By legalizing dozens of settlements in the West Bank, successive Israeli governments have created an insurmountable obstacle to the two-state solution and the Palestinian dream of an independent sovereign state based on the 1967 borders.
The settlements pose a number of direct challenges to the establishment of a Palestinian state by violating Palestinian sovereignty, threatening civil peace and security, jeopardizing water resources, and blocking agricultural development.
Violating Palestinian Sovereignty
In 2022, the West Bank had about 199 settlements and 220 outposts, and as of 2021, the area of the Israeli settlements was about 201.1 square kilometers, representing 3.6 percent of the total area of the West Bank. According to Israeli classification, 542 square kilometers, or 9.6 percent of the West Bank, is part of Israel’s sovereign territory and is labeled “settlement areas of influence.”
By building settlements and outposts on what is geographically recognized as Palestinian land, Israel undermines Palestinian sovereignty and preemptively bifurcates any future Palestinian state by limiting its urban development.
The Israeli separation wall that protects the settlements and their network of roads divided the West Bank into three major Palestinian population blocs: the north, which includes Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarm; the center, which includes Ramallah and Al-Bireh; and the south, which includes Hebron and Bethlehem. These three blocks are, in turn, divided into six cantons that comprise some 68 ghettos, all under the control of the Israeli army. These divisions prevent the southern urban contiguity of the Ramallah and al-Bireh governorate and the northern contiguity of the Bethlehem governorate. This situation violates Palestinian sovereignty and prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Threatening Civil Peace and Security
With the heightened Israeli security presence in the West Bank—justified under the pretext of protecting the settlements—and with the continued provocations of Israeli settlers towards Palestinians, which nearly always result in shooting incidents, it will be very difficult to establish a secure and stable Palestinian state, whose inhabitants enjoy civil peace.
Settler attacks pose a serious threat to Palestinian civil peace. In 2020, settlers carried out 127 incursions into Palestinian villages and towns where they wrote racist slogans against Arabs on some 137 Palestinian vehicles. Because the areas surrounding the Israeli settlements are not under the control of the Palestinian security forces, the Palestinian police force is unable to pursue criminals who resort to these areas where they can safely hide, continue to threaten the state of civil peace, and endanger the security of the future Palestinian state.
Security, stability, and civil peace cannot be achieved in the presence of foreign security forces that undermine the sovereignty of the state and aggressively attack its citizens.
Jeopardizing Water Sources
Israel controls most of the Palestinian surface waters, such as the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, leaving Palestinians with no alternative but to rely on groundwater. However, with about 70 percent of Israeli settlements located on the eastern reservoir basin in the West Bank, and 45 percent of all settlements located on areas sensitive to the recharge of the aquifer basin in the West Bank, Israeli settlements have seized most Palestinian groundwater. Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem now number upwards of 750,000 people. In the West Bank alone, there are at least 500,000 settlers1who consume about 32 percent of groundwater, while the 3.7 million Palestinians who share these resources can access only 18 percent.
As long as Israeli settlements control groundwater resources in the West Bank, it will be impossible to establish a Palestinian state with sufficient influence and means to meet the drinking and irrigation needs of its people.
Blocking Agricultural Development
The agricultural sector is one of the most important economic resources for Palestinians, but this potentially lucrative resource cannot thrive under continuous aggressive campaigns that raze and uproot farmlands in the West Bank.
Throughout 2020, about 75 attacks by settlers on Palestinian agricultural lands were recorded, resulting in the uprooting and damage of 6,507 olive trees and vines. Israeli settlements control large areas of green agricultural land in the West Bank, and due to bypass roads and the Israeli separation wall, a large number of Palestinian farmers are unable to access their land to plant and harvest crops. This renders any future Palestinian state incapable of developing its green economy.
Conclusion
The two-state solution, which was proposed by the Oslo Accords to fulfill the Palestinian demand for independence and sovereignty, and which was supported by United Nations Resolution 242, calls for the respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every state in the region and demands that Israel withdraw to the 1967 borders.
This solution, which proposes an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, is the most effective and peaceful answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the Middle East peace dilemma.
Reham Owda is Palestinian political analyst based in Gaza city. She is a PhD researcher at University Sains Malaysia (USM). Follow her on Twitter: @Rehamowda.
Note
1. Sources based on official statistics from the Israeli government claim that the number of settlers in the West Bank is more than half a million. According to reporting from Al Jazeera, the Palestinian Applied Research Institute estimates that the number has already reached one million, while PeaceNow reports that the number of settlers in both the West Bank and East Jerusalem is around 700,000.
