Settlements in the spotlight: Deep West Bank divides revealed

Israeli settlements in the West Bank have almost always been a thorn in the relations between Israel and the US. Apart from a brief period during the Trump administration, disputes between the White House and Jerusalem over the expansion of Jewish settlements in territories considered part of a future Palestinian state have been ongoing.

On Thursday, after a Palestinian terrorist shot and killed one Israeli civilian and wounded several others in a contested area on the outskirts of Jerusalem, the immediate response by the Israeli government was to announce the construction of over 3,000 housing units in the West Bank, lands that some Israelis refer to by their biblical name of Judea and Samaria. 

Hours later, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “disappointed” by the decision, saying, “Settlements are counter-productive to reaching an enduring peace (and) inconsistent with international law. Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment, this only weakens, it doesn’t strengthen, Israel’s security.” 

This is a reversal of the Trump Administration's view in 2019, which did not consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank as inconsistent with international law.

Israel gained control of the West Bank—which Palestinians view as an integral part of their future state—during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Since then, successive Israeli governments have permitted Jewish settlers to move into the region, asserting that settlements are necessary to maintain its security by providing a buffer from attacks by Arabs. Many settlements started as small military outposts that expanded and became civilian throughout the years, despite the fact they are considered by some to be illegal according to international law.

Israel maintains that the future status of the territories should be determined through negotiations, but those have been stalled since 2014. The current war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has brought hopes that a larger settlement to the conflict could be reached. However, the sitting Israeli government has negated the option of a Palestinian state despite pressure from the international community to recognize one in both Gaza and the West Bank. 

Still, the settlements remain one of the major stumbling blocks that exist between Israelis and Palestinians, with each side viewing the issue with opposing perspectives, narratives, and language.

'Against international law'

“This is against international law,” said Ismat Mansour, a Palestinian writer and journalist, who also served a 20-year sentence in an Israeli prison for murdering an Israeli civilian. “Settlements need to be removed; they prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. This situation cannot continue.”

Mansour, who lives in a small agricultural village between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Jericho, described the gradual takeover of lands by Jewish settlers, barring Palestinians from working their land.

“There is no space for a state in the shadow of the settlements,” Mansour told The Media Line. 

“Any construction deepens Israel’s occupation, increasing the number of settlers and feeds the violence, harming the ability to find a political solution to the problem while increasing the violence,” said Yonatan Mizrachi from the Settlement Watch Team at Peace Now, an Israeli NGO that seeks to promote a two-state solution to the conflict. “Lacking a political solution, the other solution is a cycle of wars and more killing.”

A recent report by the pro-settler website westbankjewishpopulationstats.com showed that the Jewish population in the West Bank increased by nearly 3% in 2023. The report projects continued significant growth in the coming years. The figures are also in line with statistics from other NGOs that monitor Israeli settlements and reflect a policy adopted by successive right-wing Israeli governments who see the territories as an integral part of the Jewish homeland. The current government is considered the country’s most right-wing ever to govern. Senior cabinet ministers from Israel’s far-right are now in instrumental positions that can promote settlement expansion.

According to Mizrahi, the increase in the number of settlements and settlers has been relatively consistent since the early 1990s, even as Israelis and Palestinians were in the midst of negotiations on a possible solution. However, the current government made 2023 “the year of the settlements” in other ways.

“There has been a record in the number of housing units approved, illegal outposts erected, and the lack of enforcement against such outposts and against a major increase in settler violence towards Palestinians,” he told The Media Line.

Settler violence towards their Palestinian neighbors has also become a source of tension between a critical White House and an Israeli government and law enforcement apparatus that appears to turn a blind eye. 

And violence continues to be the main language in which the sides communicate.

When asked about his own history of violence towards Israelis, Mansour said he has adopted a “non-violent political struggle as the only way to combat Israel.”

“But, I do not condemn any way chosen to resist,” he added.

For decades, Palestinians have been witness to the gradual expansion of settlements. They claim that the settlements not only gnaw the land they covet for a future state but also block their access to working the land for agriculture. There are also two separate legal systems in the same territory—one for Israelis and another for Palestinians. 

Yishai Fleisher, a settler himself and spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron in the West Bank, has an entirely different take on matters. For him, the announcement last week by the government that it intends to build more housing units was insufficient. 

“The only natural response to an attack should be a declaration of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he told The Media Line. “Such a decision would reflect what Israelis really want—the right to live in our homeland and develop it.”

“We have a land, ethnic, religious, and geographical conflict,” Fleisher added. “Those people want to erase the small Jewish state. They do not want two states living side by side. They want to rid Judea of Jews and turn it into Palestine. We are determined to assert our right in our ancestral homeland.”

Both Fleisher and Mansour have low expectations from the current American administration led by President Joe Biden.

“The US is against the idea of Jews rebuilding Judea,” said Fleisher, who said the current administration acted “outlandishly” when reversing Trump’s policy. “They are more interested in creating a Palestine in Judea.” 

For Mansour, Biden offers little hope. But he sees a new generation in the US, which shows growing understanding for Palestinians.

“Our voice is being heard, and there is more representation amongst young Americans in universities, in the media, and in younger members of the Democratic party,” said Mansour.

“The current administration has done more than other administrations to solve the conflict,” Mizrahi said. “But in the end, it is the mess of the Israelis and Palestinians, and they have to solve it.”

The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas will reach its five-month mark next week. The surprise offensive by Hamas shocked Israel, which is still trying to recover from the largest attack it ever suffered. Sentiment in the country, which was already primarily right-orientated before the war, has only hardened. There is little support for concessions toward the Palestinians. Last Wednesday, the Israeli parliament approved a declaratory statement rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state—a response to American-led international efforts to find a settlement to the conflict. Additionally, various polls have shown Israeli Jews consistently against a Palestinian state. 

“There was a lot of support from the Biden Administration at the beginning since October 7th, but it has gotten them in trouble with half of the democratic party constituency, so they are starting to put a lot more pressure on Israel,” said David Parsons, Vice President and senior spokesman of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. “They are very tone-deaf to where Israel is after October 7th. The pain and the shock don’t go away that easily, and pushing for a Palestinian state right now shows they don’t know where Israel is. They need to find a different way to cool the conflict down other than rewarding the Palestinians with a state right now.”

With highly charged elections coming up in the US, the voices about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its core issues are increasingly polarized as well.

“The Jewish people have a historic and legal right to live in the land of Israel including in Judea and Samaria - the biblical heartland,” US Speaker of the House, Republican Mike Johnson, posted on his X account on Saturday. “It is an absolute disgrace the Biden Administration would issue this decision… The Biden Administration must stop undermining Israel and facilitating efforts to delegitimize Israel.”

“The State Department think they know how to define American interests abroad, whereas Congress really reflects the will of the American people,” said Parsons.

Last week, National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) adopted a resolution opposing the use of the term West Bank, adopting Judea and Samaria instead. 

“Those who gathered at the NRB convention have a lot of influence across the US,” Parsons told The Media Line. “This is an effort to go back to biblical names for these areas. It is a matter of semantics; while it is important for Christians, it is not going to answer substantive issues.”

For both Israelis and Palestinians, it is clear that hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict is slim.

“We cannot live, we cannot move, we cannot make a living. We are humiliated every day,” said Mansour. “The hope for a Palestinian state is running out amongst the young generation, and they don’t believe there is room for that dream anymore.”