As genocide and famine continues to ravage Gaza,[1] Palestinians within the Occupied West Bank also face a monumental crisis; a disturbing campaign of ethnic cleansing that has only intensified in recent years.
Imagine that every waking moment is filled with worry that a masked mob will ambush your village. That each night is disturbed by restless sleep, due to shot nerves and fears of attackers approaching in the dark. Imagine living with the possibility that an Army will arrive any day with a bulldozer and tear down your home. Imagine that this occurs on a regular basis against your community, and that the police will do nothing to help. In fact, they encourage it. And when your community is being attacked, you’re reluctant to do anything more than raise your arms to protect your head, as you’re afraid of being arrested for simply defending yourself while the attackers leave scot-free. For the most vulnerable Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, this is the reality of living in apartheid.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is about fifteen times larger than the Gaza strip with a population of over three million Palestinians. At their closest points, the West Bank is only about twenty-one miles away from Gaza – however, even before the war, travelling between the two areas has been long restricted. Together, they are known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Many fled to these areas during the ‘Nakba’ in 1948, when at least 700,000 Palestinians were violently displaced from their homes during the creation of the state of Israel.[2] For many, displacement is not only a grim memory but an ongoing process as Palestinians continue to face expulsion and dispossession.
The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Since the early 2000’s, this occupation has been supported by the gradual construction of a large wall spanning 700 kilometres inside the territory. In many areas it stands 9 meters tall made with thick concrete, accompanied with barbed wire and watch towers. It acts like prison walls wrapped around whole cities, towns and villages. The wall cuts deep into Palestinian land, annexing 10% of the west bank. It has isolated Palestinians communities and crippled livelihoods, while severely restricting movement and access to resources. Meanwhile, it has laid the ground work for annexing Palestinian land. The wall, known as the ‘occupation’ or ‘apartheid’ wall for many who live under its shadow, is deemed illegal under international law, yet meaningful pressure to tear down this structure of segregation and control is virtually non-existent.[3]
But the Israeli government do not only seek to occupy the West Bank, they want to absorb it completely. Zionist ambitions to annex the West Bank are no secret. Around 750,000 Israelis are living in hundreds of settlements across the West Bank, also deemed illegal under international law. [4] These are estates of various size, guarded with armed security and aided by Israeli military and the police force. They are illegal under international law, and largely seen as a block to peace, but the international community do little to stop their construction, except to meekly express concern and faux outrage now and then before returning to a deafening silence. In fact, settlements are rapidly expanding under the current regime. 22 new settlements have been announced this year alone, the biggest expansion in decades. In August, approval was given to the E1 Settlement plan, which will build over 3400 illegal houses near Jerusalem, and will effectively divide the West Bank into two.[5] Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently unveiled plans to annex four-fifths of the West Bank, while proudly declaring that the mission of illegal settlements is to ‘erase’ and ‘bury’ the idea of a Palestinian state.[6]
And while settlements are rapidly expanding, Palestinians face an escalation of forcible displacement, military repression and settler violence, with Doctors Without Borders reporting an increased risk of ethnic cleansing in recent years.[7] Since 2023, nearly 2,900 Palestinians have been displaced due to settler violence and restrictions to essential services. A further 6,450 Palestinians have been displaced in the northern West Bank alone due to home demolitions. [8] On top of this, over 1000 Palestinians have been killed while more than 9,000 have been injured since October 2023.[9] Such terrible conditions have made basic parts of Palestinian livelihoods, like working on an olive harvest, an almost impossibly dangerous task.
I have been staying with families in Masafer Yatta, in the south Hebron hills. It is one of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank as they live under constant threat of home demolition. The Israeli apartheid state uses arbitrary laws as a thinly veiled excuse to destroy Palestinian villages, such as needing land for a Military ‘training’ zone. Meanwhile, Palestinian building permits are denied 99% of the time.[10] Settler violence and intimidation is a daily occurrence here, in an attempt to drive Palestinians off their land. In the past two weeks alone, there has been numerous attacks by masked settlers. They can arrive at any given time, with every Palestinian including young and old being treated as fair targets. Many have been hospitalised following these violent ambushes. Afterwards the Israeli military and police arrive and typically do nothing, except contribute to Palestinian harassment while allowing settlers to act with impunity.
One example of such blatant impunity is the murder of Palestinian activist Awda Hathaleen in July this year. Awda helped make the Oscar winning documentary ‘No Other Land.’ The crime took place when settlers, which included internationally sanctioned settler Yinon Levi, arrived at Awda’s village and used a bulldozer to destroy Palestinian infrastructure, including the communities’ water pipes. Video footage shows Yinon Levi opening fire at the confrontation and shooting Awda, killing him. Israeli forces later arrived at the scene, reportedly arresting a number of Palestinians at the request of Levi.[11] Yinon Levi was released free of charges shortly afterward. Meanwhile, sixty women from Awha’s village had to go on hunger strike just to demand the return of his body.
Settler intimidation is sadly a daily occurrence here in Masafer Yatta. In the past few months alone there has been regular trespassing on Palestinian land by Settlers. They routinely take their livestock to graze on their land and damage their olive trees. They come near homes on ATV’s and horses, at times brandishing rifles, and harass families. A number of attacks by a mob of masked settlers has also happened lately as houses and cars were firebombed and water tanks vandalised.[12] Earlier this year Hamdan Ballal, one of the Oscar winning directors for ‘No Other Land’, was attacked by settlers. Soldiers reportedly dragged him out of an ambulance after the beating and he was mocked for his award while he was in detention for forty-eight hours. [13] Meanwhile in April this year, settlers trespassed on the land of a fifty-nine-year-old Palestinian called Sheikh Sa’id. They ended up shooting Sheikh point blank in the leg, leaving him on the ground with no medical care. Sheikhs leg eventually had to be amputated while the settler who shot him was not even questioned. Instead, Sheikh and his son were arrested and eventually released on bail.[14] Later that year settlers returned to his land, pushing the recently amputated man onto the ground. These are not instances of unique isolated crimes. These are examples of systemic intimidation, of ethnic cleansing, and the everyday struggle faced by the residents of Masafer Yatta.
Being Palestinian in the West Bank means being subject to daily collective punishment and living under the whims of the Israeli Apartheid state. The roads are routinely used as instruments of control, as there are around 850 Israeli road obstacles in the West Bank including checkpoints, closed gates and road blocks.[15] These cause huge delays and deadlock. Simple trips are turned into hours stuck in traffic while regularly facing questions by occupation forces at checkpoints. This September for example, in the village of Twani in Masafer Yatta, settlers decided for themselves to erect a gate at the village entrance, denying Palestinians the basic right to enter and leave their homes while blocking access to food, gas and medicine.
It feels impossible within a short article, to adequately cover the Palestinian struggle in the west bank. In all honestly, this article barely scratches the surface. I haven’t yet, for instance, mentioned the Israeli military invasion of refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkerham this year, which operated under the guise of security. Such ‘security’ measures led to an estimated 40,000 people becoming forcibly displaced, their homes destroyed and essential infrastructure like sewage and electricity obliterated. This ‘incursion’ was described by UNRWA as “the most destructive operation in the occupied West Bank [by the Israeli state] since the second intifada in the 2000’s.” [16]
I also haven’t mentioned the acute unemployment crisis which tripled since October 7, with 150,000 Palestinians losing their permits to work in Israel as a form of collective punishment. A World Vision report warned than West Bank families are facing an alarming hunger and poverty crisis, with 74% of families now living below the minimum standard of living – up from just 21% a year ago.[17]
As demonstrated, there are countless different strategies used in the war against the Palestinians in the West Bank. Occupation walls, military invasions and demolitions, settlement expansions, economic strangulation, and settler violence and intimidation. One thing that is consistent throughout all of this however, is the Palestinian people’s conviction to stand against such repression and remain steadfast despite it all.
Zionist leaders have openly declared their ambitions to destroy a Palestinian state. The crimes of the Israeli apartheid regime have been frequently reported and declared illegal under international law, including the suffocating occupation wall and the rapidly expanding settler program. Israeli politicians have already started to discuss settlement plans in Gaza as the genocide continues.[18] The practice of ethnic cleansing and displacement is blatant and yet the international community does little else than express weightless concern and pantomimed outrage. The international community is enabling apartheid by standing aside while millions of Palestinians are subjected to this racist and brutal regime of the Israeli government. The war in the West Bank is happening alongside the genocide in Gaza. The impunity of the Israeli state is the shame of all nations. Meaningful pressure must be leveraged against this apartheid state before the nightmarish dream of burying a Palestine state is fully realised.
- Finn is an ISM activist from County Armagh, Ireland.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cde3eyzdr63o
[2] https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/05/1136662
[3] https://news.un.org/en/story/2014/07/472712
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/12/israel-approves-2700-housing-units-in-west-bank-settlements
[5] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg30l6myj3o
[6] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgdzxpkdd7o
[7] https://www.msf.org/msf-teams-see-risk-ethnic-cleansing-west-bank
[8] https://www.msf.org/msf-teams-see-risk-ethnic-cleansing-west-bank
[9] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/israel-has-killed-1000-palestinians-in-the-west-bank-since-october-7-2023
[10] https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/7/10/west-bank-palestinians-prepare-to-lose-homes-as-israel-pushes-for-expulsion
[11] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/29/israeli-settler-kills-west-bank-activist-who-worked-on-oscar-winning-film
[12] https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/several-palestinians-wounded-in-reported-settler-attack-in-southern-west-bank/
[13] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8yg20yy7mo
[14] https://www.btselem.org/video/20250710_settler_attacked_a_teen_and_shot_his_father_who_tried_to_rescue_him_in_a_rakeez_masafer_yatta#full
[15] https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-update-274-west-bank#:~:text=A%20total%20of%20849%20Israeli,of%20which%20are%20frequently%20closed.
[16] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/06/israels-destructive-west-bank-military-operation-fuels-mass-forced-displacement-of-palestinians/
[17] https://www.wvi.org/newsroom/middle-east-crisis-response/west-bank-families-face-alarming-hunger-and-poverty-crisis-new#:~:text=74%25%20of%20families%20now%20live,from%20just%2021%25%20in%202023.
[18] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/24/far-right-israeli-politicians-and-settlers-discuss-luxury-gaza-riviera-plan