Settlers

As the world backs a Palestinian state, a Jewish future is being cemented in the West Bank

While diplomacy takes place abroad, a very different reality is emerging on the ground in the West Bank, with an increasing number of small settlement farms scattered across the contested territory.

This settlement farm on Route 458, east of Ramallah, is just one of at least 40 to 50 new communities that have sprung up in the area.
An Israeli flag flies on a highway in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank on August 4, 2025.

Palestinians caught between corrupt leaders, Israeli settlements as hope for statehood crumbles

An illustrative image of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Fragile calm masks a deepening crisis in the West Bank - analysis

A drone view of Al-Arroub refugee camp alongside a new road, part of the expansion of Israeli bypass roads connecting Israeli settlers in the West Bank with Jerusalem, in the West Bank, September 29, 2025.

Spain launches investigation into 158 companies tied to 'Israeli-occupied territories'


Controversial E1 project gets the green light

The area consists of a few barren hilltops directly east of Jerusalem’s urban sprawl, marking the start of the Judean Desert – the last available stretch of land that can be developed.

FINANCE MINISTER Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a news conference, announcing plans to approve more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim, last week.

UN report lists 150 companies with ties to Israeli settlements in West Bank

US firms Airbnb, Expedia and TripAdvisor and Netherlands-based Booking.com remain on the rights office's list.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and a woman hold a map that shows the long-frozen E1 settlement plan, that would split east Jerusalem from the West Bank, on the day of a press conference near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, August 14, 2025.

Embracing pragmatic partial sovereignty in the West Bank - opinion

The settlement movement stands at a critical crossroads.

CHAIRMAN OF the Yesha Council, Israel Ganz, speaks during an interview. Today’s partial sovereignty can become tomorrow’s complete sovereignty if we accept what is achievable now while continuing to work toward our ultimate goals, says the writer.

Palestinians face severe water shortages in the West Bank

COGAT, Israel's military agency, stated that the PA is responsible for supplying water in the West Bank. Israel transfers 90 million cubic meters annually, blaming shortages on Palestinian theft.

A Palestinian woman fills water containers from a public water point, in Ramallah in the West Bank, July 22, 2025.

'The Disengagement is dead!' Settlers open first kindergarten in Homesh in 20 years

"We will also open new kindergartens in Gush Katif," Yossi Dagan said, referring to the settlement in Gaza forcibly dismantled during the Disengagement.

Kindergarten opened in settlement of Homesh, in the West Bank, September 1, 2025.

Terrorists and those who aid them don't deserve the benefit of the doubt - opinion

I am challenged in understanding Jews who have taken Hamas’s side after the October 7 attacks and the Ir Amim Jews giving the benefit of the doubt to the Jahalin over their own people.

A Palestinian protests in the Bedouin village of Khan Al-Ahmar, which Israel plans to demolish, in the West Bank January 23, 2023.

When ‘Haaretz’ runs a campaign against you, you are doing something right - comment

Editor's Notes - Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth, hated by both extremes, is enforcing the law in the West Bank against radicals on both sides. That’s exactly why he's under fire.

Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth 

UN inquiry on Israeli violence hampered by funding shortfall, document shows

A backlog of UN mandatory fees, including from the top donor, the United States, which owes around $1.5 billion, has worsened a long-running UN liquidity crisis.

 The flag alley at the United Nations European headquarters is seen during the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, September 11, 2023.

'Pioneers of the Bashan': Israeli activists illegally lay cornerstone for new settlement in Syria

A group of Israeli activists crossed the Israel-Syria border in order to lay the cornerstone for a new, illegal settlement named "Neveh Habashan."

 IDF soldiers operate on Mount Hermon, on the border between Israel and Syria, December 12, 2024

Smotrich approves West Bank settlement plan to 'bury idea of Palestinian state'

"The plan is the 'final nail in the coffin' for the concept of a Palestinian state," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich remarked.

Bezalel Smotrich attends a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem, August 6, 2025

IDF claims dozens of Palestinians attacked Jewish farm in West Bank

One of the wounded is an IDF soldier on leave, who fired his gun into the air and then at one of the terrorists, who was wounded from the gunfire.

 Israeli security members stand next to a settlement outpost established in the area, near Duma in Nablus, in the West Bank, March 14, 2025.