Israel moving ahead with settlement plans that would split West Bank in two, rights group says
Netanyahu government accelerated, intensified 'elimination' in West Bank: B'Tselem report
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government → move → Bank
A rights groups says the Israeli government is forging ahead with a contentious settlement expansion plan that would effectively divide the occupied West Bank, a plan long criticized as a threat to the viability of a future Palestinian state.
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that → say → state
On Wednesday, Israeli rights group Ir Amim said Israel's government will open the bidding for an additional 2,167 units in a settlement project that would effectively cut the West Bank in two.
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that → say → two
The tender for 2,167 units is in addition to a tender for 1,234 units announced at the end of August, tripling the amount of housing units and bringing the total number of housing units to 3,401, the group said in a statement.
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group → announce → statement
Settlement development in this open tract of land east of Jerusalem known as E1 is especially contentious because it runs from the outskirts of Jerusalem deep into the occupied West Bank.
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it → know → Bank
It would bisect the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem — fragmenting the land Palestinians hope will form the heart of a state.
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Palestinians → bisect → state
The United Nations and most countries deem the settlements illegal under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention pertaining to military occupations.
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settlements → deem → occupations
Israel rejects this, calling the area "disputed" rather than occupied.
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Israel → reject → area
The E1 project has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to U.S. pressure during previous administrations.
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project → freeze → administrations
U.S. ambassador visits Palestinian town amid rise in occupied West Bank settler violence
Canada, U.K., France to ban trade of goods from Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank
A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the new units as a violation of international law.
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spokesperson → visit → law
Israel has not officially confirmed the bids are out to tender.
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bids → confirm → ?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment.
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office → respond → comment
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist in the governing right-wing coalition, has said the plan would "bury" a Palestinian state.
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plan → govern → state
Smotrich, who is accused of pushing "extremist rhetoric," is sanctioned by Canada and several other countries for "inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank," by calling for their displacement for expanded Israeli settlements.
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who → accuse → settlements
Bidding to open days before elections
The tender is scheduled to open for bidding on Oct. 25, two days before Israel is due to hold a parliamentary election.
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Israel → bid → election
Israel's right-wing coalition government has approved a massive expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
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government → approve → Bank
Ir Amim said the bidding date reflected the government's resolve to push ahead with the settlement project and "create an increasingly irreversible reality on the ground ahead of the elections."
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Amim → say → elections
It comes days after Canada, Britain and France banned exports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank last week.
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Canada → come → Bank
Netanyahu's actions around the time of the Palestinian militant group Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack are a key issue in the campaign.
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actions → lead → campaign
There has been mounting criticism of the prime minister, who has rejected calls for an official government inquiry into the events surrounding the Oct. 7 attacks.
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who → mount → attacks
Last week, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Netanyahu was directly warned by the U.A.E. that Hamas was planning a major offensive just days before the attack.
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Hamas → report → attack
Haaretz reported Netanyahu's office called the report an "absolute lie."
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office → report → report
Peace Now, an organization that tracks settlement expansion in the West Bank, called the project "deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution" which is "guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed."
Last month, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband condemned Israel's launch of a tender for the E1 project.
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Miliband → track → project
Settlement expansion and attempts to create irreversible divisions on the ground threaten peace, security and the prospects for a viable Palestinian state," Miliband said.
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Miliband → create → state
Some 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967.
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Israelis → live → 1967
Report accuses Israel of 'mechanism of elimination'
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Report → accuse → elimination
On Monday, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem accused Israel's government of "rapidly and systematically dismantling all the foundations of Palestinian existence."
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group → accuse → existence
A new report by the organization points out five main areas that it says prove that Israel's actions in the West Bank are part of a "comprehensive mechanism of elimination," which include: violence and intimidation; movement restrictions; economic strangulation; social and political disruption; and territorial takeover and displacement of Palestinians.
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which → point → Palestinians
It alleges that Israeli authorities use policies across the five areas to expand permanent Israeli control over the territory while weakening Palestinian communities.
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authorities → allege → communities
B'Tselem said the use of those mechanisms has "accelerated and intensified" since the current Netanyahu government took office in 2022, but particularly following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
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government → say → attacks
B'Tselem said the policies are being conducted "more openly, directly and violently" than before.
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policies → say → ?
Israeli authorities have generally claimed that violent settlers are a small extremist minority acting outside government policy, not representatives of the broader settler movement or the state, though the report said that settler militias are not a "rogue external force" but an "operational arm of the mechanism of territorial control."
"Official state bodies do not have to expel every community themselves.
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bodies → claim → community
They create conditions in which armed settlers, with state backing, make Palestinian life impossible," it said.
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it → create → backing
United Nations data shows settler violence in the West Bank has reached record levels.
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violence → show → levels
Israeli settler blockades part of escalating violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
Prosecutors charge Israeli settler for killing Palestinian activist in West Bank
More than 1,260 attacks causing casualties or property damage were recorded in the first half of 2026 — about six incidents per day — while 18 Palestinians were killed in settler-related incidents by late July, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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Palestinians → escalate → Affairs
The current reality in the West Bank is neither a temporary crisis nor a collection of random human rights violations," the B'Tselem report notes.
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report → note → violations
"It is an accelerated and explicit phase in an ongoing project of elimination that operates within the Israeli apartheid regime and is driven by a settler-colonial logic of dispossession, displacement, and the establishment of Jewish-Israeli sovereignty."
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that → operate → sovereignty
Israel's government did not respond to a request for comment on the report.
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government → respond → report
Officials have rejected accusations by B'Tselem and other rights groups that characterize Israeli rule as apartheid or as a systematic effort to dispossess Palestinians, arguing that Israeli policies are driven by security concerns and historical claims to the territory.
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policies → reject → territory
The Aporia
