West Bank: Settler Terrorism as a Tool for Creeping Annexation and Imposing Sovereignty

While the world is preoccupied with the American-Israeli war against Iran and the regional tensions associated with the confrontation, a profound process of change is accelerating on the ground in the occupied West Bank, taking place away from the spotlight. As attention turns to the battlefields, the Israeli occupation government is exploiting this international preoccupation to deepen its policies of control over the land in the West Bank, through a combination of governmental decisions, settlement expansion, and organized settler terrorism against Palestinians.

What is referred to in the official discourse of the Israeli occupation state as "settler terrorism" is no longer a marginal phenomenon or acts of hooliganism carried out by a limited number of hilltop youth. The accumulated data and information in recent years, along with investigations published by Israeli, Palestinian, and international human rights organizations and the Israeli press, clearly indicate that these attacks have become part of a broader political and security system that is practically reshaping the geographical and demographic reality in the occupied West Bank.

The investigation published by "Haaretz" last Friday paints a disturbing picture of the collapse of the security and legal oversight system, which had, even partially, controlled these attacks. However, what is happening in reality cannot be understood as a fleeting phenomenon, but rather as an old policy that has deepened significantly with the rise of the current right-wing settlement government.

According to testimonies from officers and reserve soldiers who served in the West Bank, settler terrorism is no longer merely exceptional incidents but has transformed into a near-daily pattern. In many cases, soldiers arrive at the scene of attacks after they have occurred, only to find themselves in a clash between settlers and Palestinians, often ending with the arrest of Palestinians or the use of force against them.

But the problem is much deeper than mere security negligence. Settler terrorism is no longer a random act but has become a field tool within a broader strategy aimed at imposing new realities on the ground. Instead of dozens of hilltop youth, as the occupation government claims, the investigation speaks of hundreds participating in the attacks, operating within a wide support network that includes settlement outposts, settlement farms, and regional councils in the West Bank.

Some of these groups even publish monthly reports on their activities, boasting about burning Palestinian homes and vehicles, destroying olive trees, and assaulting residents of neighboring villages. This reflects an unprecedented degree of organization and implicit legitimization of this type of terrorism.

More dangerously, there is an increasing overlap between settlers and the military system. Some participants in the attacks move in military or semi-military vehicles, wear parts of military uniforms, and carry weapons obtained through regional defense systems. With the expansion of settler armament in recent years, the line between armed civilians and the Israeli army has become more blurred.

In this sense, settlers are gradually transforming into a paramilitary force operating in the field, enjoying army protection and sometimes moving under its direct supervision.

Politically, this transformation cannot be understood without considering the profound changes within the current Israeli occupation government. Finance Minister and Minister in the Ministry of Defense responsible for civil administration in the West Bank, Bezalel Smotrich, is clearly pushing for the implementation of his vision known as the "Decisive Plan," which he proposed in 2017.

This plan is based on expanding Israeli control over areas classified as "C," which constitute about 60% of the West Bank's area, while keeping Palestinians confined within population enclaves in areas "A" and "B." Within this framework, settler terrorism becomes a field tool to impose a new demographic reality.

Repeated attacks on Palestinian villages, burning crops, destroying water sources, and preventing herders from accessing pastures are not just isolated incidents but tools aimed at creating an expelling environment for Palestinian residents, especially in rural areas, the Jordan Valley, and south Hebron.

In contrast, the ability or willingness of Israeli law enforcement agencies to confront this phenomenon has declined. The occupation police in the West Bank, under the influence of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, are facing increasing criticism for their failure to investigate settler attacks. The role of the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) in monitoring what is known as "Jewish terrorism" has also diminished.

However, what appears to be negligence on the surface often reflects alignment with the current government's directives. The Israeli army, which in previous statements described some settler practices as "Jewish terrorism," now finds itself part of a political and security reality that pushes it to avoid confrontation with settlers.

Furthermore, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's decisions to cancel administrative detention orders against settlers, despite their limited use initially, reflect a political trend that limits legal deterrents against these attacks.

These transformations have also been reflected within the military establishment itself. About two hundred reserve soldiers signed a letter to the military leadership warning of the erosion of the values on which the army is supposed to be based, and of the involvement of some soldiers in acts of violence against Palestinians or in condoning them.

However, this ethical discourse clashes with a different reality on the ground. The army itself carries out daily incursions and arrests in Palestinian cities and villages, and provides protection to settlers during or after their attacks. This contradiction between discourse and practice reveals the limits of the military establishment's ability or willingness to confront settler terrorism.

What is forming today in the West Bank is not merely an escalation in settler terrorism, but a gradual re-engineering of the political and geographical reality. Settlers move with almost complete freedom, while the security system appears hesitant or unable to control them, while the political leadership pushes for expanding control over the land and implementing creeping annexation policies.

In this sense, settler terrorism becomes a tool within a broader policy to reshape the demographic map of the West Bank. It is a systematic and slow process, based on pushing Palestinians to shrink into isolated population enclaves, in contrast to the continuous expansion of the settlement project, and establishing a new reality that serves Israel's strategic and political goals.

Amidst the devastating war on the Gaza Strip and escalating regional tensions, the West Bank appears to be a parallel arena for a profound process of change taking place away from the spotlight. While the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza continues, policies of control over the land are accelerating in the West Bank through a combination of governmental decisions, settler terrorism, and institutional complicity, to entrench a reality based on Israeli superiority and the de facto annexation of lands.

The final result is not merely settlement expansion, but the entrenchment of a system based on gradual annexation, ethnic superiority, and the gradual expulsion of Palestinians from their land, while the official occupation institutions and their security and political arms remain present to support and practically and directly participate in this project.