Economic Warfare as a Tool of Colonial Control in the West Bank

On another front of confrontation, and in light of the steadfastness and deep-rootedness of Palestinians in their land and their insistence on life despite all the suffering they endure due to Israeli measures, which were not limited to killing, torture, displacement, and detention, the Israeli government has opened another front to retaliate against Palestinians through economic warfare in all its manifestations: fragmenting Palestinian cities and towns, imposing closures and sieges through checkpoints and gates exceeding (1000) checkpoints and gates spread at the entrances to Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank, in addition to depriving thousands of workers from returning to their jobs inside Israel and withholding Palestinian clearance funds. Rather, it launched a new chapter of crime and a desperate attempt to triumph through economic legislation to control land and plunder natural resources to create an environment that expels Palestinians from their land and homeland. In contrast, the Israeli government provides financial, economic, and tax incentives and facilities to settlements in the West Bank to strengthen colonial control, because historically, economic control constitutes a fundamental pillar for enhancing Jewish demographic presence and solidifying influence on the ground. Successive Israeli governments have used economic pressure on Palestinians as an effective means to create imbalances in the economic and social structure of Palestinian Arab society, which has reflected on its stability and ability to withstand challenges. To solidify this Israeli economic policy, the Israeli Knesset approved, at dawn on Thursday, June 4, 2026, in its second and third readings, a bill that grants settlers in the West Bank an unprecedented package of financial and tax privileges, retroactively, starting from January 2026, and remains valid until December 31, 2027. The Minister of Finance, with the approval of the Finance Committee, may extend the validity of the law after its ratification for additional periods in the future as support for settlers in the West Bank, as this law grants the privilege of tax exemptions, in addition to special features for settler students, and travel to and from settlements in armored vehicles belonging to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The law grants every settler residing in the West Bank the right to obtain a tax exemption, according to the percentage and maximum stipulated in the Income Tax Law, with the possibility of choosing between this exemption and another exemption if they are entitled to more than one exemption, as this law was approved by a majority of (32) members and opposed by (23) members. The law also stipulated granting residents of 58 settlements tax incentives in the form of income tax reductions of up to 7%, with a maximum of 10,000 shekels annually per individual. At the same time, the annual cost of these privileges is estimated at about 130 million shekels, which reflects the extent of financial support allocated by the Israeli government to strengthen settlement and provide economic advantages to settlements, and this constitutes a strong indicator of the use of financial and tax tools in consolidating the settlement presence and encouraging demographic expansion within the settlements established in the West Bank. Dedicating the Legal and Administrative Separation of the Occupation This law was approved within an integrated system of legal, administrative, and financial policies and procedures adopted by the Israeli government with the aim of strengthening the settlement project in the West Bank and consolidating its demographic and economic components in line with the trends aimed at consecrating the de facto annexation of Palestinian territories by expanding the privileges granted to settlers. These policies raise broad legal and political problems, given their contradiction with the rules of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy, which affirm the illegitimacy of Israeli settlement in the Palestinian territories. Historically, after Israel tightened its control over the West Bank in the 1967 war, it found itself facing a dilemma that was not in its calculations. The land it sought to annex included about one million Palestinians, which made any step towards full annexation fraught with complex demographic, political, and security challenges. It imposed a system based on legal and administrative separation between Palestinians and Israelis, while consecrating unequal relations between the two parties at various levels. A system of laws and security and administrative procedures was employed to control the Palestinian population and manage their presence in line with the demographic and political considerations of the state and impose a new reality where control over land and resources on the one hand, and maintaining Israeli demographic and political superiority on the other, were combined in an equation that still casts its shadow over the Palestinian-Israeli scene to this day. Settlement Context within the Project of Judaizing the West Bank Settlement is considered one of the basic pillars upon which the Zionist project was built, as it constituted a central tool for achieving the political project aimed at establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. It began by encouraging Jewish immigration and establishing and expanding settlement colonies, Judaizing the land, and tightening control over economic resources, in order to consolidate the settlement presence and strengthen its political and economic components. This law came to grant settlers special tax advantages similar to those enjoyed by residents of Israeli cities and towns, in a sign of consecrating the de facto annexation of settlements, within the context of the silent annexation implemented by the most fascist and extremist Israeli government in the history of the State of Israel. This law works to reshape the economic structure through legal, military, and bureaucratic tools and is employed as a system for domination and control over lands and resources in the West Bank. A Political Electoral Tool in Winning Settler Votes The approval of this law, submitted by Knesset member Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionist Party, at a time when Israeli elections are approaching and opinion polls show that the Religious Zionist Party will not cross the electoral threshold, comes within the framework of a party strategy aimed at strengthening the support of the Religious Zionist Party's electoral base among the settler public and gaining votes in the electoral race. At the same time, the approval of this law is not separate from ideological considerations and internal political calculations, as it is seen as aligning with the trends aimed at expanding and deepening settlement activity in the West Bank.