Israel is conducting a systematic and accelerated campaign to destroy “Palestinian collective life” and establish permanent Jewish-Israeli sovereignty in the occupied West Bank. This was the warning issued by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem in a report titled “The Elimination Project,” published on Monday.
The report details the tactics that the organization assesses the Israeli government is using to achieve the broader goal of “erasing Palestinian presence” in the occupied West Bank. The report is based on approximately 2,000 testimonies from Palestinians.
The authors of the document note that Israel’s policies are rooted in a long-term concept of settler colonialism. At the same time, they assess that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shifted to an accelerated phase of this project in late 2022, particularly following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023.
Mechanisms of pressure on Palestinians
B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak stated that what Palestinians are experiencing in the West Bank is not a series of isolated incidents, but rather “a single political project that encompasses every sphere of life.” The report describes five interconnected mechanisms through which the organization believes Israel is implementing this project.
The first, according to B’Tselem, is the use of military forces and armed settler groups to impose violence, fear, and coercion.
According to B’Tselem, at least 1,107 Palestinians were killed in attacks in the occupied West Bank between October 2023 and September 2026. The report notes that the Israeli military conducts operations and demolitions, while also assisting armed settlers in displacing Palestinians from their land.
The organization reports that at least 75 Palestinian communities have been forcibly displaced. The report also claims that through the actions of armed settlers, Israel had taken control of more than 1,070,000 dunams of land as of July 2026, representing about 18 percent of the West Bank territory. One dunam equals 1,000 square meters. Additionally, about 33,000 Palestinians have been displaced from refugee camps in the northern West Bank.
Israel is also actively restricting Palestinian movement. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there were 925 movement obstacles recorded in the West Bank by the end of last year, including checkpoints and unstaffed roadblocks.
The report further claims that the Israeli government has intentionally stifled the West Bank economy. Against this backdrop, the unemployment rate rose from 13.1 percent in 2022 to over 31 percent in 2024.
B’Tselem identifies the criminalization of political activity as another mechanism, citing the suppression of protests and the arrest of activists, students, and journalists. Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the organization reports that at least 60 Palestinian journalists have been arrested in the occupied West Bank.
Call to the international community
B’Tselem has called on the international community to stop viewing Israeli violations as isolated incidents and to end its complicity in these actions. The organization also called for immediate international measures to protect Palestinians and to dismantle Israeli military rule and the system of apartheid.
Yuli Novak stated that Palestinians remain unprotected amid escalating violence, while Israel continues to implement its elimination project in the West Bank. She emphasized that governments cannot condemn these crimes while simultaneously granting Israel impunity to continue them.
Yuli Novak called on international institutions to use all available means under international law to stop Israel’s actions and “stop the machine of violence and destruction that is tearing Palestinian life apart.”
Source: Al Jazeera
