Since the start of this year, Israeli settlers have committed a record number of attacks on people and homes in the West Bank. These land grabs, which often violence and arson, continue as Israel’s far-right minister says he will approve more than 3,000 new illegal settlements in the area.
Israeli extremists are carrying out one of the most violent campaigns against Palestinian villages in the West Bank since 2006, when the United Nations first began keeping record.
Records collated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reveal that more than 750 attacks on Palestinians and their property occurred during the first half of this year, averaging out to about 130 assaults a month.
Though Israel’s military has said it takes measures to prevent such attacks, an investigation by the New York Times found that ‘Israeli authorities have for decades failed to impose meaningful restraints on criminal settlers’.
Surveying security footage from cameras in the West Bank, the Times reports that many Israeli settlers enter Palestinian villages in the day time to carry out land grabs and forced displacement. This often sparks violent confrontation which has, all too often, led to the death of several Palestinians.
According to the UN, at least 964 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since October 2023. At least 2,907 home demolitions were also carried out by Israel during the same period.
Since 1967, Jewish communities have been slowly building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These settlements are considered illegal under international law, however it has not stopped the number of Israelis setting up camp in these areas from reaching around 700,000.
Research by the humanitarian organisation Peace Now shows that settlers are increasing their operations in recent years. Since the beginning of 2023, Israeli settlers have built more than 130 illegal outposts in rural parts of the West Bank – more outposts than were built over the last two decades combined.
The Times reports that settlement leaders acknowledge that ‘their aim is to intimidate Palestinians into leaving strategic tracts of territory’. Individuals leading these settler campaigns have been quoted saying that ‘it’s not the nicest thing to evacuate a population,’ but suggest that in a war over land, ‘this is what is done’.
Though some Israeli settlers choose to handle disputes in the daytime, others attack under the cover of night – spraying graffiti on the exterior of homes and, in some cases committing arson, lighting cars on fire and throwing fireballs through open windows of Palestinian homes.
Such attacks have grown in consequence since October 2023. In videos that have been circulated online, one settler can be seen shooting a Palestinian in the presence of an Israeli soldier. It has been confirmed that the shooter was questioned for only 20 minutes and never arrested.
Israel also launched a substantial military operation called ‘Iron Wall’ in January of this year, which forcibly displaced 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank.
No signs of slowing
On 14 August, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich delivered a speech outlining his plan to approve thousands of housing units in a controversial and long-delayed illegal settlement project in the occupied West Bank.
In the announcement, Smotrich said the move ‘buries the idea of a Palestinian state’ by building more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement project. He praised the project as ‘Zionism at its best’.
This project, if completed, will connect Jerusalem and the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, which is located several kilometres to the east.
‘This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise.’ Smotrich said. ‘Anyone in the world who tries today to recognise a Palestinian state will receive an answer from us on the ground.’
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the new settlement plan an extension of crimes of genocide, displacement and annexation, and an echo of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements regarding what he called ‘Greater Israel’.
The E1 plan has not yet received final approval, which is expected next week. It’s unclear whether any world power will step in to stop these plans for settlement expansion.
Deputy Editor & Content Partnership ManagerLondon, UK
I’m Jessica (She/Her). I’m the Deputy Editor & Content Partnership Manager at Thred. Originally from the island of Bermuda, I specialise in writing about ocean health and marine conservation, but you can also find me delving into pop culture, health and wellness, plus sustainability in the beauty and fashion industries. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.
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