What are West Bank settlements, who are settlers, and why are they controversial?
There are increasing reports of violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers in occupied Palestinian territory.
Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay has been inside the West Bank, where he’s found settlers feeling emboldened since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
With the government largely supporting them, they act with impunity and are in many ways enabled by Israel security forces.
But what are the settlements, and why are they controversial?
What are settlements?
A settlement is an Israeli-built village, town, or city in occupied Palestinian territory – either in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.
Thousands of homes have been demolished over the years to build the settlements, while vast areas used for farmland and grazing have also been requisitioned.
More territory has been taken to build roads and checkpoints that restrict Palestinians’ movement in those areas and effectively lock out existing landowners, says Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
Today, an estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The largest settlement, Modi’in Illit, is thought to house around 82,000 people.
