AS ISRAEL鈥橲 genocide in Gaza enters its tenth month, its settler-colonial project advances relentlessly across historic Palestine.
The UN Human Rights Office is sounding alarm bells over Israel鈥檚 accelerated land theft in the occupied West Bank, exacerbated by the forcible displacement of Palestinians through settler violence, home demolitions and access restrictions.
鈥楾he situation in the occupied West Bank is a matter of grave concern as Israel allows and facilitates an environment characterized by fear forcing communities from their homes and lands鈥�, the UN office said.
Settlers, the statement continued, 鈥榓cting with the protection and support of Israeli security forces, are escalating violent attacks on herding communities in the South Hebron Hills, Jordan Valley and East Jerusalem that have been encircled by settlements and outposts.鈥�
Israel鈥檚 so-called security cabinet approved the legalization of five settler 鈥榦utposts.鈥�
While all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law and building them is a war crime, what Israel refers to as 鈥榦utposts鈥� are often built without even Israel鈥檚 permission and are considered illegal under Israeli law.
In their early stages, they often comprise a small number of the more extreme settlers gathering in a certain area with few caravans or structures, often unconnected to water and electricity.
Bezalel Smotrich, the ultra-far-right Israeli finance minister, is attempting to streamline the process of legalizing and recognizing outposts under Israeli law by providing them with basic services and creating facts on the ground.
As part of Smotrich鈥檚 push to legalize over 60 outposts in the occupied West Bank, he is now instructing ministries to put them 鈥榦n the same legal footing as regular settlements鈥�, the Times of Israel reported.
At a private conference of the Religious Zionism Party which was held at a settlement outpost near Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, Smotrich discussed creating a 鈥榣egalisation bypass route鈥� for outposts, by funding and providing services to them, according to settlement watchdog group Peace Now, which obtained a recording of the conference.
Smotrich described how what he called 鈥榝arm outposts鈥� would pave the way for taking over Palestinian land.
鈥楾he farm outposts are a mega-strategic tool for the protection of lands鈥�, he said, Peace Now reported.
鈥榃e did not invent the wheel. Always in the state of Israel, pasture has been the most effective tool for preserving lands鈥�, he added.
鈥榊ou take a farmer, a thousand head of cows, a dime and half an investment and it protects you 40,000 dunams. A tool that, like everything else in the settlements, started from the bottom up.鈥�
Smotrich is saying 鈥榦ut loud what Netanyahu is trying to hide鈥�, Peace Now said.
鈥榃hile all eyes are on what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza, they are also actively pursuing annexation of the West Bank鈥�, the group added.
鈥楽ince the war began, over two dozen new outposts have been established, and a similar number of Palestinian communities have been forcibly displaced.鈥�
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Land theft
LAST month, Israel quietly announced one of the largest state land grabs since the signing of the Oslo accords in the mid-1990s, Peace Now reported.
This involved 12,700 dunams (12.7 square kilometres) in the Jordan Valley, which were declared 鈥榮tate lands鈥� by the Custodian of State Property within the Civil Administration, the bureaucratic arm of Israel鈥檚 military occupation.
Declaring Palestinian land as 鈥榮tate land鈥� is a legal maneuver aimed at confiscating land belonging to Palestinians by interpreting an Ottoman law that was utilized in a completely different context nearly two centuries ago.
This tactic enables Israel to circumvent the technical legality of land ownership, as 鈥榤ost privately owned land in the West Bank is not officially registered鈥�, Peace Now says.
鈥楾he declaration of state land is one of the main methods by which the state of Israel seeks to assert control over land in the occupied territories鈥�, the group says.
This method amounts to 鈥榦vert measures that could facilitate the annexation of Palestinian land in violation of international law鈥�, the UN human rights office said.
The newly declared state land borders another sizable territory that was designated as state land earlier this year, creating 鈥榯erritorial continuity鈥� between settlements in the Jordan Valley region, as can be seen here.
This continuity is precisely the goal.
鈥業 tell you that really, this is the significant revolution: if in five, six, seven years it is possible to get anywhere in Binyamin, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, within fifteen minutes on a two lane road鈥�, Smotrich said at the conference.
鈥楾his is a revolution鈥�, he continued, 鈥榯his is how you bring a million people to [the West Bank].鈥�
The current government has also transferred the authority over bureaucratic and legal work related to settlement declarations from the military to civilian bodies, streamlining the process of land theft.
Peace Now called this 鈥榓 blatant violation of international law.鈥�
At the June conference, Smotrich made this exact declaration.
鈥淭his thing is mega-strategic and we are investing a lot in it,鈥� he said.
鈥榃e can produce much more capacity of work, much more [land] surveys, more [land] declarations, more plans, more of everything. This is something that will change the map dramatically.鈥�
Smotrich said that declaration of state lands in 2024 will be 鈥榬oughly ten times the average in previous years鈥�, estimating that by the end of the year 鈥榖etween 10,000 and 15,000 additional dunams will be declared [as state lands].鈥�
Israel has already declared nearly 24,000 dunams (24 square km) as state lands in the occupied West Bank, and the year is far from over.
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Forcible displacement
WHILE Israel steals land from Palestinians on one front, it drives Palestinians out of their homes and demolishes their property on another.
Israel has demolished, confiscated or forced the demolition of nearly 1,120 Palestinian-owned structures since October 7, of which 38 per cent were residential buildings.
These demolitions drove over 2,500 Palestinians out of their homes, nearly half of which are children, according to UN monitoring group OCHA.
The group said over half of those displaced were driven out during military operations, particularly in Jenin and Tulkarm in the north, and surrounding refugee camps.
Over 40 per cent of those demolitions happened under the pretext of Palestinians building without a permit.
Israel refuses to permit virtually any Palestinian construction in Area C, which constitutes 60 per cent of the occupied West Bank under the terms of the Oslo accords. This forces residents to build without permits and live in constant fear of demolition.
And the numbers exclude Palestinians who were forcibly displaced as a result of settler violence or access restrictions, more than 230 households, or nearly 1,400 Palestinians, including over 660 children.
Israeli settlers threaten Palestinians at gunpoint, vandalize their property, hamper their access to water, ruin their trees, damage their vehicles, steal their belongings and intimidate and physically attack them.
鈥楢longside demolitions carried out by the Israeli Civil Administration, such attacks are forcing Palestinians to leave their lands鈥�, the UN human rights office said.
鈥楾his, in turn, aids consolidation and expansion of Israeli settlements and outposts in the areas.鈥�
Settlers carried out over 1,080 attacks against Palestinians since October 7, as per OCHA, causing both injuries to Palestinians as well as property damage.
At least 46,500 trees or saplings owned by Palestinians have been destroyed by those known or believed to be settlers.
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Settler-colonialism is the goal
ON JULY 11, the United States announced sanctions on a number of outposts in the occupied West Bank, as well as on extremist individuals, and Lehava, an extremist group.
鈥榃e are imposing sanctions on four outposts that are owned or controlled by US designated individuals who have weaponized them as bases for violent actions to displace Palestinians鈥�, US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Miller said that Israeli outposts 鈥榙isrupt grazing lands, limit access to wells, and launch violent attacks against neighboring Palestinians.鈥�
This follows previous declarations by the US and other allies of Israel who have constantly supported its actions in Gaza while punishing a handful of settlers and their organizations.
But this has been a mere distraction.
The notion that settler violence is caused by a few bad apples is not only false, it sidesteps the centrality of settler violence to Israel鈥檚 settler-colonial project.
Settlers are not acting as individuals but on behalf of a state whose goal is the theft and total control of all the land in the West Bank.
They are the foot soldiers of the state and its expansionist policy, and view even the Biden administration as not going far enough to support their colonial mission.
Lehava slammed US president Joe Biden as 鈥榮enile and anti-Semitic鈥� and grouped him in with other 鈥榚nemies鈥� of Israel.
News of the US sanctions came as foreign ministers of the 鈥楪roup of Seven鈥� major Western powers also denounced Israel鈥檚 expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying it was 鈥榗ounterproductive to the cause of peace.鈥�
Israel鈥檚 genocide in Gaza, due to its staggering scale and magnitude, has diverted attention from the occupied West Bank, facilitating the state鈥檚 theft of Palestinian land, with Jewish settlers on the frontlines of that violence.
Ultimately, Israel鈥檚 so far futile effort to achieve its stated goal of eliminating Hamas in the Gaza Strip aligns with its broader objective to suppress any resistance to its settler-colonial violence across historic Palestine.
Even as Israel employs the Palestinian Authority and its security forces as subcontractors in the West Bank, armed resistance has flourished in smaller cells spread across refugee camps, towns and cities.
Settlers and some Israeli ministers may publicly dream of resettling the Gaza Strip, but their primary focus remains on the larger territory, constituting one-fifth of historic Palestine: the occupied West Bank.
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DissidentVoice.org, July 14. Tamara Nassar is an assistant editor at the Electronic Intifada.
