The Change in the Approach of Settlers in the West Bank

In this article, we discuss the practices of settlers in the West Bank, and why the intensity of terrorist acts has escalated recently in the northern West Bank with the support of extremist right-wing currents that control the Israeli government, which seeks to annex the West Bank and make it an integral part of Israel. The Israeli government has taken many decisions supporting settlements and settlers, in addition to providing protection, financial support, and arming hundreds of thousands of them. It has legalized dozens of settlement outposts, both agricultural and pastoral, that control hundreds of thousands of dunams, and given them free rein to burn, kill, assault, and steal citizens' property, specifically livestock, and transfer it to settlement outposts in plain sight of citizens, as settlers now possess one-third of the citizens' sheep after stealing them. Settlers are acting as a state with its army by displacing all Bedouin encampments in Area "C", and all of this aims at complete control over the land, as settlers seek to systematically seize Palestinian lands and annex large parts of the West Bank, which they refer to biblically as "Judea and Samaria," in order to transform them into permanent Israeli settlements, and to implement a policy of forced displacement of Palestinians through escalating attacks, which reach the level of "silent war," and create an unbearable and intolerable life, imposing psychological warfare, constant fear, and loss of security, which has forced and continues to force Palestinians to leave their lands and villages in areas classified as "C." This has included a new policy and approach by settlers who work day and night to expand settlements and build many random settlement outposts, numbering around 300, including pastoral and agricultural ones, to seize the largest possible amount of land and mountains. These outposts allow a single settler to control an area larger than ten settlements alone, so wherever they reach, they control, as is happening in the northern West Bank in the lands of Burqa, Silat ad-Dhahr, Beit Amrin, Fandaqumiya, and Jaba', to impose a tight cordon on Palestinian villages and fragment the geographical continuity of the future Palestinian state. The second approach is to control all natural resources, especially agricultural lands, which are a source of livelihood for Palestinians, particularly in the Jordan Valley region of "Tubas," which is considered the food basket of the Palestinian people, and the plains for cultivation and grazing by settlers, as is happening in Beit Dajan, Beit Furik, the plain of Burqa, Ramin, and other plains and mountainous areas in the West Bank, with a particular focus recently on the northern mountains, and water sources, springs, and wells. This is what happened in the Jordan Valley and Tubas, where the Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, visited this area months ago and said that water sources in the Jordan Valley had been seized and the remaining springs would be confiscated. The third approach is defined by the so-called religious factor, "the Torah," and the ideological motive, where Israeli leaders and settlers claim that the West Bank is a biblical land "promised by God to the people of Israel," and that their presence there is the fulfillment of a religious prophecy, not merely settlement. This claim is a fundamental motive behind the seizure of the West Bank, and this motive is shared between government leaders and settlers, which explains the unlimited support for settlers by the government, the army, and all components of the occupation state, as everyone works towards supporting the annexation and control of the West Bank. As for the fourth approach, which is embodied in the economic factor that grants settlers enormous privileges, very significant facilities, and unparalleled financial support in the world, where housing in settlements is provided at almost free living costs and economic and housing advantages compared to living inside Israel, and the government works to facilitate and fulfill the demands of the settlement council in the West Bank, it also provides them with protection, arms them, and extends road, water, and electricity networks, and then legalizes these so-called random settlement outposts. Israel has not held them accountable for the attacks they carry out against Palestinians, and the army itself has reached the point of stealing livestock, cows, and sheep from Palestinians and handing them over to settlers. The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission has documented an unprecedented field escalation with thousands of attacks since October 2023, including burning homes, vehicles, physical assaults, and even the killing of 43 Palestinian citizens by settlers and the wounding of hundreds, with the aim of achieving this comprehensive biblical settlement project. Settlers seek to extend sovereignty and actual annexation of the West Bank with the support of the Israeli government, which has worked and continues to work daily to enact laws approved by the Knesset, including decisions to legalize settlement outposts and transform them into settlements, as happened at the end of last year and the beginning of this year by legalizing more than twenty settlement outposts and transforming them into settlements, in addition to the decision to cancel the disengagement that occurred in 2005 in dismantling five settlements, and a decision was made to return to these settlements, and they have actually been returned to, with the size of Homesh settlement increasing twenty times its previous geographical size, and thousands of dunams have been confiscated to build roads for these settlements between Nablus and Jenin. The fifth approach is implemented by the occupation state and the settlers' state, reaching the point of a war of olive tree extermination. In the past, settlers cut down olive trees next to settlements, but today they cut down olive trees everywhere, even in Area "A." The Israeli government is currently waging a clear war against ancient olive trees, whose age exceeds that of the occupation state, by bulldozing olive trees along all public roads and demolishing vital facilities on the sides of the roads, and carrying out the largest demolition operation of homes in Area "C" and on the outskirts of Area "B," and controlling archaeological and tourist areas as happened in Sebastia, Al-Masoudiya, and others, which harms the Palestinian economy, cuts off citizens' livelihoods, and besieges the Palestinian people to push them to migrate from the Palestinian countryside to the cities, especially from areas classified as "C" and "B," which constitute 81% of the West Bank's area. Settlers in the northern West Bank have even placed settlement outposts in Area "A," according to the Hebrew newspaper "Haaretz," settlers established three new settlement outposts in the heart of Area "A" for the first time in the West Bank, which Israelis are prohibited from entering, within the last 24 hours on March 26, 2026, in addition to one settlement in Area "B" and another in Area "C." This leads to the expansion of settlements to include all classifications stipulated in the Oslo Accords of 1993, and all of this is backed by religious ties, as settlers view the West Bank as the biblical "land of the ancestors," "Judea and Samaria," and consider settlement there a religious duty to regain control of the West Bank. The beginning of this year, specifically March, witnessed a sharp escalation in these practices, attacks, and movements by settlers and the settlement government, to impose a fait accompli policy on the ground in the West Bank. The sixth approach is a joint approach between the government, the army, and the settlers, which is embodied in targeting citizens by closing villages and cities with iron gates, fixed and mobile checkpoints, and the spread of settlers protected by the army who prevent citizens from passing, assault citizens, and burn their cars. This is a planned and systematic approach to pressure the Palestinian people to displace and then migrate from the West Bank. In the end, everything that is happening in the West Bank is due to the Israeli government, which legalizes and enacts laws that serve settlements and settlers, and the practices of its army, which have reached the level of terrorism, starting with arrest and demolition and the extermination of olive trees, passing through killing, and ending with protecting and arming settlers, and the organized and systematic criminality committed by settlers in the West Bank, which will escalate and may reach the point of committing massacres in Palestinian villages given the opportunity available to them to create a terrorist reality aimed at pushing the Palestinian people to displace to city centers and towns and not access their lands, and then achieve the ultimate goal of displacing the Palestinian people abroad and extending sovereignty over the West Bank, leading to actual annexation, of which only the official media announcement by Israel remains that it has completed the annexation process of the West Bank. This was expressed by the far-right journalist and political analyst Shimon Riklin on March 29, 2026, when he said about settler violence: "The prophet; Joshua bin Nun sent messages to the inhabitants of the land and told them: the people of Israel are coming to their inheritance, they have two options - either accept that this is their land, or leave here. The current inhabitants of the land do not accept the fact that this is our land - why don't they expel them? All respect to the hill youth." *Palestinian writer and researcher specializing in ideological movements