land theft

Samuel's Tomb in the Palestinian village of Nabi Samwil, occupied West Bank, April 28, 2014. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

Israel seizing West Bank heritage sites ‘piece by piece’

The army is expropriating thousands of dunams in Sebastia and Nabi Samwil, using archaeology as a pretext to further isolate Palestinian communities.

By Shatha Yaish July 24, 2026

Israeli tanks seen during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, February 19, 2025. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

In first since Oslo, Israel seizing land for army base inside West Bank city

The seizure order, near Jenin refugee camp, is the latest move aimed at expanding military and settler presence in the north of the occupied territory.

By Shatha Yaish May 27, 2026

Workers seen at a vineyard in the Israeli settlement bloc of Gush Etzion, occupied West Bank, September 3, 2020. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)

The theft at the heart of Israel’s booming wine industry

After seizing Palestinian land, settlers are replanting it with vineyards — then exporting their wine as ‘Made in Israel’ to obscure its origins.

By Marta Vidal and Meriem Laribi January 30, 2026

Latest

Israeli settlers, including one wearing a Hashomer Yosh T-shirt, block a main road around the Palestinian city of Nablus, occupied West Bank, April 10, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

What is Hashomer Yosh, the latest settler group hit with U.S. sanctions?

The government-backed organization, which brings volunteers to Israeli farming outposts, is a major driver of violent land theft in the West Bank.

By Georgia Gee August 30, 2024

Israeli settlers drive a tractor in the outpost of Ramat Migron, occupied West Bank, September 8, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

A new surge of settler outposts is terrorizing Palestinians off their land

Palestinians across the West Bank describe how Israeli settlers, with military backing, are intensifying their takeover of land for illegal construction.

By Imad Abu Hawash March 8, 2024

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plants an olive tree in Netiv Ha'avot, Gush Etzion, occupied West Bank, January 28, 2019. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

How to establish a new settlement without the world noticing

Billed as a ‘neighborhood’ in Gush Etzion, the Netiv Ha’avot plan would transform a small Israeli outpost into a substantial West Bank settlement.

By Yonatan Mizrahi October 4, 2023

View of the Jewish settler outpost of Mitzpe Kramim occupied West Bank, August 29, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Everyone is in on the plunder of Palestinian land

The retroactive legalization of a settler outpost exposes the complicity of the entire Zionist spectrum in the dispossession of Palestinians.

By Orly Noy August 2, 2022

President Donald Trump. (Jette Carr/Department of Homeland Security)

Trump and Netanyahu are allies in a losing battle

Both the American and Israeli governments reek of paranoia, fear, and desperation. The struggle against them must begin with the knowledge that we are opposing a desperate and fearful group. By all accounts, the new administration in the U.S., and the veteran one in Israel should be relaxing and enjoying the heights of power they have attained.…

By Roi Maor February 9, 2017

Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian man following a house raid in the West Bank city of Hebron September 20, 2016. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

A ‘wave of violence’ that never actually ends

When the Israeli media talks about the latest ‘wave of violence,’ it leaves out the five unarmed Palestinians who were shot to death by soldiers and police officers in the past few months. The newspaper headlines over the past few days leave no room for doubt regarding what has been happening here lately. “Terror returns,”…

By Haggai Matar September 20, 2016

File photo of masked Israeli settlers threatening Palestinians while soldiers look on. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Settler violence aims to dispossess, and it works

When A saw Israeli civilians approach, he did the sensible thing and fled. This is what quiet terrorism looks like. By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz A. is a resident of the village Faratha in the West Bank. He declined to have his name published, as he has become a regular target for attacks…

By +972 Magazine May 31, 2016

Mobile homes and fruit trees represent the expanding edges of the Israeli settlement of Ma'on, which is taking land from the South Hebron Hills village of Al Tuwani, West Bank, April 2, 2014. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

This is how settlers take over Palestinian land

From audacious fraud and forgery to military seizures for ‘security needs’ and the ‘public good’ to dusting off antiquated Ottoman laws, the Israeli settlement enterprise has no shortage of tools for taking over Palestinian land in the West Bank. By Dror Etkes On February 9, 2004, Abdelatif Hassan Samarin, a resident of the West Bank…

By +972 Magazine January 8, 2016

A resident of Bil'in protests with a poster of Ziad Abu Ein, who died during an unarmed demonstration last year. (photo: Haggai Matar)

The Palestinian village that refuses to give up on popular struggle

Even after 11 years of struggle, the residents of Bil’in refuse to forget about the land that was taken from them. The year was 2006. The village Bil’in near Ramallah had already marked over a year of weekly protests against the separation barrier that cuts them off from their land. One day, during a hearing…

By Haggai Matar December 12, 2015

"Wall". A small family's hut in Qalqilia where the wall goes through (Hamde Abu Rahma, from the book)

How American high school students taught me about the occupation

Filmmaker Lia Tarachansky has been showing her latest movie, ‘On the Side of the Road” — a documentary on how Israelis view the Nakba — around the world for nearly a year. What happened after she screened her film for a class of American high school students took her by surprise. By Lia Tarachansky The…

By +972 Magazine June 6, 2015