Settlement Devours the West Bank

In this article, we discuss settlement in the West Bank, as Israel races against time to impose facts on the ground in the West Bank, which was divided under the 1993 Oslo Accords into three areas (A, B, and C). Area "A" represents 18% of the West Bank's area, Area "B" 20%, and Area "C" approximately 62%. However, Israel has not accepted this equation for dividing the West Bank, which is controlled by two states. The first is the occupying state, represented by the government that legislates laws to control the West Bank through the Israeli army, which practices the most heinous forms of repressive and occupying practices against the Palestinian people. The second state is that of the settlers, who steal land, commit murder, and carry out continuous and escalating attacks against the Palestinian people. This is what the article seeks to discuss and address in detail. In 2021, I reviewed a book titled "Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Arab Territories," and I did not know the author's name at the time, but I expected the book to be by a Palestinian doctor. However, when the book was published internationally in 2022, I was surprised to find that the book was by Dr. Issa Al-Nazzal, an Iraqi. The book discusses the establishment of what is called the "State of Israel" on the land of Palestine in 1948, and states that Israel built many settlements to accommodate Jews. Israel did not stop there, but continued to aspire to occupy more Arab lands, and for that purpose, it launched many wars against its Arab surroundings, during which it managed to quadruple its area at the expense of Arab countries. It then proceeded to build settlements on those lands. The book refutes settlement and addresses each settlement, and also touched upon Israel's settlement policy towards Palestine, mentioning that settlement in Palestine and even in Arab countries was supported by America, which recently, through its president Donald Trump, recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel, and the Golan as "Israeli" land. Moreover, in 2020, it presented the Palestinians with a distorted map of the West Bank, cutting off the fertile Jordan Valley and about half of the remaining West Bank for Israel's benefit. In this regard, we can touch upon the stages of building a settlement in the West Bank. The construction process is simpler than anyone in the world can imagine. Settlement begins when a settler or a group of settlers, fewer than the fingers on one hand, are impressed by a mountain in the West Bank. They raise the Israeli flag on it, and on their second visit, they build a canvas shack, and their visits to the mountain continue. Then they place a large iron menorah, then build some zinc houses, and begin to attract groups of settlers to control the area. The process of paving roads and transporting caravans and prefabricated houses to the outpost begins. After that, the Israeli government makes the decision to legalize the outpost to become a legitimate settlement under occupation law. The outpost, which has become a settlement, will not stop there. Instead, a single settler comes to control an area of thousands of dunams under the name of "pastoral settlement," and the army and settlers begin to prevent citizens from accessing their lands and impose a security zone that Palestinians are prohibited from approaching, which may reach the outskirts of Palestinian villages and cities, as happened in Burqa Nablus, Sebastia, Silat ad-Dhahr, Qaryut, Burqa Ram, al-Mughayyir, Turmus Ayya, and all areas where settlements are established. For your information, the number of settlements in the West Bank has reached more than 200 settlements and more than 260 outposts, and dozens of "pastoral settlements." A new type of settlement has been invented, following "pastoral settlement," which is "agricultural settlement," where settlers cultivate stolen Palestinian land, and even agricultural tractors are stolen from citizens, as are plowing tools, seeds, trees, and diesel from gas stations, as happened at the Asira al-Shamaliya station. The lives of settlers are based on stealing from citizens, killing Palestinian livestock, and expelling Bedouin communities and farmers from their grazing areas, as happened in the Jordan Valley, Khirbet Yanun, and other areas. Palestinian heritage, including livestock farming, riding donkeys and horses, and everything related to Palestinian national heritage, has been stolen. Water springs have also been seized, as happened in Qaryut, Al-Auja, and many areas, and today their eyes are on the Tubas area to prevent Palestinians from farming, as this area is considered the agricultural basket of Palestine. At the same time, Israel and the settlers are waging a war of olive tree eradication, and targeting Area "C," which includes 62% of the West Bank's area, and has 1% of the citizens, as Israel works day and night to completely empty it of its inhabitants. In the same vein, Israel is carving out and expanding settlement roads that devour Palestinian lands and steal thousands of dunams in the West Bank, and geographically and topographically engineering the West Bank by imposing a fait accompli policy, and working to connect settlements with each other, which have become large cities with residential towers and much larger communities than Palestinian cities, and even the construction has become similar to Palestinian construction, as is happening in the settlement of Alieh, where a series of towers and communities similar to the city of Nablus have been built. Israel has not stopped at this level of settlement, but rather confiscates land for security and military reasons, and then evacuates military camps and hands them over to settlers, as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on his "X" account that the Israeli army is evacuating its camps in the Beit El settlement northeast of Al-Bireh in the central West Bank, which will allow the construction of 1,200 settlement units and double the area of the settlement, and this settlement is considered in the heart of Ramallah, the virtual Palestinian political capital. In the same vein, Israel follows a demolition policy in Area "C" according to documentation by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, for the period between January 1, 2010, and January 1, 2025, approximately 8,765 Palestinian structures were demolished in Area "C," most of them under the pretext of building without a permit, including 3,107 agricultural structures, 2,025 inhabited homes, and about 700 uninhabited homes. The demolitions in Area "C" resulted in the displacement of nearly 10,000 Palestinians, and affected about 192,548 others. The demolitions even reached the outskirts of Palestinian cities, as happened and is happening in Nablus, Al-Bireh, Hebron, and many governorates, in addition to demolitions in the three Palestinian refugee camps (Nour Shams, Tulkarm Camp, and Jenin Camp), where half of the camps were demolished, 50,000 Palestinian citizens were displaced, and the camps were topographically engineered in an occupying manner. Former Minister Avigdor Kahalani called for "removing all refugee camps and leveling them to the ground." In addition to the continuous destruction in the Palestinian governorates, as happened in Tubas and Qabatiya, and the daily incursions into the heart of the governorates, disrupting life, daily arrests, and daily killings. Settlers killed 38 Palestinian citizens in 27 months, and the Israeli army killed more than "1,100 Palestinian citizens," and more than 40,000 attacks were carried out against citizens and property. The West Bank is subjected to a silent war of extermination at all levels; all that the occupying state and the state of the settlers are doing aims to resolve the conflict, extend sovereignty, and then annex the West Bank and confine the Palestinian presence only to the specific population centers in Area "A," which is less than 20% of the West Bank's area, which is not enough for citizens' cars. This plan leaves less than 3% of historical Palestine for Palestinians, and all of this contributes to pressuring the Palestinian people to emigrate, and all of this is done with American support and under suspicious Arab silence. It seems that Trump told them to annex the West Bank through decisive action, without announcing it at this time until the political opportunity arises to announce the media annexation. After US President Donald Trump's statement where he said, "I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank," and added, "That will not happen," Israel escalated confiscation operations, and the Jordan Valley and Tubas governorate were at the forefront of these confiscations, where thousands of dunams were confiscated in the Jordan Valley as well as the Tubas area for a wall that chokes Tubas and controls water wells and fertile agricultural lands. This is what Smotrich announced from Ras al-Ain in Al-Auja in the northern Jordan Valley, where he saluted the settler herds, and told them, "I see the results of your wonderful work. We have returned to the water wells and controlled all these areas, and it is enjoyable to wander here. You are heroes, continue." After that, Israel launched a war to eradicate olive trees and announced the establishment of 19 new settlements in the West Bank, and the return of settlement to the northern settlements in the West Bank, and began work in the Sanur settlement and announced the confiscation of thousands of dunams to establish a bypass road to connect the northern West Bank settlements and confiscate the plains, Al-Masoudiya, and Al-Burj areas from the lands of Burqa and Sebastia under the pretext of tourist confiscation, and this is in the northern West Bank. In addition to confiscation in Hebron, Jericho, Jerusalem, Salfit, and all governorates of the West Bank, and the legalization of 69 outposts in the West Bank, all under the umbrella that Trump does not allow the annexation of the West Bank, and it seems that Trump told them to annex the West Bank through decisive action, without announcing it at this time until the political opportunity arises to announce the media annexation, and this demonstrates the American position on the establishment and recognition of a Palestinian state, as America has not recognized the state of Palestine as Western countries recognized it several months ago; and perhaps Smotrich's statement confirms this joint American-Israeli position when he said: "We are stopping the establishment of a terrorist Palestinian state on the ground, we will continue to develop, build, and settle in the land of our ancestors, believing in the righteousness of our path." This is an integrated strategy through which Israel seeks to enshrine what is called "silent annexation" that devours the West Bank. *Palestinian writer and researcher specializing in ideological movements.