How Israel systematically dismantles Palestinian life in occupied West Bank

Israeli rights group B’Tselem argues that settlement expansion, displacement and restrictions are not isolated abuses, but a decades-old, coordinated system.

A cement block with the words 'no future' spray-painted on it in Arabic stands at an Israeli military checkpoint near Birzeit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank [File: Ammar Awad/Reuters]

Bethlehem, occupied West Bank – On any given week, Palestinians across the occupied West Bank can experience dozens of what appear to be isolated acts of Israeli violence and suppression.

In early September, Israeli forces killed two teenagers during a military raid in al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah. Days later in Masafer Yatta, Israeli forces demolished every home in Khirbet al-Tabban, leaving about 70 people, including 30 children, without shelter. In Qusra, south of Nablus, settlers have kept three families under siege inside their homes for more than a month, cutting off their water and power.

list 1 of 3 Israeli demolitions threaten schools and homes in Masafer Yatta

list 2 of 3 Animated map shows spread of illegal Israeli settlements across Palestine

list 3 of 3 Israel working to eliminate Palestinian presence from West Bank, NGO warns

In a new report published on Monday, Israeli rights group B’Tselem argued these are not separate incidents. Together, they work towards a single end: Making Palestinian life on the land unsustainable and replacing it with permanent Israeli control. The reality in the West Bank, the group said, is “neither a temporary crisis nor a collection of random human rights violations”.

Instead, it is “an accelerated and explicit phase in an ongoing project of elimination that operates within the Israeli apartheid regime and is driven by a settler-colonial logic of dispossession, displacement, and the establishment of Jewish-Israeli sovereignty”, the publication – called The Elimination Project – added.

‘The Elimination Project’

Drawing on nearly 2,000 Palestinian testimonies, the report said that seemingly separate Israeli violations are part of what it called “a comprehensive mechanism of elimination”.

By “elimination”, B’Tselem referred to the systematic dismantling of Palestinian society, eroding its institutions, economy, freedom of movement and social life.

The report placed this within what it called the “basic logic of settler colonialism”: Establishing “permanent settler sovereignty over a territory already inhabited by an Indigenous people” by “pushing them out, dispossessing them and dismantling their collective existence”.

It identifies five interconnected fronts through which that process operates: Violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction, and ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover.

B’Tselem traced that logic to the 2017 “Decisive Plan” authored by Bezalel Smotrich, now Israel’s finance minister. The plan, the group said, gave Palestinians three choices: Accept Jewish supremacy while giving up their national claims, leave, or face violent suppression.

None of this is new, the report argued; the mechanism has run for decades. What has changed is that it has grown far more severe and open, escalating since the current far-right government took office in late 2022 and sharply after the start of the genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

The reality on the ground

For roughly 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, that system is felt in the steady narrowing of daily life: Roads they cannot use, land they cannot reach, and fewer places where they can safely live, work and move.

By December 2025, Israel had at least 925 physical obstacles set up across the West Bank, the most the United Nations has recorded in two decades.

Yusef Kashur, a driver and father of six from Dura, south of Hebron, told B’Tselem that the growing network of gates and checkpoints had turned his work into a “torment”, forcing him onto long, dangerous backroads and to turn down fares he once relied on.

“These drives are exhausting, take a very long time, and the fuel costs so much that I don’t make enough to cover our household needs,” he said.

The restrictions feed a wider collapse. Under an occupation that controls its borders, trade and revenue, the West Bank economy has little room of its own, and it has buckled: Unemployment at the end of last year had roughly doubled to 27.5 percent compared to October 2023, driven in part by the freezing of work permits for about 115,000 Palestinians .

The squeeze is deliberate, the report argued: A family that cannot earn is easier to uproot, and when Palestinians fall back on their own land, the pressure follows them there.

After losing his job inside Israel, Jamil Abu Rayan turned to his grapevines near Halhul, only to find settlers had established an illegal outpost at his main plot. Soldiers also barred him from another plot, calling it “[Israeli] state land”.

He told B’Tselem he lost about 60 percent of his 2025 grape harvest and that he can no longer properly work his land.

Recounting a late January attack in the South Hebron Hills , where entire communities face forcible displacement, Isma’il Khalayleh told the rights group earlier this year that a settler pressed a rifle to his forehead and gave him a deadline: “I’m giving you 24 hours to leave this place.”

Agricultural and grazing outposts have “violently taken control” of nearly 20 percent of the West Bank, according to Israeli settlement-watchdog group Peace Now. More than 1,600 settler attacks were recorded by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) last year.

The same pressure extends to where Palestinians can build; Israeli authorities make it “virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits”, according to OCHA, leaving many families who build without them under constant threat of Israeli demolition.

As Palestinian communities are cleared, more illegal Israeli settlements expand. The current government has approved a record 104 new settlements since 2022.

The suppression also extends to the institutions that hold Palestinian society together, with B’Tselem documenting a series of raids and closure orders faced by charities, trade unions and universities.

Ahmad Dweikat told the rights group that in May 2026, soldiers ransacked a Nablus association he co-founded to help women, children and families, confiscating computers and cash, including money set aside for orphans.

Running beneath all of it is the military’s lethal force. B’Tselem counted about 1,087 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023, roughly a quarter of them children.

Among them was Jamil Hanani, a 17-year-old boy from Beit Furik who was shot during an army raid on the town. “It’s as if they go out hunting, only they’re hunting human beings,” his father, ‘Atef Hanani, told B’Tselem.

The system behind the violence

For years, foreign governments have urged Israel to show restraint. That framing misses the point, B’Tselem argued: The violence, closures and demolitions are not failures of the system, but the system working as intended.

Sanctioning an individual settler, reopening a road or freezing a single settlement plan would “leave intact the structure that produces violence, dispossession, and oppression”, it said.

Seen this way, the question is not whether each individual act is an isolated violation, but what they produce together: A steadily shrinking space for Palestinians to live, work, build and remain on their land.

And the West Bank, the report argued, cannot be read apart from Gaza. The two are “different manifestations of the same regime project, directed against Palestinians’ ability to exist as a people”.

以色列人权组织B'Tselem认为，定居点扩张、驱逐和限制并非孤立的侵权行为，而是一个存在了几十年的协调系统。

在以色列占领的约旦河西岸比尔宰特附近的一个以色列军事检查站，一块水泥块上用阿拉伯语喷涂着“没有未来”的字样。[图片：Ammar Awad/路透社]

伯利恒，被占领的西岸——在任何一周，被占领的西岸各地的巴勒斯坦人都可能经历数十起看似孤立的以色列暴力和镇压事件。

9月初，以色列军队在拉马拉以东的穆盖伊尔（al-Mughayyir）发动军事突袭，造成两名青少年死亡。几天后，在马萨费尔亚塔（Masafer Yatta），以色列军队拆毁了希尔贝特塔班（Khirbet al-Tabban）的所有房屋，导致约70人无家可归，其中包括30名儿童。在纳布卢斯以南的库斯拉（Qusra），定居者将三户人家围困在家中一个多月，切断了他们的水电。

以色列拆迁行动威胁马萨费尔亚塔的学校和房屋（共3项，此为第1项）

列表 2/3 动画地图显示了以色列非法定居点在巴勒斯坦的蔓延情况

非政府组织警告称，以色列正努力清除巴勒斯坦人在西岸的存在（共3项，此为第3项）。

以色列人权组织B'Tselem周一发布的一份新报告指出，这些并非孤立事件，而是共同指向一个共同目标：使巴勒斯坦人在该土地上的生存难以为继，并以以色列的永久控制取而代之。该组织表示，西岸的现实“既非暂时的危机，也非一系列零星的人权侵犯事件”。

该出版物（名为《消除计划》）补充说，这并非“消除计划”，而是“以色列种族隔离政权内部正在进行的一项清除计划的加速和明确阶段，该计划由剥夺、驱逐和建立犹太以色列主权的殖民定居逻辑驱动”。

“消除计划”

该报告引用了近 2000 名巴勒斯坦人的证词，称以色列看似独立的侵犯人权行为是其所谓的“全面清除机制”的一部分。

B'Tselem 所说的“消灭”指的是系统性地瓦解巴勒斯坦社会，侵蚀其制度、经济、行动自由和社会生活。

该报告将此置于其所谓的“殖民主义基本逻辑”之中：通过“驱逐原住民、剥夺他们的财产和瓦解他们的集体存在”，建立“对原住民已居住的领土的永久殖民者主权”。

它指出了这一过程运作的五个相互关联的方面：暴力和恐吓、行动限制、经济扼杀、社会和政治破坏以及种族清洗和领土占领。

以色列人权组织B'Tselem认为，这一逻辑源于2017年由现任以色列财政部长贝扎莱尔·斯莫特里奇撰写的“决定性计划”。该组织表示，该计划给了巴勒斯坦人三个选择：接受犹太人的统治并放弃其民族诉求；离开；或者面临暴力镇压。

报告指出，这一切并非新鲜事；这种机制已经运行了几十年。改变的是，它变得更加严厉和公开，自现任极右翼政府于2022年底上台以来不断升级，并在2023年10月加沙地带爆发针对巴勒斯坦人的种族灭绝战争后急剧恶化。

实际情况

对于约旦河西岸和被占领的东耶路撒冷的约 350 万巴勒斯坦人来说，这种制度体现在日常生活的不断萎缩：他们无法使用的道路、无法到达的土地，以及他们可以安全生活、工作和行动的地方越来越少。

到 2025 年 12 月，以色列在西岸至少设置了 925 个实体障碍，这是联合国二十年来记录到的最高数字。

来自希伯伦南部杜拉的司机兼六个孩子的父亲尤瑟夫·卡舒尔告诉B'Tselem，不断扩张的关卡和检查站网络使他的工作变成了一种“折磨”，迫使他走漫长而危险的乡间小路，并拒绝他曾经赖以生存的乘客。

他说：“这些通勤路线非常累人，耗时很长，而且燃料成本很高，我赚的钱不够支付我们家的开销。”

这些限制加剧了更广泛的崩溃。在控制其边界、贸易和收入的占领下，西岸经济几乎没有自主空间，已经不堪重负：去年年底的失业率与2023年10月相比几乎翻了一番，达到27.5%，部分原因是约11.5万巴勒斯坦人的工作许可被冻结。

报告指出，这种挤压是蓄意的：一个无法谋生的家庭更容易流离失所，当巴勒斯坦人退回到自己的土地上时，压力也会随之而来。

在以色列失去工作后，贾米尔·阿布·拉扬转而照料他在哈尔胡勒附近的葡萄园，却发现定居者在他的主要地块上建立了一个非法前哨站。士兵们还禁止他进入另一块地，称其为“（以色列）国有土地”。

他告诉B'Tselem，他2025年的葡萄收成损失了约60%，而且他再也无法好好耕种他的土地了。

伊斯梅尔·哈拉伊莱 (Isma'il Khalayleh) 今年早些时候告诉人权组织，在南希伯伦山 (South Hebron Hills) 发生的一起 1 月下旬袭击事件中，整个社区面临被迫流离失所的困境。当时，一名定居者用步枪抵住他的额头，并给他下了最后通牒：“我给你 24 小时离开这里。”

据以色列定居点监督组织“和平现在”（Peace Now）称，农业和牧场定居点已“暴力控制”了西岸近20%的土地。联合国人道主义事务协调厅（OCHA）去年记录了超过1600起定居者袭击事件。

同样的压力也延伸到巴勒斯坦人可以建造房屋的地方；据联合国人道主义事务协调厅称，以色列当局“实际上使巴勒斯坦人不可能获得建筑许可证”，导致许多没有获得许可证就建造房屋的家庭不断面临以色列拆除的威胁。

随着巴勒斯坦人聚居地被夷为平地，以色列非法定居点却不断扩张。自2022年以来，现任政府已批准新建104个定居点，创下历史新高。

镇压也延伸到了维系巴勒斯坦社会的机构，B'Tselem 记录了一系列针对慈善机构、工会和大学的突袭和关闭令。

艾哈迈德·德维卡特告诉人权组织，2026 年 5 月，士兵洗劫了他共同创立的纳布卢斯一家帮助妇女、儿童和家庭的协会，没收了电脑和现金，其中包括为孤儿预留的资金。

这一切背后是以色列军队的致命武力。据以色列人权组织B'Tselem统计，自2023年10月以来，约有1087名巴勒斯坦人在西岸被以色列军队杀害，其中约四分之一是儿童。

其中包括来自贝特富里克镇的17岁男孩贾米尔·哈纳尼，他在军队对该镇的一次突袭中被枪杀。“就好像他们出去打猎一样，只不过他们打猎的对象是人，”他的父亲阿特夫·哈纳尼告诉B'Tselem。

暴力背后的体制

多年来，外国政府一直敦促以色列保持克制。但以色列人权组织B'Tselem认为，这种说法忽略了重点：暴力、关闭和拆迁并非制度的失败，而是制度按预期运行的结果。

报告称，制裁个别定居者、重新开放道路或冻结单个定居计划“不会改变造成暴力、剥夺和压迫的结构”。

从这个角度来看，问题不在于每项单独的行为是否是孤立的侵犯行为，而在于它们共同造成的后果：巴勒斯坦人生活、工作、建设和留在自己土地上的空间不断缩小。

报告指出，西岸问题不能与加沙割裂开来。两者是“同一政权计划的不同表现形式，其目标是剥夺巴勒斯坦人民作为一个民族的生存能力”。