While the world watches in horror as Palestinians are killed at food distribution sites in Gaza, Israel is quietly accelerating its long-anticipated plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
Emboldened by Western diplomatic cover, Israeli authorities have intensified efforts to displace Palestinians and entrench Jewish-Israeli control — what Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has referred to as the “Judaization” of the area. This campaign has involved home demolition, forced evictions, and the construction of Jewish-only settlements, outlined by exclusive cooperation bylaws.
The Knesset’s recent passing of legislation facilitating the annexation of the West Bank is the culmination of a multidecade strategy to gradually reshape its ethnic demography through the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements. Settlers often act with impunity, carrying out frequent and often violent attacks on Palestinian communities.
These are not isolated acts of extremism but part of a broader system of separation and control, reflecting deep structural features of the Israeli state project.
Liberal Zionists often portray Israel as a fundamentally democratic state marred by a far-right government, downplaying the structural features of the state that privilege Jewish identity. This framing obscures the extent to which Israeli law and policy have institutionalized ethnonational hierarchy, prompting comparisons to apartheid-era South Africa.
In 1948, the creation of the state of Israel was accompanied by the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians, many at the hands of…
Auteur: Riley Singh
