B'Tselem report alleges systematic dismantling of Palestinian life in West Bank

The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem has released a 249-page report titled ‘The Elimination Project: The Systematic Israeli Dismantling of Palestinian Collective Life in the West Bank’. Based on approximately 2,000 testimonies, official documents, and UN data, the report alleges that Israel is executing a systematic effort to dismantle Palestinian life in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

B'Tselem identifies five simultaneous mechanisms driving this process: violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction, and ethnic cleansing through territorial seizure. The report notes that the current government has accelerated these long-standing systems, making them more institutionalized and violent.

The study links these policies to the transfer of authority from military to civilian Israeli bodies, specifically highlighting the role of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. It connects current actions to Smotrich’s 2017 ‘Decisive Plan,’ which suggests Palestinians should either emigrate or live under Israeli sovereignty without national aspirations. Under the current Netanyahu administration, a record 104 new settlements have been approved in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.