Unprecedented West Bank Displacement

JVL Introduction

Israel seems determined to destroy rural Palestinian communities through displacement regardless  – or rather because – of the devastating impact on those communities. In this the government is aided and abetted by settler violence exercised with virtual impunity. Palestinians have been killed and wounded, animals attacked, cars and  “(s)ettler attacks also provoked 434 fires, 127 of which affected farmland, and 307 fires against other Palestinian properties.” Such direct attacks have made the lives of the farming and herding communities desperate if not impossible. Huge numbers of olive trees destroyed and the harvesting disrupted of those that remain.  Families that sold olive oil are now having to buy it as the 2025 harvest yielded only 7,000 tonnes of oil compared with 27,000 tonnes in 2024.  Displacement makes herding equally difficult and settler attacks on people, animals, trees and property continue apace as this article makes clear.

The Palestinian Authority is monitoring attacks and destruction but seems to do litle more as though it is powerless to do anything. Whole communities have been wiped off the map and where people remain, they do so at great risk.  Settlers are able to act with impunity and non residents (Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals) there to offer solidarity with their presence are frequently removed as the area under attack is usually swiftly declared “a closed military zone”.

This ethnic cleansing has the same aim as the genocide in Gaza; to have as much land and as few Palestinians as possible.

LL

This article was originally published by Mondoweiss on Sun 18 Jan 2026. Read the original here.