Israel uses lawfare to seize more control over Palestinian land

Israel’s government has agreed to ‘legalise’ five settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Yet the UN, the EU, and the International Court of Justice confirm that the Israeli expansion of settlements is illegal. The fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer of an occupying force’s population into the territory it occupies.

Israel: fully colonising Palestine

Israel’s lawfare move appears to be part of a plan to fully colonise the West Bank, despite prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly distancing himself from this. In a leaked recording, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said “we created a separate civilian system” to transfer authority from the Israeli military to settlers. He said the defense ministry remains involved in order to hide the transition from occupation to full colonisation of Palestinian land and resources.

“It will be easier to swallow in the international and legal context. So that they won’t say that we are doing annexation here”, Smotrich said.

The finance minister has said the government will establish an illegal Israeli settlement for every country that recognises Palestinian statehood. His comment came after Spain, Norway, and Ireland became the latest countries to formally recognise Palestine in May.

A violent project

Smotrich said he plans to “bring a million” Israeli settlers to “Judea and Samaria”, the occupation’s name for the West Bank. There are already over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, among the 2.7 million Palestinians. These settlers force Palestinians out of their homes often with military-backed violence. Throughout 2023, colonial Israel killed at least 507 Palestinian people in the West Bank.

Using the genocidal assault on Gaza as a distraction, Israel has increased its rate of expansion into the West Bank. Kerem Navot, an Israeli monitoring group, estimates that settlers have seized 37,000 acres of Palestinian land in the West Bank since 7 October.

In 2023, Smotrich delivered a speech alongside a map of ‘Greater Israel’. This included the rest of Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank), as well as parts of Syria and Jordan, as Israeli territory. In response, Jordan summoned the Israeli envoy in protest.

Israel’s colonial effort in the Middle East could be just beginning. We must continue to argue for cooperation over colonisation.

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