Since the start of the war between Israel and Gaza on October 7th, 2023, there has been a rapid increase in the presence of Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank. Although settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that “the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land,” and has recently approved five new settlement plans, with the most recent one located in Battir, an U.N.E.S.C.O. World Heritage site. Right-wing Israelis have gone so far as to call for the complete annexation of the West Bank and have established outposts without the permission of the Israeli government in hopes of furthering this goal. In addition to the rise in settlements, settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank has also surged, with the United Nations documenting around 1,270 attacks in the past ten months. According to the B.B.C., analysts have speculated that the Israeli government is prolonging the war and rejecting ceasefire deals in an attempt to prohibit any possibility of an independent Palestinian state. As the war in Gaza continues, the unchecked expansion of settlements and violence across the West Bank will only fuel the existing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, hindering the possibility of a solution to the current conflict.
Despite agreements such as the Oslo Accords and the Camp David Summit that attempted to draw borders for a two-state solution, Israeli landholding has continued to expand. Today, the United Nations reports that there are 700,000 Israeli settlers living illegally in the occupied West Bank. While some settlers move to the West Bank for religious reasons, others are driven by lower living costs and financial enticements provided by the government. Such actions have unjustly displaced and dispossessed thousands of Palestinians from their homes, as reported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Anger towards these policies has been expressed by many West Bank Palestinians, with one man telling the B.B.C., “They are stealing our land to build their dreams on our catastrophe.” More broadly, these settlements have worked to promote Israel’s strategy of maintaining physical, social, and economic control over the land.
In defiance of the new settlements, Palestinians in the West Bank have engaged in demonstrations, often resulting in clashes with Israeli forces. Although most demonstrations start off as peaceful, Israeli soldiers tend to intensify conflict by countering protestors with the use of disproportionate force, ranging from live ammunition to tear gas and rubber bullets. These actions have contributed to the death of more than 600 people in the West Bank since October 7th, according to the New York Times. More recently, a Turkish-American activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was shot in the head at a West Bank protest by Israeli forces. Despite the unprovoked nature of the killing, human rights violations by soldiers are rarely prosecuted by the Israeli government, perpetrating a constant cycle of misconduct.
The expansion of settlements and lethal use of force in the West Bank should prompt the international community to pressure Israel to end its oppressive actions. In particular, Israel’s closest ally, the United States, has a notable moral responsibility to end the crimes committed against Palestinians and other activists. While U.S. judgment against Israel’s action has grown stronger since the start of the war, the Biden administration has refused to condition U.S. military support for Israel. To begin to change these policies, the United States must reaffirm its support for an immediate ceasefire by committing to the implementation of tangible steps toward this goal through the enforcement of an arms embargo against Israel for its encroachments of international humanitarian law. Such policy steps are necessary not only to limit the current fighting but also to begin the pathway toward a two-state solution and achieve stability in the region.
Considering the importance of United States support to Israel, it is imperative that U.S. officials leverage their power to urge Israel to end its systematic violence against individuals both in the West Bank and Gaza. Without condemnation of Israel’s policies, settlements will expand, innocent protesters will continue to be killed, and America’s commitment to the two-state solution will remain unattainable.
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