B’Tselem report says Israeli policies accelerating Palestinian dispossession in West Bank

MNTV News Desk — Israeli policies and practices in the occupied West Bank have entered an accelerated phase that is systematically undermining Palestinian life, land, movement, livelihoods and political and social institutions, according to a new report by human rights organization B’Tselem.

The report, titled The Elimination Project, describes what it calls a coordinated “mechanism of elimination” operating across the West Bank, where about 3.5 million Palestinians live. B’Tselem says the system has intensified since the formation of Israel’s current government at the end of 2022 and escalated further after October 2023.

According to the report, restrictions and violence affect routine activities ranging from traveling to work and taking children to school to accessing medical care, attending universities, cultivating agricultural land, visiting relatives and participating in cultural and community life.

B’Tselem argues that these developments should not be viewed as isolated incidents of human rights violations but as interconnected policies that reinforce one another.

The organization identifies five principal areas through which it says the mechanism operates: violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction, and ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover.

“These five domains operate at once and reinforce one another,” the report says, arguing that restrictions on movement and economic activity weaken livelihoods and social ties while displacement further fragments Palestinian communities.

The report says violence plays a central role in the system by creating the coercive conditions under which other measures operate.

B’Tselem says Palestinians in the West Bank face the possibility of violence by Israeli soldiers or armed settlers, arrest, imprisonment, abuse and, in some cases, death. It also describes increasing restrictions on access to Palestinian land and agricultural areas.

The organization says settlement farms and outposts have become important instruments in expanding Israeli control over territory, while Palestinian farmers are increasingly prevented from reaching or cultivating their land.

B’Tselem also points to what it describes as a growing disparity between Israeli and Palestinian political and territorial rights.

The report argues that Israeli authorities are seeking to make Israeli presence across the West Bank continuous and permanent while leaving Palestinian communities increasingly fragmented and dependent.

It says this process extends beyond physical control of territory to what it describes as a struggle over historical, religious and national narratives.

According to B’Tselem, Israeli flags are increasingly prominent in the West Bank while Palestinian flags are removed from public spaces. The organization also accuses Israeli forces of protecting settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians while suppressing Palestinian demonstrations.

The report links these practices to a broader ideological framework that it describes as having “settler-colonial characteristics.”

The report says mechanisms used to control Palestinian life have existed for decades but have become significantly more aggressive in recent years.

B’Tselem identifies the Israeli government’s policies since late 2022, and particularly those implemented since October 2023, as a major turning point.

‘Decisive Plan’

The organization says practices previously associated primarily with the Gaza war have increasingly appeared in the West Bank, including airstrikes, extensive destruction of residential areas and infrastructure, mass displacement and changes to the use of force.

B’Tselem also highlights Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s 2017 “Decisive Plan” as an important document for understanding the current political direction.

According to the report, the plan presents Palestinians with three broad choices: accepting Jewish supremacy and abandoning national aspirations, leaving the territory, or facing violent repression if they resist.

B’Tselem says elements of the plan have subsequently been reflected in government policy, budgets, institutional powers and actions on the ground.

The organization argues that the developments in the West Bank cannot be separated from the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the war in Gaza.

It says the intensity of Israeli military operations and restrictions in the West Bank has increased since October 2023, creating conditions that have contributed to displacement and the weakening of Palestinian communities.

The report also examines the legal implications of the policies it documents.

B’Tselem acknowledges that “elimination” is not a specific legal category under international law. However, it argues that the individual practices making up what it calls the elimination mechanism are prohibited under international law.

Its legal analysis concludes that Israel uses its military occupation of the West Bank as a central instrument for maintaining what B’Tselem characterizes as an apartheid regime.

The organization says the policies and acts carried out within that system meet the legal definition of apartheid, which is recognized as a crime against humanity.

The report further identifies potential violations involving annexation, settlements, deportation and forcible transfer, as well as violations of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

B’Tselem says the report draws on approximately 2,000 testimonies collected from Palestinians in the West Bank in recent years, together with field research, documentation by other organizations, official Israeli documents, legislation, government resolutions and other data.

The report says its approach differs from conventional human rights documentation, which often focuses on individual incidents.

Instead, B’Tselem says it examined how individual policies interact and contribute to a broader system of control.

The organization argues that restrictions on movement can prevent people from reaching jobs, schools, hospitals and farmland. Economic pressure can weaken families and community institutions, while displacement can destroy homes, agricultural livelihoods, social networks and collective memory.

Political and social fragmentation, in turn, can make it more difficult for Palestinians to organize and challenge policies affecting their communities, the report says.

Weakening Palestinian collective existence

B’Tselem concludes that the current situation is not simply a temporary crisis or a series of unrelated violations.

It describes the developments as an accelerated phase of what it calls a longstanding project aimed at weakening Palestinian collective existence while expanding Israeli control over the West Bank.

The report also criticizes the international community for what B’Tselem describes as decades of “de facto impunity” for Israel.

According to the organization, international governments have largely responded to Israeli policies through diplomatic calls for restraint, renewed political negotiations and opposition to unilateral measures rather than through measures designed to fundamentally alter the system.

B’Tselem argues that political, military and economic support for Israel, together with diplomatic protection, has allowed the policies it documents to continue.

The organization says the international response to the war in Gaza has also failed to produce the fundamental policy shift it believes is necessary to address Israeli conduct in both Gaza and the West Bank.

It warns that continued international inaction allows violence, economic restrictions, displacement and territorial expansion in the West Bank to proceed.

The report calls for a fundamental change in the political structure governing Palestinians and Israelis.

B’Tselem says measures aimed at protecting individuals from immediate harm remain important but argues that limited reforms cannot resolve what it identifies as the underlying structure of oppression.

It rejects the idea that returning to a less restrictive form of Israeli control would be sufficient, arguing that the system itself must change.

The organization calls for an end to what it describes as Israeli crimes and the dismantling of the apartheid system.

It says any future political order covering the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea should be based on freedom, equality, justice and democracy rather than ethnic or national supremacy.

The report also emphasizes Palestinian collective rights, including the right to determine their political future.

B’Tselem argues that recognition of both individual and collective Palestinian rights is necessary for any sustainable political settlement.