The forgotten warfare: Israel’s West Bank settlements

When world politics is so tumultuous, such as the genocide in Gaza, the Israel-Iran conflict, and whatever Donald Trump is doing, it is easy to forget other transgressions occurring in the world. There is so much to worry about and stress over that one cannot focus on everything at once. That being said, it is important to highlight such acts, as if we were to ignore them, they can get carried out with no punishment or accountability.

On the topic of Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine, one cannot discuss it without also acknowledging the settlements that Israel has set up and maintained in the West Bank. As of today, there are over one hundred settlements in the West Bank, all of which are illegal under international law, and some are illegal even within Israeli law; these settlements house hundreds of thousands of Israelis on Palestinian land. In the last few months, as well, Israel has announced that it intends to increase settlement activity, with the defence minister, Israel Katz, explaining that it “prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel.”¹

Historically, these settlements began after the Six-Day War in 1967, following pressure to secure Israel’s presence in the Golan Heights and also settle all areas of the biblical land; this led to around 3200 settlers in the area in 1977 (albeit most of them were farmers, as civilian settlements were not yet popularized at the time.² Following the second term of Menachem Begin as Israel’s Prime Minister, a greater emphasis on the theological reasoning of their rights to the holy land led to almost ten times the number of settlers by 1983, at over 28,000.² The Oslo Accords of 1993 were intended to be a peace deal that would allow Palestine to exist as an independent state alongside Israel, including the withdrawal of Israeli military presence in the Occupied West Bank and the suspension of settlement-development on Palestinian land³, but were not successful as Palestine pulled out of the deal after Israel continued settlement activities.⁴

The history of these settlements suggests that despite countless efforts to reduce Israeli presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem—even with the United States government getting involved for the Oslo Accords—Israel has repeatedly worked against these negotiations to continue their settlements. As we have seen with the genocide in Gaza, the Israeli government does not hold itself accountable for any wrongdoings, so it is not surprising that with each negotiation and callout from the international community, they continue their actions and make excuse after excuse as to why they are right in doing so. However, one must examine exactly how these settlements breach international law to understand how serious and concerning it is that Israel continues them.

As noted by the United Nations, Amnesty International, and several other world organizations and state governments, these settlements violate international law two-fold, firstly in the Fourth Geneva Convention, and secondly, the Hague Regulations of 1907. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”⁵ Israel violates this article due to its transfer of its own people into the occupied territory, both through outposts and through settlements deemed legal by Israeli law in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. By transferring its own people into these settlements, Israel continually makes efforts to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and also perpetuates settler violence against Palestinians on their own land.

The Israel Policy Forum noted that, demographically, Palestinians still largely outnumber Israeli settlers in the areas of these settlements, thus not threatening to “overtake” Palestinian land or the Palestinian majority.⁶ However, with the presence of the Israeli military additionally protecting these settlements and instigating violence against the Palestinian population, the issue of demographics becomes redundant; the size of a population in any given part cannot overcome military occupation and violence, especially when it is sanctioned by the occupying state.

Therefore, the issue of preventing Palestinian sovereignty still applies, as the smaller population of settlers still maintains overall control of the land by force. And even when considering the demographic issue of who is the majority in the West Bank, the fact of the matter remains that Israel is still transferring its own citizens into Palestine, against international law. Furthermore, the Hague Regulations of 1907 state that use of property in an occupied territory by the occupier must be limited and temporary, in the spirit of occupation and not inhabitation; the occupier thus has a duty to protect the citizens of the occupied territory in the spirit of their own laws and cultural practices.⁷

The issue with this in the context of Israel’s settlements is that they are not temporary, nor do they protect any Palestinian living in the Occupied West Bank, as these settlements often use existing Palestinian homes that have their families forced out of them for Israelis to live in.⁷ These settlements, as implied by Katz, are permanent insofar as they prevent a Palestinian state from forming, thus violating these regulations. Therefore, Israel violates international law by the consistent transfer of its own citizens into the West Bank, and additionally does so by permanently using Palestinian property. Furthermore, Israel bends the laws by having “outposts”, which are considered illegal in Israeli law as well, as they are not set up with government approval.

However, no actions are taken by the government to prevent or dismantle these outposts. Katz noted that several of these outposts would be made into legitimate settlements in the latest notice of settlement expansion in 2025. The issue with these “outposts” in particular is that they are a method to continually occupy Palestinian land and infringe on the development of the Palestinian state, without any accountability being taken by the government, as it is technically illegal despite them taking no action to dismantle them. By legalizing these outposts, Israel additionally avoids accountability, as it can claim that it did not necessarily “set them up” but rather expanded on existing settlements. As well, these outposts receive infrastructural support and protection from Israeli authorities, despite them not being “authorized”; B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, wrote in 2021:

“Israel has ordered the military to defend the outposts or paid for their security, as well as paved roads and laid down water and electricity infrastructure for most of them. It has provided support through various government ministries, the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization and regional councils in the West Bank. It has also subsidized financial endeavors in the outposts, including agricultural facilities, provided support for new farmers and for shepherding, allocated water, and legally defended outposts in petitions for their removal.”⁸

In this sense, the Israeli government claims that these outposts are not “legal”, and yet provides several forms of support for them nonetheless, bolstering them, allowing them to continue existing, and even expanding them into official settlements. They are illegal but nonetheless supported and defended, which does not sound like they are opposed by their government at all.

This is not a new issue, and the problem with avoiding the discussion on this topic while Israel indiscriminately bombs and intentionally starves Palestinians in Gaza is that this can go on without action, without responsibility, and most importantly, without notice by the international community. In conversations I have had with others on the topic of Israel’s actions in Palestine overall, they often overlook the issue of the settlements, and, when faced with it, do not typically have a good excuse as to why they need to exist in the first place. They, like the Israeli government, refuse to acknowledge them, and instead repeatedly return to the Hamas attack in 2023, as if that retroactively justifies every act of violence against Palestinians for the last seven decades, including almost 60 years of these settlements.

There is a long history of countries and world organizations calling out and opposing the Israeli government’s settlements, such as the aforementioned Oslo Accords and more. During the Obama administration in the United States, President Obama had called for a “settlement freeze”, wherein Israel would pause all settlement activities, including the expansion of existing ones.⁹ Israel, at the time, did not dedicate itself entirely to the freeze, but rather only committed partially—they only paused constructions on new developments, but seemed to continue the expansion of existing ones. The Palestinian government, in response, refused to enter negotiations until the last month of the ten-month moratorium, explaining that the refusal stemmed from the fact that Israel did not obey the complete settlement freeze and thus had not followed their end of the deal.⁹

Another article, written in 1982, noted that Israel “systematically planned and operationalized a complex set of policies designed to absorb the territory it conquered while simultaneously expelling, subjugating or containing the Arab population which, to its unconcealed distress, it was forced to take along with the land.”¹⁰ The same article also noted that the United Nations has opposed these settlements and has persistently pointed out that these are illegal in international law. As noted, these papers are from 2012 and 1982, and these settlements have been popping up since the land was first annexed after the war in 1967, showing that criticism of these settlements has been ongoing since their establishment.

Despite this, Israel has pointedly ignored all criticisms, and persists with the narrative that it is for the sake of the “security” of the state itself, and reclaiming their “holy” land. This also shows that this has been happening long before Hamas’ attack in 2023, meaning that one cannot use that to justify these settlements and settler violence (which some try to do, as I have seen on the internet). These settlements have been used as a form of warfare in the sense that they work to prevent Palestinians from forming their own state or communities, and justify Israeli military presence in Palestine—it is political and physical violence against an already vulnerable group of people. While some countries, like Canada, do not recognize these settlements as Israeli land at all,¹¹ others have imposed sanctions on or blacklisted individuals responsible for violence in the West Bank, including Australia, the United States (under President Biden’s administration), the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, and France.¹²

Not only do these settlements have a long history of existence in Palestine, but they also have a long history of violence. Acts of violence committed by settlers against Palestinians include “beating, throwing stones, issuing threats, torching fields, destroying trees and crops, stealing crops, damaging homes and cars, blocking roads, using live fire…” and murder in some rare cases.⁸ Furthermore, the Israeli military opts to defend the settlers rather than Palestinians, aiding settlers in forcing Palestinians off of their land and sometimes even participating in violence.¹²

In 2018, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted that 217 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians occurred, with 60 of those incidents resulting in Palestinian casualties, and 157 resulting in damage to Palestinian property.¹³ In 2021, a mob of Israeli settlers attacked and beat Palestinian farmers and Israeli activists as they planted olive trees outside of the village of Burin, contributing to a noticeable record high of settler violence from the previous five years.¹⁴ According to Al Jazeera, several Palestinians were injured in January of this year due to settler violence, with Israelis setting Palestinian homes on fire and raiding villages, and citizens also getting injured due to tear gas that was deployed by Israeli military forces.¹⁵

Since October 7th, 2023, violence in the West Bank committed against Palestinians has increased substantially, with one study noting that since last year, it has increased an estimated 30%.¹⁶ In 2024, the Association of International Development Agencies urged the international community to intervene in the settler attacks, following a spike in violence that resulted in several homes being burned and two Palestinians being fatally shot (including a child).¹⁷ The Israeli military aided in this violence and “provided protection to the settlers, barricading village entrances and obstructing Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulances from reaching the wounded.”¹⁷ Between November 1st, 2023 and October 31st, 2024, the U.N. reported the murders of 612 Palestinians at the hands of Israeli Security Forces and settlers; this contributes to the “climate of revenge” that has developed across the West Bank. ¹⁸ While also working to oppose a Palestinian state, these settlements and outposts also work to oppose any sense of safety they may develop on their own land, something Palestinians are entitled to.

As mentioned earlier as well, the Geneva Conventions do call for occupying states to protect the citizens of the occupied territory in the same way they would their own, which Israel is obviously not doing, as it does not stop its own citizens from reaching life-saving care. While violence in the West Bank settlements is instigated by Palestinians as well, the use of violence by the settlers is methodical and supported militarily (consider the previous example of the military refusing to let ambulances through so that more harm could come to Palestinians), thus making it less of an internal issue between two neighbouring peoples, and more like systematic oppression of one state over another.

It is systematic in that the Israeli government has done everything to defend the settlers, even if they are there “illegally” in their own laws, and has aided them in enacting violence against the people already occupying that land, due to a religious belief that this land is theirs. The government uses the system and bends its laws to aid in occupying, oppressing, and committing violence against Palestinians. Using theological excuses, such as Zionism, for occupation and genocide does not rid Israel of responsibility, as religion should not be the ruling doctrine for matters relating to foreign/international relations in the first place. If any other country were to occupy another country, starve its people, and force its people off of their own land, and then claim it did so due to a religious book written thousands of years ago, the international community would immediately protest, because that excuse is simply illogical.

Why is Israel held to standards outside of the expectation of diplomacy? Why is Israel allowed to use the excuse of a “claim to the Holy Land”, and Palestinians to suffer as a result, because of a religion not everyone shares?

With the recent news of these settlements’ expansion, it has become even more important to hold Israel accountable every step of the way. That being said, there has been criticism that the United Nations, when levying allegations of violations of international law, holds Israel to a higher standard than it does other countries. In a discussion I had in a comment section with another individual, they pointed out the United Nations was anti-semitic, since it only called out Israel for war crimes, seemingly targeting the ethno-religious state more so than others. To be clear, an arrest warrant was issued for the Hamas military commander, Mohammed Deif, as well as Netanyahu, for the actions of October 7th and the subsequent genocide.

On the one-year anniversary of the October 7th attack, the UN released a statement, saying: “The documented crimes on 7 October were grave violations of international law – killings, hostage-taking, and torture, including sexual torture. …The experience and impact of torture and other ill-treatment have been pervasive since 7 October, with profound consequences for thousands of people and their families from all sides of this conflict.”¹⁹ This statement alone acknowledges the grief, violence, and brutality that occurred that day, committed by Hamas, and how this conflict has scarred people in Israel as well as Palestine.

Where there is smoke, there is fire. Simply pointing out the crimes of Israel does not amount to a hatred of all Jewish people, and crimes by Israel do not amount to a guilt shared by all Jewish people as well. To be clear, Zionism is not synonymous with Judaism, and criticizing a country for violence and war crimes should be encouraged by the international community, not shut down on unsubstantiated claims of bigotry. While some are using Israel’s actions to be anti-semitic (and that is absolutely not okay), simply calling it like it is and saying Israel is committing a genocide is not in itself anti-semitic. Simply observing that Israel continues to violate international law is not, in itself, anti-semitic.

What would be anti-semitic is claiming that Jewish people are behind the conflicts in Iran, the genocide in Gaza, and the occupation in the West Bank, as a blanket statement. What would be anti-semitic is claiming that Judaism as a religion itself is to blame for this conflict, and that its tenets are what have caused this violence (this is a common thing said about Islam, by bigots, by the way). Large communities of Jewish people in the Diaspora vehemently oppose this occupation and every action Israel has committed against Palestine, with one article noting that thousands of American Jews marched on the Capitol last year to protest U.S. funding for the Israeli military: “In the midst of the protest, I had the honor of leading my fellow protesters in the Shema, the most sacred prayer in Judaism, which reminds us that all of us are echad, all are one. When I recite the Shema, I am reminded that Jewish safety is intertwined with Palestinian safety, that no one is free until all of us are free.”²⁰

To be true to one’s religion—one of freedom, of peace, and of unity—and to prevent anything like the Holocaust from ever happening again, one must support those in need of support, like Palestinians.

There are right and wrong ways to go about discussing this situation, and I believe that if one focuses on the actual issue at hand—the actions of Israel from the perspective of international law—the discussion can move forward without dipping into more dangerous, hateful territory. Israel should be held accountable, and it should be the international community contributing to the effort in ceasing the violence against Palestinians on all sides, both in Gaza and the West Bank.