Israeli Control Transforms West Bank

0:01Today on State of the World, Israeli control of the West Bank transforms lives and livelihoods for the 3 million Palestinians living in the occupied. territory.

0:17You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories up close with their happening. It's Monday, November 10th. I'm Christine Arismeth. President Trump has made it clear there will not be annexation of the West Bank. I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. No, I will not allow it. It's not going to happen. But since the Hamas attack on Israel in October of 2023, with the world's attention focused on Gaza, Israeli control of the occupied West Bank has increased significantly. Palestinians' livelihoods are being constricted, and their lands and the territory are being confiscated at unprecedented rates.

1:00NPR's Carrie Kahn brings us stories from a transformed West Bank. Aisha Talib sits on the cement floor of the kitchen in her two-room home cleaning milky white strips of sheep's stomach. She stretches them around small hooves ready for boiling for tonight's dinner. She recalls back in August when about two dozen men, masked Jewish settlers, rushed into their village of Kowais near Hebron.

1:33They started chasing everyone, the boys and the girls, she says. We ran inside and locked the doors, but they smashed the windows and sprayed something through the broken glass. Everyone was screaming, she says. Her husband, Talib Niman, says he tried to outrun the men, but was caught. They hit me in the back, he says, and broke his hand as he tried to protect his face from the blows. He has the attack on video. He pulls out his cell phone.

2:05Security cameras he installed around the village capture the men, their faces covered. The tassels of their Jewish religious clothing hang down under long black shirts. They break windows, smash solar panels, and finally take the cameras out. Since 2023, the United Nations registered nearly 3 ,000 attacks against Palestinians by settlers in the West Bank, and more than 1 ,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, Jewish settlers, and other Israelis.

2:39Our whole life has changed. We can't farm, we can't leave the house, says Talib Niman. And he says he hasn't worked since Israel revoked Palestinian work permits after the Hamas attack. The West Bank's economy shrank 17 percent last year, according to the World Bank. Unemployment now tops 34 percent. He's culled his sheep herd for food. He only has about 60 left, down from nearly 300. Activists and Palestinian authorities say the army does little to stop the violence, a charge Israel's military repeatedly denies. It says it's preventing terrorism. At least 58 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in attacks in the West Bank in Israel.

3:21But since the war in Gaza, more settlers are armed.

3:32Israel's National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gavir, himself a settler and ultra-nationalist member of the government, has handed out record numbers of arms to Israelis, like at this recent event where he proclaims that weapons save lives, and buildings and cities. NPR contacted nearly a dozen leaders of West Bank settlements. All declined interviews, many citing unfair treatment in the press. Only one agreed to talk. This is the Judean desert, between the mountain of Jerusalem all the way to the Jordan Valley. Arei Eldad is 65, a physician, a former member of the Knesset, and a longtime settler activist.

4:15He's standing on the back deck of his home in the settlement of Kaffar Adumim. He doesn't believe Jewish settlers, who now number about half a million in the West Bank, are attacking Palestinians. They are trying to take over the land. We are trying to take over the land. And the clashes between these two movements are extremely natural. In a religious war that has no resolution, he says. He credits the Hamas attack, however, with bringing the settlers' perspective more into the Israeli mainstream. More and more Israelis are not fooling themselves that we will ever have peace with the Arabs. At least not with the Arabs in Israel.

4:54Settlement expansion has soared under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Illegal outposts on average have grown tenfold to about 50 per year, according to the anti-settlement group Peace Now. And nearly two dozen new and existing settlements were recently legalized by Israel, despite being deemed illegal under international law. One is Homish, which El-Dad tried to defend as Israeli troops removed residents from there a decade ago. I promised the people who were really crying, don't cry, we would be back. So it's a dream come true. Several thousand settler housing units on a controversial plot of land were recently greenlit too, in an area that, when built, will effectively split any future Palestinian state in half.

5:44This rapid expansion comes as a record number of countries, including major Western allies, now recognize the state of Palestine. Yet on the ground, that reality is getting chopped up, says Palestinian Authority Deputy Foreign Minister Omar Awadallah. They are trying to turn it into isolated communities. They want to take out the idea that there is people, a united one people living here. Hundreds of new gates and checkpoints erected in the last year now make what had been short rides between cities and towns into unpredictable hours-long treks. Raids and arrests are at all-time highs. Mohammed Ahmad, a 23-year-old university student, was arrested just weeks after the Hamas attack on southern Israel.

6:33He was held in an Israeli prison for nearly two years. He asked only his first names be used for fear of retribution from Israel for speaking to the media.

6:47The conditions were terrible. It was so dirty and stifling, he says. 14 men held in one small cell. We were in constant fear of the guards beating, he says. We were just waiting for death, he says. When contacted for comment about allegations of beating and inhumane conditions, Israel's prison system said all inmates are treated in accordance to the law. Mohammed was released just weeks before the Gaza ceasefire was signed. Initially, he was charged with being a Hamas activist and held for months, but was kept an additional 17 months under a controversial procedure allowing detentions without trial or charges.

7:31That's not unusual, says Ibrahim Najir of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission. On average, there are about 3 ,500 Palestinians held without charge in Israeli prisons at any given time since October 7th. He says authorities keep the numbers artificially high to convince Israelis they're combating a huge security threat in the West Bank. Mohamed says he lost more than 50 pounds in prison. Young people around the world live in freedom except for us. We deserve it too, he says. He's already back in university studying nursing. He says he's determined to regain his strength and his future.

8:16Kerry Kahn, NPR News, Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

8:28That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.