Who are the ‘Hilltop Girls’ behind Israel’s ‘soft settlement’ strategy?

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that a radical group of young Israeli women, nicknamed the “Hilltop Girls,” is helping advance Israeli settlement growth in the occupied West Bank through what it describes as a “soft settlement” strategy. Rather than projecting an overtly militant image, the women live in basic hilltop encampments and present their presence as ordinary, family-like community life. According to the report, this approach is intended to normalize new outposts and make it easier to absorb Palestinian land into expanding settler areas.

The article links the group to the older Hilltop Youth movement, which emerged in 1998 and has long been associated with aggressive settlement activity. Al Jazeera says the female offshoot relies heavily on social media to promote its outposts and downplay violence, while its broader aim remains the same: strengthening Israeli control over land in the West Bank and, in ideological terms, supporting a vision of a much larger Israel.

The report highlights Maoz Esther and Or Ahuvia as examples of this expansion. It says Maoz Esther, northeast of Ramallah, grew from a small outpost into a larger settlement-like community, while Or Ahuvia near Ofra is part of a wider plan to connect multiple outposts into a larger bloc. Al Jazeera also says activists and rights groups view state backing, infrastructure support, and political protection as key factors enabling the outposts to survive and grow.

The story matters because it frames settlement expansion not only as a security or territorial issue, but also as a gradual social and political project that can reshape Palestinian land use and further complicate prospects for a two-state outcome.