B’Tselem: Israeli policies ‘eliminating Palestinian collective existence’ in West Bank

The B’Tselem human rights group issued a lengthy new report on Monday accusing Israel of a multi-pronged effort to harm “the material, social, and political conditions that enable Palestinian collective existence,” which the left-wing organization described as the “Elimination Project.”

The report spanning some 250 pages detailed five key “domains of action” by Israel, which it said are driving the “elimination” of Palestinians from the West Bank: violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction, and ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover.

“Together, these domains restrict West Bank Palestinians’ ability to maintain the basics of daily life while also undermining the conditions that enable Palestinian society to exist as a political, social and territorial body with institutions, collective rights, and a shared future,” the report asserted.

The organization further said that these actions were “reshaping the territory and the conditions of life within it,” to allow the Israeli presence in the West Bank to become “continuous, entrenched, and permanent,” while Palestinian existence becomes “fragmented, vulnerable, and dependent.”

B’Tselem’s report maintained that these developments have accelerated since the current government took office in December 2022 and especially following the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacres, although it also alleged that they were part of a longer-term process dating back decades.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The current government has, over the last four years, built and approved for construction an unprecedented number of settlements and settlement housing units in the West Bank, while allowing the construction of some 200 illegal settlement outposts and farming outposts in the territory, which have seized large tracts of land.

Extremist settlers have also engaged in a campaign of violence and harassment against Palestinian civilians in rural communities, with the IDF and police doing little to prevent it, as recently stated by the High Court of Justice, leading to the depopulation and dispossession of dozens of such communities.

B’Tselem’s new report contends that these developments, combined with Israeli government policies that have harmed the Palestinian economy, severe restrictions on the freedom of movement, and repression of various forms of Palestinian societal and political activity, are making Palestinian life in the West Bank untenable as a collective.

The report noted in particular that since October 7, 2023, 200 new checkpoints have been established in the territory by Israeli forces; some 18 percent of West Bank land has been seized through the establishment of settlements and illegal settlement outposts; and 64 Palestinian shepherding communities have been depopulated under extreme settler and military harassment.

The report also said that 1,087 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including 242 children and 21 women. According to the IDF, the vast majority of Palestinians killed by troops in the West Bank in recent years were gunmen or rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

Of the total number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank in this time, 35 were killed by Israeli civilians and 15 by Israelis whose status as civilians or members of the security forces is unknown.

Additionally, there are daily incidents of settler harassment, vandalism, and assault against Palestinians and their property.

B’Tselem’s report stated that this violence “intimidates the entire population” and “narrows the range of action available to Palestinians as individuals, families, and communities.”

Restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement resulting from the dozens of new checkpoints and roadblocks preventing vehicular access to Palestinian towns and villages to main roads and roads connecting them to other population centers have undermined key aspects of daily life.

Palestinians do not know how long it will take them to get to school or work, or obtain medical care, or how long it will take to get home, the report said.

“When farmers cannot reach their land, shepherds cannot reach grazing areas, workers cannot reach their workplaces, and students, teachers, or medical teams cannot reach their destinations, movement restrictions also harm livelihoods, health, education, social ties, and the ability to remain on the land,” the report said, adding that denial of access to land often creates conditions for Israeli takeover of that land.

The study also notes Israeli policies harming the Palestinian economy, including revoking almost all permits allowing West Bank Palestinians to work inside Israel proper, “cutting more than 140,000 people off from their main source of livelihood.”

Delays and deductions from tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) have impaired the PA’s ability to pay salaries and provide basic services, while the movement restrictions have themselves severely harmed economic activity in the West Bank.

The report also accused Israel security forces of arresting election officials, activists, academics, students, and journalists; of having restricted Palestinian demonstrations and nonviolent protests; and of having expanded surveillance over, and arrests for, social media posts.

“Incarceration serves not only to punish individuals but also to deter the public and restrict the possibility of collective action,” the report alleges.

The study also noted that illegal farming outposts established in the West Bank by radical settler activists had secured control of some 264,000 acres of land in the territory, amounting to 18% of the West Bank, figures which the “Farm Association,” representing such outposts itself acknowledges.

“Israel has been dismantling conditions for Palestinian collective existence in the West Bank over the last three years, and making Israeli control more permanent,” B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak said at a press conference held on Monday to launch the new report.

“States and international institutions must use every means available to stop Israeli crimes protect Palestinians, and stop the elimination project,” she added.