Mueiyyid Hussein, a 50-year-old Palestinian, runs a small kiosk selling hot/cold drinks and snacks on Highway 60, the main north-south road running the length of the West Bank, near the village of Luban al-Sharqiya, between Ramallah and Nablus. He lives above the shop.
In the small hours of October 6, roughly a hundred settlers, accompanied by police or army (Hussein couldn't tell which), drilled into the concrete and soil in front of his shop and planted dozens of flagpoles with Israeli flags, dense enough to hide the storefront and block its entrance. He was told by police he is not allowed to touch the flags.
The result: customers can't see he's open and are afraid to stop. Settlers honk at anyone who hesitates, scaring them off. He says he's been burned out four times before, had his door ripped out and goods stolen. "They want to expel me from here."
The flag campaign
This wasn't random. A 19-year-old settler from Itamar, Eyal Shpigel, has been running a deliberate project this year to "flood the West Bank with flags" so there's "no confusion about whose land this is." He appeared on Kan Digital in June hanging flags at this very spot. The project has backing from the Shomron Regional Council (occupied West Bank colonial administration),and Im Tirzu.
Shpigel openly told the paper he placed the flags directly in front of Hussein's shop, and explained the escalation logic: "We put flags there like elsewhere, and every time they broke them… so we said, next time they take them down, we'll put a lot more, and they kept taking them down, so we put a lot more."
He named this specific spot as a priority: "This is the place Jewish drivers are most afraid on the road, because of all the Palestinian vehicles stopping there." He added that the shop and surrounding houses are "illegal," but claimed there was "no intention of provoking anyone."
Hebrew https://www.mekomit.co.il/%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%A0%D7%A1-%D7%95%D7%93%D7%92%D7%9C/
See also international coverage:
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlers-flank-palestinian-cafe-with-dozens-israeli-flags-2026-10-09/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/luban-al-sharqiya-palestine-west-bank-b3064171.html
#westbank #palestine
