Settlement Outposts: Israel’s Tool to Absorb the West Bank Ahead of the Elections
Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank are facing increasingly harsh conditions as Israel approaches its elections, amid a rise in settler violence and growing calls for further settlement expansion.
Palestinians across the West Bank are experiencing an escalating wave of attacks by Israeli settlers alongside an accelerated campaign to seize additional land. This development is part of what observers describe as a race against time led by prominent settlement advocates within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right governing coalition, aimed at consolidating their gains before the general elections scheduled for next October.
The British newspaper The Guardian has highlighted the rapid creation of new facts on the ground as the prospects of the Israeli far-right bloc losing power in the upcoming elections become increasingly plausible after more than three years of political dominance.
According to the newspaper, settler leaders are seeking to establish irreversible realities throughout the West Bank.
One example cited is the village of Ein Arik and its surrounding areas, where Palestinian farmers have reportedly been subjected to systematic intimidation campaigns and nighttime attacks targeting their primary means of livelihood, including the destruction of irrigation networks and the cutting down of olive and grape trees in an effort to force them from their land both economically and psychologically.
According to a joint report issued by the human rights organizations Kerem Navot and Peace Now, settlement expansion is no longer confined to the traditional large settlements that require complex planning and construction procedures. Instead, attention has shifted toward “agricultural and pastoral settlement outposts,” such as the Maoz Tzur outpost.
The report states that these outposts typically consist of small groups of settlers who employ direct violence to expel Palestinian shepherds and farmers from vast areas of land.
According to the report, these outposts currently control more than one million dunams (approximately 100,000 hectares), representing around 18 percent of the total area of the West Bank. One-third of that land was reportedly seized during 2025 alone.
The report further states that the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu has accelerated the de facto annexation of the West Bank at an unprecedented pace through structural reforms, settlement expansion, and the retroactive legalization of unauthorized outposts.
This systematic policy is reportedly overseen by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who exercises authority extending well beyond his ministerial portfolio, including responsibility for approving settlements—a power transferred to him from the Ministry of Defense.
Last April, Smotrich visited the Maoz Tzur outpost to celebrate its official recognition by the government as a legal settlement. During the visit, he openly declared that such outposts are intended to “destroy the idea of establishing a Palestinian state in the heart of the land.”
At the same time, settlers have reportedly prevented Palestinians from accessing their land while fragmenting villages through the installation of metal gates and stone barriers. Meanwhile, new roads reserved exclusively for settlers are being constructed to connect newly established outposts and further isolate Palestinian communities from one another.
Residents of the West Bank have stated that legal and judicial avenues have effectively been closed to them since the appointment of Itamar Ben Gvir as Israel’s Minister of National Security at the end of 2022.
Farmers and local council leaders have said that lawyers now advise them to wait until the outcome of the Israeli elections later this year, arguing that the current police and legal institutions fully support the settlers.
On the international level, countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, and Norway have imposed sanctions on financial and logistical networks allegedly involved in supporting settler violence. France has also barred Bezalel Smotrich from entering its territory.
Nevertheless, observers cited by The Guardian argue that these measures remain of limited effectiveness given the support enjoyed by the Israeli government from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which they say has allowed informal land seizures to continue, in addition to persistent divisions within the European Union.
