There’s no shortage of information about the dystopian scenes unfolding in Gaza, but what is happening in the West Bank? Distinguishing the differences between these two Palestinian territories is crucial to understanding the multi-faceted situation.
“We don’t have control over our own life,” says Mirna Sakleh, 39, who was born in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, and has continued to live there for most of her adult life.
She describes living in Palestine as living in the “stock market”, in the sense that there has never been a stable five years. Her reference to the stock market not only works to metaphorically explain Palestine, but to also literally explain the current war and its monetary effects on the West Bank.
“It’s not like the war didn’t or doesn’t happen in the West Bank. There is a war, but it’s taken a different form,” she continues.
“It’s not just militant, like in Gaza, there is still killing in the West Bank, but it’s more arresting people, limiting movement between the cities, between the villages, between everywhere.”
Across the West Bank checkpoints and barriers monitored by the Israeli Defence Force have been increasing, in turn drastically affecting movement. These measures have been in place ever since the start of occupation back in 1948 but have been harsher since the October 7th Attacks and the subsequent war. Alongside the recent and growing military invasion of the North West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority, who governs the West Bank have reported 900 barriers across the region, all of which constrict access to healthcare, communities, and jobs.
“They may not be bombing as much, but they’re controlling in another way, they are making life really hard and impossible to live. It’s an economic war,” Mirna adds.
It can be easy to paint a straightforward picture of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, as just one state versus another. However, below the surface is an intricate web of beliefs, groups and movements. Palestine itself is split in two, ruled by separate leaders, with Hamas governing the Gaza strip, and the Palestinian Authority governing the West Bank — two widely differentiating bodies — as well as the Palestinian people caught in the crossfire, all of whom are working towards ranging aims. Similarly within Israel there’s the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force, the settlers, and then there’s the rest of the Israeli population, again all of whom hold different beliefs and different aims. Even though Gaza is feeling the majority of the military burden, the West Bank must also be taken into account, it may look different but this war is not just against Gaza.
Economic instability and limited movement
As Mirna noted, the increasing checkpoints and barriers are having a knock on effect on the economy in the West Bank.
“Almost 200,000 Palestinians in the West Bank used to work in Israel before the war, and all of them now have lost their jobs,” she explains.
This figure has been accredited by an Israeli official in an article by The Times of Israel.
Palestinian workers who used to enter Israel for work prior to the war had to apply and pay for a workers permit. This is because those who hold Palestinian IDs, or “Green IDs” as Mirna refers to them, are not allowed to enter or pass through Israel without a permit, a restriction that applied even before the recent war.
The effect of these intensifying restrictions on the economy is clear, as the World Bank reported a sharp reduction of economic activity and growing poverty across Palestine as a whole. In the West Bank specifically, they found a 23% contraction in GDP across the first half of 2024.
To put this into perspective, the UK economy dropped 6% due to the financial crisis in 2008, causing a mass recession, so for the West Bank’s economy to drop by 23% is unprecedented, yet little action is being taken by the international community.
In addition to this, although the figures aren’t as stark as in Gaza, poverty across the West Bank has more than doubled since 2023, from 12% to 28% by mid-2024 according to the International Labour Organization.
Occupation of the West Bank – The history
To understand this occupation of the West Bank we must first look at the history, which dates back to the Balfour Declaration in 1917 when Britain pledged a “national home for Jewish People” in Palestine. Between the 1920s and 1930s Jewish immigration was then facilitated from Europe into Palestine. The UN later created a partition agreement which divided Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab, then on May 14th 1948 the British Mandate in Palestine expired, and an independent state of Israel was created.
This expired mandate catalysed the 1948 Arab-Israeli war which involved several Arab countries, and led to the Nakba which in Arabic means “catastrophe”, seen as the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The Nakba refers to the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, many of whom became refugees within their own country, due to increased Jewish immigration in the wake of the Holocaust after tyranny and persecution in Europe. This immigration occurred in areas taken by Israel during the 1948 war, land which was allocated to Palestinians by the UN, marking the start of Israeli occupation.
The loss of homes, heritage and community during the Nakba imprinted a deep wound in the Palestinian collective memory, a wound that continues to bleed almost 77 years on.
Today, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) note that 5.9 million Palestinains are dispersed across Lebanon, Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank with the inclusion of East Jerusalem. The UN states that this displacement and occupation is continuing, driven by Israeli settlements, evictions, land confiscation and home demolitions.
The current and ongoing occupation of the West Bank alone reaffirms that this current war is not confined to just the Gaza strip. As article 13 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.” A right that has been violated time and time again across the West Bank.
“They want to expel the Palestinians of the West Bank, but the way they do it is a little different. If Palestinians leave, then they can just take it, that’s what they want. They want to take all the territories,” Mirna says.
“I’m not hopeful for the future but one thing I believe in, is that just by existing and remaining here, that’s resistance. It’s all about remaining, because if they manage to make us all leave then that’s it, end of story.”
The settlements: a key source of antagonism
Another way this expulsion is being achieved is through settlements and settlers, an issue that is growing in the West Bank.
Settlements are Israeli communities within occupied Palestinian regions and according to the Israeli Policy Forum, there are 127 settlements in the West Bank. Under Israeli law, settlements are legal and settlers are granted permission to move in. The Israeli government provides financial aid to settlers, and in 2017 they received NIS 1,922 (£394.03) on average in tax benefits and grants, which is NIS 1,416 (£290.29) higher than the national average.
However the UN has ruled these settlements a violation of Palestinian human rights, and a breach of international law. The movement goes against Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” This ruling is also backed by a large proportion of the international community, however despite this the settlements continue to grow.
Between 2012 and 2022 settlements grew from 520,000 to over 700,000, expanding another 3% in 2023. It is key to note that settlers do not necessarily reflect the beliefs and values of the general Israeli population as a whole, as they only made up 10% of the population during this period.
The settlements aim to establish Israel’s dominance in the West Bank, expand territory and disrupt the continuity of Palestinian land, with settlers known to act violently towards neighbouring Palestinians. Especially since October last year when Itamar Ben Gvir, the Israeli National Security Minister, announced that 10,000 rifles would be given to civilians, specifically those on Israel’s border, in mixed Jewish-Arab communities and those in West Bank settlements. This action not only raised tensions, but has been perpetuating violence and endangering Palestinians in the surrounding areas.
Alongside this there is also a high number of outposts, which are settlements that have not been granted permission by the Israeli government and are seen as illegal under Israeli domestic law. However the BBC recently found little evidence to suggest that the Israeli government is preventing the growth of these outposts despite them being “illegal”.
This recent conflict across Palestine therefore cannot just be seen as a binary of Gaza and Israel – the West Bank must be recognised as a collateral. Beyond this, there is a complexity of groups, movement and history, both Palestinian history in Gaza and the West Bank, and Jewish history, a history of suffering and lack of accountability from the international community. History that must be understood and acknowledged in order to move forward.
