Israel must choose life, not the West Bank settlements

The Yishuv Hada’at outpost, which is among the settlements approved by the government for legalization

The Haaretz lead editorial on 17 June 2026:

An investigation by Yarden Michaeli, Matan Golan and Yaniv Kubovich due to be published in Haaretz English opens a window into a revolution with strategic implications in the northern West Bank that, under the cover of the forever war in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, has escaped notice.

Two decades after the disengagement from Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank, settlers are returning to the heart of the largest contiguous area of Palestinian life in the West Bank.

With the formation of the current government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich repealed the part of the Disengagement Law relating to the West Bank, paving the way for the revival of the evacuated settlements. Homesh and Sa-Nur have already been repopulated, Ganim and Kadim are on the way. But that isn’t all. The government has already approved 14 additional settlements in the area.

These 18 settlements are in strategic locations in an area that is home to 720,000 Palestinians who have barely seen an Israeli in 20 years. As the report notes, this Israeli return to the area involves deploying military forces, building bases to protect the settlements, constructing roads, expropriating land and terrorizing the Palestinians.

At least five bases have been or are being built near the settlements and the Israel Defense Forces has established a presence in three refugee camps, in what began as counterterrorism activity. These forces have yet to leave the camps and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from their homes.

The return to the northern West Bank has explosive potential. It’s only a matter of time: When a settler is injured, the army will respond with an iron fist against the Palestinian population and the entire area will be sucked into a violent maelstrom.

Senior army officers told Haaretz that the government has held virtually no in-depth discussions with the military on the operational implications of the settlements’ return to the area, precisely when the IDF is stretched to breaking on many fronts.

The revolution in the northern West Bank is the product of years of effort that put settler representatives – first and foremost Smotrich, who wrote a program for Israeli control of the West Bank titled the “Decisive Plan” – into key government posts. But it’s not just the settlers. With the support of ministers from Netanyahu’s Likud party, this “fully right-wing” government is taking advantage of the war in order to turn back the clock.

The people involved in the return to the northern West Bank know that this “miracle” can be stopped, or at least slowed, if the current government is replaced.

Consequently, they are striving to create as many facts on the ground as possible before the election this fall. The election will therefore be critical for Israel’s future. It will determine whether the country further intensifies the dangerous processes now at their height – annexation, apartheid, Jewish terrorism, Kahanism and Israel’s international ostracism – or whether a new government is elected that recognizes that the only way to save Israel is to dismantle the settlement enterprise and launch a diplomatic effort to end its military control over Palestinians and resolve the conflict with them.

The choice is clear: either Israel or the settlements.

This article is reproduced in its entirety