The journey from the Israeli settlement of Har Gilo to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem is brief, just 2 kilometres. Yet, the “distance” between the two worlds is vast. On the Israeli side, world-class roads wind through well-maintained settlements, their cleanliness and modernity standing in stark contrast to the dilapidated infrastructure on the Palestinian side.
Travellers crossing Israeli checkpoints and the towering separation wall enter a world of deprivation and neglect. In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, just across the separation wall, long lines of residents wait for basic necessities such as water. Children, often too poor to attend school, swarm around tourists to sell trinkets or cigarettes to support their families.
The Palestinian territory is divided into two: Gaza, which borders Egypt, and the West Bank, which is 100 km away, bordering Jordan and criss-crossing Israel. Although global attention is on the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the more insidious violence in the West Bank remains unabated and unseen.
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Life in the West Bank is shaped not only by the restrictions imposed by Israeli military occupation but also by the presence of nearly 7,20,000 Israeli settlers living on what the world recognises legally as Palestinian land, which includes East Jerusalem. The settlers are not mere civilians; they are often armed, protected by Israeli law, and backed by military forces.
Instruments of political control
Israeli settlements are more than just residential communities; they are instruments of political and territorial control. Larger settlements, such as Har Gilo, resemble fortified suburbs with security fences, surveillance cameras, and military patrols. Smaller outposts, often just a few caravans, serve as seeds for further expansion, slowly encroaching on surrounding Palestinian lands.
Dr Mohammad Makram Balawi, the director general of the League of Parliamentarians for Al-Quds, believes that life in the West Bank is a complex struggle for survival. Residents of Burqah, a small village nestled among olive groves, cannot agree more. A sheep farm Amal inherited from her father has been the target of repeated settler attacks. In a recent incident, settlers set fire to her property, destroying livestock and essential supplies. “We called for help, but we were alone,” Amal told Frontline over phone, her voice laced with resignation and defiance. Her children, traumatised by the violence, now live in the constant fear of another attack.
“Every place we move to, they come and displace us again,” she said, highlighting the relentless settler expansion programme. “Our land is our life, but each day we lose more of it to settlers. We cannot reach our olive groves, our water sources are tampered with, and our movements are watched.”
Amal’s words capture the essence of life in the West Bank, where an occupying force controls and monitors every aspect of existence. Since October 2023, there have been nearly 800 documented settler attacks, ranging from vandalism to outright physical assaults, on Palestinian residents. Balawi said encroachment disrupted every aspect of Palestinian life. “Farmers find the access to their fields blocked by settlers or military checkpoints. The already scarce water sources are tampered with, further strangling the livelihoods of those who depend on the land,” he said. In some cases, settlers intentionally divert water from Palestinian villages, while in some other villages Israeli authorities often withhold access to water for days or weeks.
In Bethlehem, a city with 35,000 residents, weeks can go by without water tankers coming in, forcing families to ration water and rely on expensive private suppliers. Depriving residents of water is just one of the larger systems of control designed to make life increasingly difficult for Palestinians.
A calculated effort
Observers say the intention behind these actions is clear: to push Palestinians off their land, either through direct violence or economic strangulation. Human rights organisations have long documented these tactics, painting a grim picture of the calculated effort to erase Palestinian presence and claim the land for Israeli expansion.
In many ways, the West Bank functions under an apartheid system. Major highways, like the one linking Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, cut through Palestinian territory, yet Palestinians are not permitted to use them. Instead, they are forced to use narrow, poorly maintained roads that often take twice as long to traverse. These roads are dotted with military checkpoints, where long waits, arbitrary searches, and frequent closures await them.
In Hebron, a city divided between Palestinian and Israeli control, the division is even more pronounced. The resting place of Prophet Abraham or Ibrahim, a site sacred to both Muslims and Jews, has become a flashpoint. In a recent incident, Israeli settlers held a concert inside the Ibrahimi Mosque, preventing Palestinian worshippers from entering it. The incident sparked outrage among Palestinians, with the mosque’s director, Moataz Abu Sneineh, calling it a “blatant violation of the sanctity of the site”.
Hebron’s streets display telltale signs of segregation. Soldiers patrol heavily fortified areas under Israeli control, while Palestinians navigate barricades and restricted zones. The apartheid system here is both physical and psychological as the settler population, despite being a minority, exercises disproportionate control over the city’s daily life.
A Western diplomat who recently visited the area told Frontline that armed settlers, often backed by the Israeli military, carried out attacks with near-total impunity. Rarely are they held accountable for their actions, and when they are, the punishment is minimal.
A Palestinian shepherd with his flock in Zanuta village, south of Yatta in the area of Hebron in the West Bank, on August 21, upon their return to the village after they were forced out by Israeli settlers. Zanuta falls within Area C, the part of the West Bank under complete Israeli control. | Photo Credit: HAZEM BADER/AFP
B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, has reported numerous instances where Israeli soldiers have stood by and watched settlers attacking Palestinians or encroaching on their property. In some cases, soldiers have actively participated in the violence, blurring the line between military and settler communities.
The Israeli government’s policies have long supported settlement expansion, viewing it as a vital part of Israel’s strategy to control the West Bank. This stance has hardened under the current government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Far-right politicians such as Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister, openly advocate the annexation of the West Bank, viewing the Palestinian population as an obstacle to their vision of a greater Israel.
In a secret meeting with settlers, Smotrich outlined a plan to change the governance of the West Bank, enhancing Israeli control and paving the way for further settlement expansion. His plan, which has been described as a blueprint for annexation, includes measures to increase military presence, restrict Palestinian movement, and encourage settlers to take over more land.
Since the beginning of 2023, the Israeli government has approved the construction of nearly 13,000 new housing units in the West Bank, the highest in years. Additionally, more than 3,000 acres of Palestinian land have been seized and designated as “state land”, further shrinking the space of Palestinian communities.
Highlights
- Life in the West Bank is shaped by the restrictions imposed by Israeli military occupation and the presence of nearly 7,20,000 Israeli settlers.
- Since October 2023, nearly 800 documented settler attacks have been reported on Palestinian residents, disrupting every aspect of Palestinian life.
- The Israeli government’s policies have long supported settlement expansion, viewing it as a vital part of Israel’s strategy to control the West Bank.
International response
The international community has repeatedly condemned Israel’s settlement expansion and the violence that accompanies it. The UN, the International Court of Justice, and human rights organisations around the world have declared the Israeli occupation illegal under international law. Yet these have done little to change the reality on the ground.
Even the US, Israel’s staunchest ally, has begun to express concern over the situation in the West Bank. In February 2024, the Joe Biden administration issued an executive order imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in violent attacks against Palestinians. The European Union followed suit, with several countries implementing travel bans and financial restrictions on settler groups.
Recently, even Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned a Jewish settler’s attack on a village in the occupied West Bank as a “pogrom”. “This is an extreme minority that harms the law-abiding settler population and the settlement as a whole and the name and position of Israel in the world during a particularly sensitive and difficult period,” he said.
There have, however, been no actions to control this violence. Instead, observers say, the Israeli government, emboldened by its far-right Ministers, has funnelled more resources into settlements, expanding their reach and tightening control over the West Bank.
Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi, a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization, said every town and village was besieged by settler colonies. “People have no protection. The world must wake up to this reality,” said Ashrawi, who was part of the Palestinian team that negotiated a two-state solution with an Israeli delegation in Oslo and Madrid in the early 1990s. Ashrawi said that a two-state solution, once the cornerstone of international diplomacy, now felt like a fading dream as settlement expansion made the creation of a viable Palestinian state nearly impossible.
According to the International Crisis Group (ICG), there were 1,10,000 Israeli settlers living in 128 settlements in the West Bank when the first Oslo Accord was signed in 1993. Today, there are over 5,00,000 settlers in over 300 settlements, not including occupied East Jerusalem. The unofficial number is even more.
The Lebanon-based Hamas leader Osama Hamdan told Frontline that Israel had clearly marked a battlefield in the West Bank. The map presented by Netanyahu recently did not include the West Bank and Jerusalem; rather, it represented the entirety of Palestine as part of Israel. “This means that the plan devised by Netanyahu and his government to seize the West Bank still nests in the minds of this government, which is committed to and proceeding with it,” he said. Khalil Al-Hayya, another Palestinian leader, said Israelis were trying to change the demographics of the West Bank by invading localities and destroying Palestinian infrastructure.
But most settlers, who view the West Bank as part of the ancient biblical regions of Judea and Samaria, or simply as part of modern Israel, maintain that Palestinians should leave these places. “This is not occupation; this is our ancestral homeland. We have the right to live here as much as anyone else,” said a Jewish settler, who has come all the way from France to buy land and construct a house on Palestinian land.
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Asked about the violence being perpetuated on Palestinians, the settler leader Shlomo Ne’eman said that it was part of a broader conflict over land rather than a unique phenomenon tied to settlers. “It’s not settler violence; it’s a fight for survival in our own land,” said Ne’eman, emphasising that the confrontations are a natural result of the ongoing conflict. Others like Davidi Ben Zion denounce the violence perpetrated by radical youth, labelling them anarchists who harm the overall settlement agenda.
Despite these condemnations, the rhetoric of leaders such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who advocates aggressive measures, fuels further land expropriations and the establishment of illegal outposts. This exacerbates tensions between settlers and Palestinian landowners.
In short, the West Bank, with its rolling hills and ancient olive groves, holds more than just the weight of history. The nearly three million Palestinians living there are on a delicate balance between resistance and despair. In a place where physical and psychological boundaries are constantly shifting, life is shaped by the relentless expansion of Israeli settlements and the global silence that allows it.
International law deems these settlements illegal, but in the absence of concrete action, they continue to grow, fortified by official Israeli policies whose ultimate aim is to annex the land and displace its native population. In this volatile landscape, stories of resilience, loss, and unyielding will emerge daily from Palestinian communities determined to survive.
Iftikhar Gilani is an Indian journalist based in Ankara.
