Louie Rei: Hello.

Rachel Abrams: Hi, Louie. This is Rachel Abrams from the Daily.

Louie Rei: Hi, Rachel.

Rachel Abrams: Thank you so much for making time to speak with us.

Louie Rei: Thank you.

Rachel Abrams: Where are you physically right now?

Louie Rei: I am currently in my house in the West Bank under siege by Israeli settlers, extremists. We are not allowed to leave the property. The settlers wants my family, the neighbors family to leave. So simply they can steal the houses and take over. They want the entire land, the entire mountain, all the houses.

Rachel Abrams: What's happening right now, Louie? Like are there settlers outside that you can see from inside your house right now?

Louie Rei: Yes, I am watching them as we speak. There's three settlers. that's about 300 to 400 yards from me. Uh they brought couches and they sitting in the sun and moments ago there's a three soldiers and I was watching uh wondering what what's the soldiers going to do to them? Are they going to arrest them? They going to remove them? Are they going to tell them it's a closed military zone? Because this is what they told me yesterday. Absolutely. They did nothing. They just looked around. They talked to them probably for 5 minutes and they just left them.

Rachel Abrams: It's it's it's insane.

Rachel Abrams: From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams and this is the Daily. For the past year, there's been a huge increase in violence in the West Bank. Israeli settlers have been terrorizing Palestinians, setting fire to their property, uprooting their olive groves, and stealing their animals, all in an effort to drive them off their land. According to the United Nations, more than a thousand Palestinians have been injured and more than 20 killed so far just this year. That's more than twice the number of killings as in 2025. But the settlers seldom face any consequences for their actions. In part because they receive broad support from the Israeli government. Today we talked to Palestinian American Louis Rei in the West Bank about the mounting dangers of trying to hold on to his home.

Rachel Abrams: When we called Louis Rei, he was in his house in Kustra, a small village of about 5,000 people in the northern West Bank. Louis talked to us from his bedroom where he could look out the window and keep an eye on what was happening outside. I asked him if he dared to leave the house.

Louie Rei: Absolutely not.

Rachel Abrams: What happens if you do?

Louie Rei: Either get shot, killed, or hospitalized.

Rachel Abrams: And what about food? Do you have food in your house right now?

Louie Rei: Yesterday around 6:00 in the morning when nobody was outside, I risked my life and I ran to the village and I brought some bread, eggs, water, milk, and that's it.

Rachel Abrams: And who is there with you?

Louie Rei: My cousin and his two boys.

Rachel Abrams: How old are the boys?

Louie Rei: They are about 14, 15.

Rachel Abrams: Are they scared?

Louie Rei: Of course. Terrified. They cannot look outside the window. They cannot make noise. Even while we are talking, they are whispering. We have the blinds down. We have doors locked.

Rachel Abrams: Are you able to turn on lights?

Louie Rei: Absolutely not. At night time, complete dark. No light at all.

Rachel Abrams: Louie, step back for a second and tell me how you got into this situation. I know you've lived in the United States for a long time. Can you tell me about that first?

Louie Rei: I came to the United States back in 1993 as a student in Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe, Louisiana, study Aeronautics. I had a student visa. And then I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. I loved it. I went into business. I opened stores. I bought houses. I got married. I had two kids. They were born and raised in the United States. And I lived there for about 30 years.

Rachel Abrams: And why did you decide to go back to the West Bank?

Louie Rei: I always missed my family, my mom, my dad, my brothers, sisters. And I always wanted to come back and retire in a quiet, peaceful place to look after my land that I inherited from my dad. My dad used to take care of it and put olive trees. And after he passed away, it was handed to me. I've always had that love in my heart. The land is about 10 to 12 acres. And I decided to come and build a nice house right in the middle of it and surrounded by trees, all kinds of trees, figs, almonds, grapes, and olive trees. And just looking for a quiet, peaceful life, farming, having chickens, having a garden, enjoying the rest of my life.

Rachel Abrams: And when did you move back?

Louie Rei: I moved back late 2022.

Rachel Abrams: And what was it like at that time?

Louie Rei: It was very quiet. I was working on the land. I was enjoying it. There was no real major problems at all. I even built a nice separate house on the highest point on the mountain with a 360 view.

Rachel Abrams: And when did that start to change?

Louie Rei: Around June of 2023. A group of settlers took over that house on the top of the mountain.

Rachel Abrams: What was your reaction when you found out they had taken over that house?

Louie Rei: Shocked. Wondering, what are they doing? What do they want? And then I realized they're building an outpost. They brought hundreds of sheep, jeeps, four-wheelers, generators, water tanks, lots of people. And they turned it into an outpost.

Rachel Abrams: Just to give some context: Since 1967, Israel has built roughly 150 officially recognized settlements in the West Bank, which are now home to about 500,000 Israelis. Under international law, these settlements are widely considered illegal, though Israel disputes that. But beyond those authorized settlements, settlers have established over a hundred unauthorized outposts throughout the West Bank. These outposts are often spearheaded by radical extremists, starting with just a few trailers or a couple of buildings, and then expanding. Louie, once this outpost was established, what changed in your day-to-day life?

Louie Rei: Everything changed. They started grazing their sheep on our land, eating our crops and trees. They started driving four-wheelers and dirt bikes through our property. They started carrying assault rifles, M16s, shooting in the air. Daily harassment. Trying to provoke us, trying to make us leave.

Rachel Abrams: And how did that escalate further?

Louie Rei: After October 7th, when the war started, everything went out of control. The settlers became emboldened. The level of violence escalated exponentially. On October 11th, a large group of armed settlers attacked a family on the eastern edge of our village. They opened fire on the house. Villagers went to help, and the settlers shot directly into the crowd, killing three villagers on the spot and injuring many others. The next day, during the funeral procession, settlers and soldiers ambushed the procession and killed two more people, a father and son. A few days later, they came to my house. I wasn't there at that moment. They smashed all the windows and doors, looted the contents, cut down my olive trees, destroyed the irrigation system, and shot up the water tanks.

Rachel Abrams: When you saw your home destroyed like that, what did you do? Did you contact the police or the military?

Louie Rei: Filing a report is completely useless. The Israeli police almost never investigate violence or vandalism against Palestinians. Even if we call them, they either don't show up, or if they do, they protect the settlers. The army doesn't protect us; they protect the settlers. In many cases, the settlers are reservists who have been called up. They are wearing military uniforms and carrying government-issued weapons while attacking us. As an American citizen, I contacted the US Embassy multiple times. I provided them with photos, videos, deeds of ownership, and affidavits.

Rachel Abrams: And what was the response from the US Embassy?

Louie Rei: They just said, "We are monitoring the situation and raising our concerns with Israeli authorities." But that changed nothing on the ground. There is no real protection. The attacks and encroachments continue every single day.

Rachel Abrams: Let's come back to what is happening right now. You mentioned earlier that settlers are right outside your compound and you are trapped inside. How did this latest siege begin?

Louie Rei: A few days ago, they brought their cattle and sheep directly into my yard. Then several settlers brought tents, furniture, and generators, setting up camp just dozens of yards from my front door. When I went outside and demanded they leave my private property, they drew their guns, pointed them at my head, and threatened to shoot me if I didn't get back inside or if I stepped off the property. Then the soldiers showed up. But instead of removing the trespassers, the officer declared my property a "closed military zone," ordering me to stay inside and warning that if I step out, I would be arrested or shot.

Rachel Abrams: So the settlers are free to roam around your land, sitting on couches in the sun, while you, the legal owner of the land, are placed under house arrest by the military?

Louie Rei: Exactly. That is the reality here! It is a blatant strategy of apartheid and displacement. Their goal is crystal clear: cut off your food and water, cut off your mobility, keep you living in terror under constant death threats until you break down mentally and abandon your home. Once you leave, they take over immediately and claim it as theirs. That's why I refuse to leave. Because I know that if I walk away and don't come back, my ancestral land, the land my father left me, will be gone forever.

Rachel Abrams: In the face of imminent violence, are you afraid? How do you plan to hold out?

Louie Rei: Of course I'm afraid. I'm a human being made of flesh and blood. But at the same time, I have a deep conviction in my heart. This is my legal land. I have the deeds. I have the internationally recognized right to be here. If I, an American citizen with the ability to reach international media, can be driven out so brazenly, what hope is there for the thousands of ordinary Palestinian villagers who have no foreign passports? I will stay here as long as I can. I want the world to see what is happening here—this is not a simple neighbor dispute; this is a systematic campaign of dispossession and oppression backed by the state apparatus.

Rachel Abrams: Louie, thank you so much for taking such a huge risk to speak with us. Please stay safe.

Louie Rei: Thank you, Rachel. Thank you for telling the truth.

Rachel Abrams: This episode was produced by David Halbfinger, Aaron Boxerman, and Noam Blanks. That's it for the Daily. I'm Rachel Abrams. See you tomorrow.