Israel

Israel Elections: Settlers and Settlements in the West Bank

Is the West Bank the Jewish people's ancestral homeland rightfully reclaimed or an illegal occupation?

Published 3 hours ago

Israel Elections: Settlers and Settlements in the West Bank

context

Above: Vehicles driving along the highway on the E1 corridor, an area in the West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, on Sept. 8. Image credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

Settlement expansion in the West Bank violates international law and steadily destroys prospects for Palestinian statehood and self-determination. The world must toughen its stance against settlements that dispossess Palestinian communities and fuel settler violence against civilians. This is not hostility toward Israel but defense of a two-state solution that the international community must protect. Palestinians deserve the right to determine their own future in their own state. Furthermore, continued settlement growth, backed by government policy, undermines Israel's own long-term security and erodes global faith in diplomacy.

John Slinger MP Benny Morris's Corner

Right narrative

The West Bank, biblically Judea and Samaria, represents the historic and spiritual heartland where Jewish civilization was born thousands of years ago. Israel's 1967 victory in a defensive war restored access to sites like Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs and Jerusalem's Western Wall. Settlement expansion reflects legitimate historical claims recognized under the 1922 League of Nations Mandate, not colonial conquest. Jordan's 1948-1967 occupation was never internationally recognized, making the territory disputed rather than occupied. Over 520,000 Israelis now live there, exercising their rightful return to ancestral land.

American Jewish Committee The Times of Israel

Pro-Palestine narrative

Israeli and Western media routinely depict settlers as a fringe element of Israeli society, obscuring the far broader reality that Israel was established through the mass displacement of Palestinians and the seizure of their land. Settlement expansion has not been the project of a marginal movement: governments on both the Israeli left and right have repeatedly sanctioned and facilitated it. Since 1948, Palestinian land has steadily been carved away, while Israeli control has steadily expanded. In all but name, Israel effectively annexed the West Bank long ago. And increasingly, Israeli politicians are speaking openly about their intentions — the incremental destruction of Palestine.

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