Beit Lid – North West Bank
“Since October 7, while all eyes are on Gaza where they are destroying everything, the Israelis have seized the highest number of dunams ever here in the West Bank. “In one year they declared more hectares as ‘Israeli land’ than they had ever declared in the past 30 years,” says R., looking at the new outpost rising in front of us in Beit Lid. “If Western states continue to fund and legitimize Israel, maybe they really will try to annex the whole West Bank.” He shakes his head. “In addition to the land they take, you have to count all the roads they block, and the lands you no longer have access to because are close to the new Israeli settlements.” A demand, a silent shout that resonates ever more clearly from north to south in the West Bank, where Israel is waging a full-fledged war of annexation, consisting of record land seizures, destruction of Palestinian homes, and a flood of funds for illegal colonies already springing up on Palestinian land.
R.’s extended family welcomes us among the olive trees in the small village of 5,600 inhabitants located between Tulkarem and Nablus in the northern West Bank. They serve us tea first, then coffee, in the tradition of deep welcome typical of Palestinians. There are six farmers gathered to meet us. “There it is, you see? That is the new Abu Jamrah outpost, which will enlarge the Einav colony. They stole 30 dunams of land from us to build it.” In front of us, on the hill opposite, caravans and prefabs, a communications antenna, cars and vehicles. “Since October 7, the Israeli Authority has started expanding its settlements in the Palestinian territories. This is just one example. In recent months here in Tulkarem province alone they have built 4 more outposts: Qaffin, Shweikeh, Avni Hevets (shouffeh) and Jbara. They are taking more and more land, in everyone’s silence,” says R. Hundreds of meters as the crow flies from the outpost, in the middle of the vegetation, a large Israeli flag flies. “They want to go all the way there. As always, they have no right to it. That land belonged to my grandfather’s family.” In the area around Tulkarem, the Israelis are not even issuing agreements to access even a few days’ worth of land: it is a collective punishment for the entire population of the village, considered the “cradle” of resistance, they say. “This year they prevented us from harvesting about 2,000 olive trees,” R. says again, on behalf of everyone. A big blow to the already difficult family economies during this time of war. “The settlers even tried to steal our donkeys, but they couldn’t do it.”
The story of R.’s family is the story of now more and more Palestinians, who since Oct. 7 are experiencing even more harassment, violence, and land theft than since the beginning of the 1967 occupation.
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israel has confiscated 52,000 dunams in one year (1 dunams=1000 square meters, 1/10th of a hectare). This is a huge number, compounded by the new annexations declared in recent weeks. In fact, in a single day, Finance Minister Bazalel Smotrich announced the confiscation of 24,000 dunams declaring them “state lands.” This is the largest confiscation ever, covering more than half of the hectares Israel has taken since the Oslo Accords in 1993. Added to it are the 25,000 dunams that were confiscated under the pretext of changing the boundaries of nature reserves, plus the 1,233 dunams confiscated for “military purposes.” Israel’s “practice” of self-declared “state” lands had been discontinued in 1992, until Netanyhahu’s first government resurrected it in 1998. Since then, until Oct. 7, 2023, confiscations had been periodic until reaching the figure of 40 thousand dunams.
Instead, over the past 14 months, it seems that the government has been racing in grabbing as much land as possible. The goal is clear, and the various ministers in Tel Aviv have openly stated it: to create corridors between settlements, build new ones, annex the West Bank and thus fight attempts to build a Palestinian state. A goal Israel has always had, but it is experiencing an unprecedented acceleration. “2025 will be the year of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich wrote on X, using the name Israel gives to this part of Palestine. Ministers in Tel Aviv want to take advantage of Trump’s presidency, and perhaps the now clear international inaction, to carry out one of their plans for the creation of Greater Israel: the disappearance of the West Bank as such. Starting with the already announced divestment of the Civil Administration in the West Bank and the transfer of its powers directly into the hands of Israeli ministries.
According to the Israeli organization PeaceNow there are at least 43 new outposts built since October 7 throughout the region, and 5 new colonies. 70 outposts – illegal under Israeli law itself – legalized, plus 3 others that have been designated “neighborhoods” of nearby colonies. New settlements also legalized inside the city of Hebron. Settlement of the territory is also taking place thanks to the dozens of kilometers of roads to connect the settlements that have been approved, with funding of more than 7 billion shekels. About 450 million furthermore the shekels promised for “projects” in the settlements and outposts to encourage the arrival of new settlers.
While Palestinians are effectively prevented from building new homes, thanks in part to the definition of many lands as “military zones” or “nature reserves,” the Tel Aviv government has authorized the construction of 8,861 new housing units in the colonies. Simultaneously through settler and military violence, there are at least 277 Palestinian families (about 1630 individuals) and between 19 and 28 entire Bedouin communities that have been forced off their land. Threats, fires, theft of livestock, sabotage to livelihoods and violence of various kinds have indeed escalated in many areas of the West Bank (while this was already the norm in many areas even before Oct 7). Especially since Israel has given the settlers a green light and given them thousands of weapons, effectively promising impunity for their actions. There have been 16,663 attacks on Palestinian land and property since Oct. 7.
At least 900 homes have been demolished, not counting the hundreds and hundreds of homes destroyed in military raids on camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas and Nablus.
The West Bank is undergoing an unprecedented direct attack. On Dec. 15, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates also expressed deep concern over Israel’s recent escalation of unilateral and illegal actions in the occupied West Bank aimed at “intensifying and expanding ethnic cleansing and gradual annexation.” He called on the international community to implement its resolutions, particularly U.N. Security Council Resolution 2735 and the U.N. General Assembly decision adopting the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.
“Resolving the Palestinian issue and ending the occupation is the only way to achieve security, stability and prosperity for the region and the world,” he reiterated. In the hope that someone will act.
