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UNDER THE RADAR, QUIET AND PERSISTENT POPULATION TRANSFER IS UNDERWAY
IN THE WEST BANK  
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Amira Hass
November 12, 2025
Haaretz
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_ While Israeli settlers drive Palestinians from their land through
violence, another, quieter expulsion continues through bureaucracy and
law, signed by army generals, and approved by Israel's High Court of
Justice. _

Nabi Samwil, in September. The village lies in the Seam Zone: an
immense area open to Israelis and closed to Palestinians., Photo
credit: Yahel Gazit / Haaretz

 

As the strike force of Yesha-stan (combining Yesha, the official
acronym for Judea, Samaria and Gaza, with the state-like suffix -stan)
devotedly carries out its missions in the West Bank, expelling as many
Palestinians as possible from their lands, another, quieter expulsion
is taking place away from the headlines.

Its violence is not carried out with iron bars or live ammunition, but
with orders and regulations crafted by nameless, well-dressed legal
experts, signed by army generals, and approved by Israel's High Court
of Justice.

This population transfer is better known by the name Seam Zone
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an immense area of about 320,000 dunams (nearly 124 square miles)
lying between the separation barrier deep inside the West Bank, and
the Green Line – open to Israelis and closed to Palestinians.

Israelis and tourists are free to move around there at will and to
expand their suburban settlements , which are illegal under
international law. For Palestinians living in the territory occupied
by Israel in 1967, this mostly rural area is their natural lands
reservoir, , now pushed beyond the proverbial mountains of darkness.

The minority among them - farmers from villages between Qalqilya and
Ya'bad who had been granted entry permits, were banned from accessing
their lands there for the past two years. After petitions by the
Israeli human rights group HaMoked
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a few farmers recently received permission for just two or three days
of olive harvesting. They soon regretted going: their hearts broke at
the sight of withered trees and long-neglected groves.

When the true experts on Israeli policy – the Palestinians, the
left, and human rights organizations – warned in the early 2000s
that the separation barrier's route was designed to seize more fertile
land, state officials rolled their eyes and scoffed: "Us? Wanting as
much land as possible with as few Palestinians as possible? Come on.
Where did you get that idea? Security is our only concern."

Meanwhile, the Yesha-stan marauders set up pirate caravans and
livestock pens just meters from Palestinian olive groves, then claim
that the harvest poses a security threat. It is their God-given right,
therefore, to attack harvesters until they bleed.

The state, for its part, condemns the population it occupied in 1967
to an eternal fate as rightless subjects, treating every water well,
market, or organized tour in the artificially designated Area C
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as a punishable offense. In the Seam Zone – Area C squared – the
restrictions are so draconian that the few thousand Palestinians who
live in villages trapped inside it can reside in their own homes only
if Israel deigns to issue them special permits.

Recently, the residents of three villages northwest of Jerusalem –
Beit Iksa, Nabi Samwil and Khalaila – were added to this trapped
population. For them, this is not a dramatic change hardly matters:
they have long been completely cut off from their relatives, friends
and workplaces. For 20 years they have faced severe restrictions on
movement and construction. Once, a lively area connected these
villages to each other and to their fields and orchards. Now, it has
been "cleansed" of Palestinians and effectively annexed to Israel.

Today, however, residents of these three villages must also obtain
Israeli permits simply to live in their own homes. Several hundred
have not received such permits; several dozen have been told they
never will. Israeli bureaucrats, dutifully following orders, will
decide whose permits to revoke in the future, free to invent new
"residential conditions" as needed.

This is a quiet, ongoing expulsion, and one that unfolds beneath the
radar. It helps explain why most Israelis are not truly shocked by the
bloody, unrestrained expulsions carried out by the "envoys of the
Almighty," and why they are not filling the streets in protest to stop
it. In the end, everyone supports a real-estate bonanza for Jews.

 

_[__AMIRA HASS_ [[link removed]]_ is a
reporter and columnist for __Ha’aretz Daily_
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She has been a journalist for two decades._

_Hass has written critically about both Israeli and Palestinian
authorities. She has not allowed her gender, ethnicity or nationality
– all hindrances in the region she reports from – to obstruct her
from pursuing the truth in her reporting._

_In 1989, Hass quit her studies in history at Tel Aviv University and
began working as a copy editor for Ha’aretz Daily. At the same time,
she volunteered for Workers Hotline, a human rights group dedicated to
reaching out to vulnerable workers, many of whom were Palestinian. She
became acquainted with life in Gaza and grew frustrated about how
poorly Israel’s occupation of Gaza was represented in the Israeli
press._

_By 1991, Hass was writing weekly features for Ha’aretz Daily, and
in 1993, she became a full-time writer for the paper. She moved to
Gaza, which at the time was under direct and full Israeli occupation._

_Hass, now based in Ramallah, has lived in the Occupied Palestinian
territories for nearly 30 years. She has been reporting on the life of
Palestinians under the Israeli occupation and covering the major armed
clashes and Israeli military attacks. Her goal has been to provide her
readers with detailed information about Israeli policies, especially
restrictions on the freedom of movement._

_In the course of her work, Hass has been threatened, harassed and
detained. In May 2009, she was detained by Israeli police on her
return from a four-month stay in Gaza “for violating a military
order” (which forbids entry into Gaza) and “for staying illegally
in an enemy state.” She had also been detained in December 2008 by
Israeli police on her return to Ramallah for violating the same
military order.]_

 

* West Bank
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* Israeli settlements
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* Israeli Occupation
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* Palestinians
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* zionism
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* Gaza ceasefire
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* IDF
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* war crimes
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Israeli right-wing
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* international law
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* Israel
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* Palestine
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