A radical movement of young Israeli women is leaving civilian life and education behind to live in rudimentary hilltop tents across the occupied West Bank. Dubbed the “Hilltop Girls”, this group champions a strategy of “soft settlement”, replacing weapons and military patrols with seemingly mundane daily activities. By portraying their presence as a natural, family-oriented social project, they aim to legitimise the gradual seizure of private Palestinian land and the establishment of new outposts.
The women are in many ways an extension of the Hilltop Youth a radical religious Zionist group that emerged in 1998 when then-Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon urged settler youths to seize West Bank hilltops to preempt final status negotiations. While the broader movement is infamous for orchestrating deadly pogroms and seizing territory by force, the female offshoot embraces an ideology geared towards establishing a “Greater Israel” that extends beyond historic Palestine to include Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. To normalise their presence, the Hilltop Girls heavily rely on social media.
Outpost accounts publish promotional videos aiming to move away from the more violent images associated with marauding Israeli settlers, who are often backed and shielded by the country’s security forces. The female settlers claim they do not kill Palestinians or assault landowners, but merely cook and hang laundry like any other group of women. But their end goals are similar – to establish the so-called Promised Land, including through the extension of Israel to the occupied West Bank.
Their presence in the West Bank is no less illegal than that of violent extremists. And they too are transforming Palestinian pastoral land into fully-fledged settlements in violation of international law. The Maoz Esther and Or Ahuvia outposts, located northeast of Ramallah, serve as prime examples of this systematic expansion.
Established in 2006 as a small youth outpost, Maoz Esther was demolished and rebuilt multiple times before expanding into what is now known as the “Girls’ Hill”. By 2025, it housed 17 families and more than 50 children, exceeding the size of the neighbouring 950-dunam (235-acre) Kochav HaShahar settlement. Similarly, the Or Ahuvia outpost, established in 2023 near the Ofra settlement, reflects a broader vision to create a massive settlement bloc.
The ultimate goal is to connect more than 20 outposts to Ofra, creating an integrated network capable of absorbing thousands of families in the future. While Israeli police occasionally dismantle these outposts on camera, rights activists describe these operations as a coordinated theatrical display. According to the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, most outposts enjoy direct support from the state and the army, with the women immediately rebuilding structures as soon as police depart.
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