In the Land Of the Lonely

Nearly 300,000 Israelis live on Arab territory in the West Bank. But with the U.S. pushing for a peace deal, their time may be running out

Katherine Kiviat for TIME

An Israeli settler standing outside an Israeli settlement in Hebron across the street from an Arab family. Photographed from inside a cage built around a Palestinian home to protect them from Israeli settlers throwing stones and rotten food at them.

Deep inside Palestinian territory, the Jewish community of Migron sits, precariously, on the crown of a skull-white hill. On a winter day, the wind is so fierce it rocks the trailer homes, knocks over the kids' plastic tricycles in the muddy driveways and threatens to rip out the young fruit saplings planted by the 90 young settlers who call Migron home. A guard dog the size of a lion prowls the hilltop to scare off Arab prowlers--or terrorists. Migron is a hard and unforgiving place, especially these days.

Itai Harel, 32, founded the Migron settlement in 2002, on his honeymoon. Harel and...

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