Israel’s push to displace thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank

In stark violation of international law, Israeli policy forces thousands of Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, similar to the Gaza Strip.

32, 000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes in just three refugee camps this year, according to a report released last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW). According to HRW, the Israeli operation that began in the West Bank’s Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem refugee camps, which started in January, caused the most extensive mass displacement of Palestinians since 1967.

Since Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the rise of Israeli violence in the West Bank, where more than 1, 000 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis since October 7, 2023, and Israelis living in illegal settlements have launched increasingly violent attacks on Palestinians.

More than 1, 000 Palestinians were displaced when Israel destroyed their homes in Area C, which is located in the West Bank without even symbolic Palestinian administrative control, according to a report released earlier in November by the UN. Another 500 people were left homeless in occupied East Jerusalem. Israel cited a lack of building permits in those areas, but Palestinians are notoriously elusive for them.

Even as human rights organizations request that senior Israeli military and political officials be investigated for their actions in the West Bank refugee camps and the ongoing displacement of civilians, Israel has so far had few consequences for its actions in the occupied West Bank.

“We are witnessing the total abandonment of Palestinian lives.” Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem’s executive director Yuli Novak stated on Friday that Israel has already demonstrated that it is capable of much greater violence than what we are currently seeing in the Gaza Strip. Because there isn’t a mechanism within Israel or outside to restrain it or stop its ongoing ethnic cleansing, the situation in the West Bank is “deteriorating by the day and will only worsen.” The international community must end Israel’s impunity and demand accountability for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people.

What are Israel’s goals for the West Bank that is occupied?

The West Bank is intended to be annexed, according to numerous senior Israeli government officials.

A bill that would grant Israelis the occupation of the West Bank received preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament in October, which is widely regarded as a flagrant violation of international law.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s hardline finance minister, has made it clear that he has no intention of leaving the West Bank. He resides in an illegal settlement.

Smotrich stated to his party’s members at a meeting last year that he was “establishing] facts on the ground in order to make Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] an essential part of the state of Israel.

“We will establish sovereignty first on the ground, then through legislation,” he declared. According to Smotrich, “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Smotrich.

In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, more than 700,000 Israelis reside in illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

In a project that the finance minister claimed would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich announced the opening of a new “E1” settlement that would involve the construction of 3, 000 homes separating occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank in August.

Has Israel explained why it is displaced by the number of Palestinians?

Israeli authorities frequently invoke planning regulations or claim that Palestinian homes have been constructed in “closed military zones,” which are land that the Israeli state, its security services, or for settlements in the occupied West Bank.

It is “almost impossible” for a Palestinian to obtain a building permit from the Israeli authorities, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Israel claimed that it displaced residents in the refugee camps in the Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem as part of “Operation Iron Wall,” an effort to oust the camps’ residents from the camps. Residents of the camps are still prohibited from returning months after Israeli forces first entered them in late January, and many of their homes have been destroyed by bulldozers.

Residents were permitted to file objections and petitions with Israel’s Supreme Court, according to a military spokesman, and the demolitions were carried out in “operational necessity.”

All of these petitions have been rejected, even those that allege Israel’s actions violate international humanitarian law.

What about Palestinian-Israeli settlement violence?

Israeli settlement-based groups are increasingly violent, with some settlers occupying some of the highest positions in the Israeli state. Israelis illegally establish their homes in occupied Palestinian territory. More than 260 attacks in October left people dead, property damaged, or both. The most incidents the agency has recorded since 2006 when it started gathering data in 2006 is eight on average per day.

Israeli soldiers are watching as Israeli settlers escort Palestinians during the olive harvesting season.

The most recent attacks are “not random, but deliberate efforts to undermine Palestinian rural life,” according to the Palestinian Farmers’ Union (PFU).

Source: Aljazeera