, his father, and his father before him," Musleh said.

MAALE ADUMIM/AL-EIZARIYA

Israel's settler communities are hardly homogeneous. Some settlers are driven by burning ideology. Others are just looking for a cheap apartment. Some of the settlements adjacent to Israel are seen by many Israelis as just regular towns, unlike the more isolated enclaves deep inside the West Bank.

"I don't feel like a settler," said Michele Coven-Wolgel, a 60-year-old lawyer from Maale Adumim, a large settlement about 15 minutes' drive from Jerusalem. "Should we be annexed? Yes, we're a city of 41,000 people, we're a city, we have a mall."

Against the backdrop of desert hills, the villas of Maale Adumim provide their inhabitants with a comfortable life. Education is good and transport to the city is easy.

Ali Farun, 74, from the Palestinian town of al-Eizariya, about 1.5 km (one mile) from Maale Adumim has little hope of the territory ever coming under Palestinian control.

"It doesn't matter if they annex it to Jerusalem or if it remains West Bank - they control it, one way or another," said Farun.

HAVAT GILAD/SARRA

Havat Gilad, a cluster of prefab huts sprinkled across a hilltop deep in the West Bank, is home to about 50 families.

Its residents say their presence in the West Bank fulfils God's biblical promise to the Jewish people and secures Israel's safety.

"This belongs to the people of Israel, there's no question about it," said Itai Zar, 43, who founded Havat Gilad in 2002 after his brother was shot dead by Palestinian militants nearby.

"Eighteen years ago we came here, one family, and today we have a flourishing community."

Bothena Turabe, saw the settlement's growth from her Palestinian village Sarra, across the way.

"In the night you look at them and you think there is nothing, and the next morning you look and you see there are more caravans," said Turabe, 47, a member of the village council. "This land is not yours to take - you’re stealing it."

BEITAR ILLIT/WADI FUKIN

Beitar Illit is a settlement built for Israel's fast-growing ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

According to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlements watchdog, Beitar Illit saw the most construction of all Israel's West Bank settlements in 2018.

Its densely built apartment blocs and Dollar stores seem a world apart from Havat Gilad's huts and dirt roads. And unlike in Zar, residents cite financial concerns for moving here.

"We're not here for ideological reasons," said David Hamburger, 36, a Beitar Illit shop owner. "There's no way for us to buy houses anywhere else besides settlements."

With large families, seven children on average, high unemployment and poverty, the ultra-Orthodox Jews seek cheap housing that will allow their close-knit community to live together.

For Mohammad Awad, a 64-year-old farmer from Wadi Fukin, a Palestinian village next to Beitar Illit, it makes no difference why people come to live in the settlement.