Netanyahu coalition funds settler drive emptying West Bank — SkimNews
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- Hilltop Youth settlers, backed by the Israeli army, are emptying West Bank hamlets through physical violence, home destruction, animal slaughter, and sabotaged water supplies — with soldiers visiting intruders but making no move to remove them.
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced in February that Israel would "embark on a path toward sovereignty, while encouraging emigration," framing Palestinian displacement as official coalition policy rather than fringe violence.
- Human Rights Watch reported that 5,900 people have fully or partially fled 107 communities since 2023, with a researcher writing that "the state provides the weapons, the legal cover, and the budget" for the expulsions.
- Prime Minister Netanyahu announced a takeover of the E1 zone between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, where 1,200 apartments will be built initially and 8,000 eventually, with the 33,000 Bedouin inhabitants set for expulsion to other parts of the West Bank.
- The town of Khan al-Ahmar, home to about 6,000 residents and a school serving children from 11 other communities slated for transfer, is queued for full demolition to make way for the new apartment blocs.
- Netanyahu authorized US$92 million toward a new Palestinians-only road, while his government pays $50 monthly stipends to settler groups that harass Palestinians, according to human rights organizations.
- Defense Minister Israel Katz in mid-August proposed handing settler-violence enforcement to police, saying "the IDF's role is to fight Palestinian terrorism... not chase boys on the hilltops," though no timetable or concrete plan has emerged.
Why it matters: This is not rogue violence: a senior coalition minister has publicly declared sovereignty-through-displacement as policy, and the state is funding it with $50 stipends per settler and US$92 million for a segregation road. The IDF and police each disclaim jurisdiction over settler attacks, leaving Palestinians without any enforcement mechanism as the E1 plan would for the first time extend Jerusalem's municipal boundaries directly into the West Bank.
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