A report released on Monday by Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem contends that discrete acts of Israeli military force, settler violence, and administrative restrictions throughout the occupied West Bank constitute interconnected components of a comprehensive system designed to dismantle Palestinian society. The organization bases this conclusion on nearly 2,000 Palestinian testimonies and frames the process within the context of settler-colonial logic aimed at establishing Jewish-Israeli sovereignty over territory inhabited by Palestinians.
According to B’Tselem, this systematic dismantling operates across five interconnected areas: violence and intimidation, restrictions on movement, economic pressure, destruction of social and political institutions, and territorial takeover through ethnic cleansing. The organization traces this approach to a 2017 plan authored by current Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, which presented Palestinians with three options: accept Jewish supremacy while abandoning national aspirations, leave, or face violent suppression. While the mechanism has operated for decades, the report states that it has accelerated significantly following the appointment of the current far-right government in late 2022 and has intensified further since October 2023.
The restrictions have produced measurable effects on Palestinian life and economic conditions. By December 2025, at least 925 physical obstacles including gates and checkpoints operated across the West Bank, representing the highest number documented by the United Nations in two decades. Unemployment in the West Bank reached approximately 27.5 percent by the end of last year, roughly double the October 2023 rate, partly attributable to the freezing of work permits for about 115,000 Palestinians. The report documents how Palestinians face barriers to agricultural work, building permits remain virtually unobtainable, and over 1,600 settler attacks were recorded in the previous year.
B’Tselem also documented military raids on Palestinian civil institutions, including universities, charities, and trade unions. The organization counted approximately 1,087 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023, with roughly one quarter being children. The current government has approved 104 new settlements since 2022, while agricultural and grazing outposts established by settlers have taken control of nearly 20 percent of West Bank territory, according to Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now.
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