A man with a kippah, the round cap that Jews usually wear, and peyotethe two curly locks typical of ultra-Orthodox Jews, points his mobile phone camera at a Palestinian woman in a hijab. He is an Israeli settler dressed in military clothing and holding a gun; she, unarmed, a young victim of the increasingly widespread Israeli settlements . The image, taken by Italian photographer Pietro Masturzo, stars on the latest cover of the weekly The Expressa number that relates to Israeli settlers, supported by their Army, and that has received criticism from the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It is a snapshot of the daily abuses suffered by those who, unfortunately, were born in the territories that the settlers claim to make their dream of a ‘Greater Israel’ a reality.: a project that dates back to the Bible and that tramples on international law. […] It is being built thanks to the continuous crimes of the settlers, with the support of the Israeli Army and without any concrete condemnation from the international community. The moving article by Alae Al Said, complemented by the report by Pietro Masturzo, describes a campaign of ethnic cleansing that follows the genocide in Gaza,” they explain from the famous Italian weekly magazine.
As soon as the Italian media published this latest issue, with the title of The Abuseon sale since last Friday, April 10, the photo on the cover received criticism from the Israeli Government. Its ambassador to Italy, Jonathan Peled, “firmly condemned the manipulative use of the cover.” In his opinion, “the image distorts the complex reality with which Israel must live, promoting stereotypes and hatred”.
Photography, despite criticism, truthfully reflects something that is increasingly common. Another photographer, AFP’s Hazem Bader, captured the same man and woman on the cover of L’Espresso in October 2025, when a group of Israeli settlers destroyed hundreds of olive trees and destroyed agricultural land with the use of bulldozers. In the West Bank, The olive harvest is the main source of livelihood for thousands of Palestinian families and, according to the UN, settler attacks on these fields have reached their highest level in at least two decades.
A few days ago, a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that due to an “unprecedented” expansion of Israeli settlements and the increasing “illegal presence of settlers.”
For the UN, the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank, which coincides with the massive displacement in Gaza, seems to indicate a “concerted Israeli policy of massive forced transfer throughout the occupied territory”, which not only violates international law, but also “gives rise ethnic cleansing concerns“.
