Kerem Navot - Naboth’s Vineyard, POB 10276, Jerusalem (2026)

13/07/2026

Last week we published a new report: “Annus Mirabilis.” The report is the product of joint work with Peace Now. It reviews the profound changes Israel’s 37th government has brought about in the West Bank from the time it took office at the end of December 2022 through the end of 2025.

The report’s central conclusion is that during its three years in power, the government accelerated processes of de facto annexation at an unprecedented pace. It did so through a combination of structural changes in the Israeli governing system that controls the West Bank, settlement expansion, the legalization of outposts, land takeovers, the expulsion of Palestinian communities, and the deepening of Israeli control even in areas previously transferred to the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority.

Alongside the urgency we felt to publish a report attempting to summarize the crimes of the most racist and corrupt Israeli government ever to rule here, we worked with the knowledge that it would be impossible to include everything that has been done in the West Bank. This is because of the sheer scope of the unofficial criminal activity encouraged and funded by the government, the consequences of which will take time to fully document. Its main expressions include the establishment of outposts, the paving of roads, the seizure of agricultural lands and grazing areas, the fencing off of vast areas, the blocking of roads, the takeover of springs and lookout points, and, of course, countless violent attacks and pogroms that have turned every Palestinian in the West Bank into a potential target.

We began working on this report in October 2025, alongside other ongoing tasks that occupied us at the same time. The deeper we dug in an effort to understand and describe what happened in the West Bank during these three terrible years, the clearer it became that despite the effort invested, and despite our attempt to cover a wide range of issues and be precise with the data, this report was destined to become outdated even before publication.

And indeed, the first six months of 2026 have been at least as harsh, violent, and lawless as the years that preceded them. More than 30 new outposts have already been established this year. At least 12 Palestinian communities and clusters have been expelled by settlers operating under the protection of state authorities. Tens of thousands of dunams, and perhaps even more, have effectively become areas Palestinians are barred from entering because of settler and military violence.

At the same time, the government continues to establish official settlements, mainly but not only in the northern West Bank, to pave bypass roads, and to expand existing roads. All of this is intended to squeeze every last drop out of the historic opportunity they have been given to reshape this place in their own spirit and image. The coming months are therefore expected to be even more violent and lawless.

In this context, it must be acknowledged that the current government has done a service to all those who have warned for years that Israel is becoming a full-fledged apartheid state. Hundreds of millions of people around the world who follow events in the Middle East now understand better than ever that any political solution will require, in one way or another, stripping Israel of the ability to do whatever it wishes to the Palestinian population in the West Bank, not to mention the atrocities being committed every day in the Gaza Strip. If this report contributes even slightly to deepening the understanding that decisive and sustained international intervention is needed to restrain Israeli violence and racism, that will be our reward.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supports our work—each according to their own ability and will. Without public support, we could not do what we do. Those who wish to support us so that we can continue, among other things, to publish reports like this one, are invited to do so. Link to a secure donation page on our website: https://katzr.net/5bb6a1
To The Full Report https://www.keremnavot.org/annusmirabilis

08/07/2026

Our new report, "Annus Mirabillis" with Peace Now in Haaretz.com katzr.net/a399e4 The full report here katzr.net/6e01a1

07/07/2026

A joint report by Peace Now and Kerem Navot examines profound changes in the West Bank brought about by Israel's 37th government since December 2022. The report concludes that the government has advanced de facto annexation at an unprecedented pace. It has done so through structural governance changes, settlement expansion, the retroactive authorization of outposts, land seizures, the expulsion of Palestinian communities, and increased Israeli control in areas previously under Palestinian Authority responsibility.

The current government has transformed Israel's control mechanisms in the West Bank. The key change was the transfer of broad civilian powers from the Civil Administration and the military chain of command to Minister Bezalel Smotrich and the Settlement Administration within the Ministry of Defense. Smotrich described this as "changing the system's DNA."

The new authority covers planning and construction, land registration and management, infrastructure, roads, nature reserves, archaeology, and enforcement. This shift created a new civilian-political mechanism effectively controlled by the government's most extreme elements. It enables rapid and systematic advancement of annexation objectives while bypassing the limited checks previously in place within the military and legal systems.

In addition to this structural change, the government established and strengthened the Ministry of Settlement and National Missions, led by Orit Strook. This ministry serves as a governmental mechanism for channeling hundreds of millions of shekels to organizations involved in settlement expansion and land takeover in the West Bank.

These budgets, alongside security and infrastructure budgets, help establish and entrench illegal outposts, particularly farm outposts, many of whose residents are involved in violence and the expulsion of Palestinian communities.

A key indicator of recent changes is renewed settlement activity in the northern West Bank. The government effectively lifted the ban on Israelis entering areas evacuated under the "Disengagement". It resumed efforts to establish the settlements of Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim, as well as additional settlements and outposts, in the Jenin and Nablus regions.

Simultaneously, the government is promoting tourism projects and archaeological sites, such as Sebastia and the Mas'udiya railway station, as part of a broader effort to shape the northern West Bank.

The report also points to a dramatic shift in planning. In June 2023, the government removed the requirement for the Minister of Defense's approval at each stage of settlement construction planning. It transferred authority over the pace of these plans to Smotrich.

As a result, over the past three years, plans for 40,064 new settlement housing units were advanced, supporting potential future growth of 160,000 to 200,000 settlers. In 2025 alone, 27,941 units were advanced, more than doubling the previous annual record.

One of the most significant approved plans is for the E1 area, which is expected to fragment the West Bank further and severely undermine the possibility of developing Palestinian territorial continuity between Ramallah, East Jerusalem, and Bethlehem.

While advancing official construction, the government is also promoting the retroactive authorization and development of illegal outposts. In May 2024, a list of 70 outposts was published, and Smotrich instructed them to be funded and developed, despite their illegality. Many of these outposts are focal points of settler violence.

Over the past three years, 185 new outposts were established, including approximately 130 farm outposts and "hilltops."

The pace of establishment increased from year to year, indicating an increasingly professionalized mechanism of land takeover that exploits the war and the fact that, in practice, there is no enforcement against Israeli construction, in order to create new facts on the ground.

Farm outposts play a central role in expulsion and dispossession. According to our assessment, farm outposts currently effectively control more than one million dunams — approximately 18% of the West Bank.

In 2025 alone, approximately 300,000 dunams were added to the areas settlers took control of through farm outposts. Only approximately 40% of these areas are defined by the Civil Administration as "state land"; the rest are private land, waqf land, or areas whose status has not been mapped. This means that the mechanisms of grazing, violence, and denial of access enable a de facto takeover of lands that cannot officially be allocated to settlers.

The direct result is the systematic expulsion of Palestinian shepherding communities. In 2023–2025, 118 Palestinian shepherding communities and shepherding clusters were expelled, primarily as a result of settler violence, denial of access to pastureland and water, the establishment of nearby outposts, and the absence of protection by the army and police.

According to data from B'Tselem, in the first two months of 2026, another 9 communities and families were expelled, among them Ras Ein al-Auja, the largest shepherding community in Area C, with approximately 1,000 residents.

Between 2023 and 2025, settlers also took control of at least 11,520 dunams for agriculture, primarily through seasonal plowing and planting date groves and grape and olive vineyards, with the aim of entrenching the denial of Palestinian access to their lands.

Since the government was formed, and even more so after October 7, 2023, settlers have paved at least 223 kilometers of new dirt roads across the West Bank and upgraded dozens of kilometers of existing roads.

These roads facilitate the establishment of outposts, land takeover, and blocking Palestinian access to their lands. Many were built on private or non-state land, including areas within Area B. The report identifies government funding sources, including 'security components' budgets, settler authorities' land patrol departments, and a January 2026 government decision allocating NIS 125 million to "paving security routes."

According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), demolitions by Israel in Area C due to construction without permits increased by about 80% from 2010–2022 to 2023–2025. The average rose from 537 structures per year to 966 during the current government's three years.

The demolition of Palestinian structures is part of a broader system aimed at preventing Palestinian development. At the same time, the government continues to plan, fund, and retroactively authorize Israeli settlements and outposts built in violation of Area C planning and construction laws.

The chapter on land takeover details a significant acceleration in legal and bureaucratic mechanisms of takeover. Between 2023 and 2025, the government declared 25,959 dunams as "state land," nearly half the total area declared since the Oslo process began.

Additionally, expropriations, seizure orders, jurisdictional changes, and reductions in firing zones were advanced to expand settlements. The government also decided to initiate land registration proceedings in the West Bank and allocate NIS 244 million for this purpose. This could lead to large-scale dispossession of Palestinians who may struggle to prove ownership under the conditions Israel will set, potentially resulting in state registration of their land.

Land takeover processes now extend beyond Area C. The government has begun to erode the authorities granted to the Palestinian Authority in Areas A and B.

This is evident in an order banning Palestinian construction in the area designated as the 'agreed nature reserve', a February 2026 cabinet decision removing the Palestinian Authority's demolition powers in Areas A and B for cases defined as harm to heritage sites, the environment, or water sources, and the transfer of planning and construction authority at the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Hebron settlement enclave to the Civil Administration.

These actions undermine the administrative framework established by the Oslo Accords and expand Israeli control into areas designated for Palestinian administration during the interim period. In practice, the government is working to dismantle this framework.

https://did.li/XV5ZH

06/07/2026

05/07/2026

Annexation in the West Bank is an integral part of Israel's judicial overhaul—only there it unfolds far from the eyes of the Israeli public. This week, together with we'll publish a report showing how the government's first three years accelerated de facto annexation at an unprecedented pace. "Annus Mirabilis -
Actions by the Israeli Government to Annex the West Bank, 2023–2025" More soon.

28/06/2026

The outskirts of Jericho, contains the remains of the Hasmonean Kingdom’s winter palaces. In recent months, Israel has been working to transform the site into a major tourist attraction through military seizure orders and the violence of nearby settler farms. This thread was written in collaboration with Emek Shaveh and Palestinian Solidarity Co-op.
*****
In March 2026, the Israeli military issued a seizure order (T-24/26) for a strip of land leading to the archaeological mound known as the Hasmonean Palaces on the western outskirts of Jericho (within Area C). The route of the seizure order, as published, will create an access route to the archaeological site that bypasses Jericho (Area A). The order, signed by Major General Avi Blut, head of the IDF central command, on March 30, 2026, was handed to residents affected by it only on April 21.

The Hasmonean Palaces (Tulul Abu el-'Alayiq) site is located on the outskirts of Jericho (241065/640048). The site contains remains of the winter palaces of the Hasmonean and Herodian Kingdoms from the 2nd - 1st centuries BCE. It is situated meters away from the Kaabneh Bedouin community of Ein ad-Duyuk al Tahta. In recent months the community has been the victim of daily settler violence and harassment.

Attacks on the community began on February 10, 2026, with an eight-hour pogrom carried out by dozens of settlers that included physical violence against women and children of the community, the theft of agricultural vehicles, cash, and personal valuables, as well as the demolition of thirteen homes using a bulldozer. Throughout the pogrom, residents’ distress calls to Israeli police and Palestinian and Israeli DCOs were entirely ignored, allowing the demolitions to continue. According to residents, the bulldozer came from the nearby outpost known as Armonot Farm, erected in the summer of 2024 and run by Hanan Herbst (the outpost was approved as a full-fledged settlement under the name Daya on April 1, 2026).

While some of the houses had pending demolition orders, an interim injunction issued by the High Court was supposed to protect them. Needless to say, either way, demolition orders are to be carried out by the Civil Administration (ICA); but demolition by settlers is an entirely new development in the West Bank. The ICA later confirmed that they had not ordered the demolitions. By the end of the pogrom, the settlers had warned residents that if they returned, their houses would be burnt to the ground, and proceeded to plow up land inside the community. Among the attackers was Micha Sudai, who was documented unmasked. Sudai is a leading Jewish settler known for terrorizing Palestinian communities in the southern Jordan Valley and suspected as one of the leaders of the expulsion of Ras Ein al-Auja in January 2026.

It is worth noting that on the morning of the pogrom (February 10, 2026), the Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu uploaded a facebook post where he is seen visiting the Hasmonean Palaces and saying “Every place that is built on the heritage of the Jewish people we will destroy it”.

Currently, members of the community live without shelter or in the ruins of their own homes, as plans to develop the site, just a few meters away, as a lucrative settler-run tourist attraction are moving ahead.

Within the Oslo Accords, which divided responsibility for archaeological sites between the Palestinian Authority in Areas A and B and the ICA’s Staff Officer for Archaeology (SOA) in Area C, Article 9 of Annex III identified twelve sites of “archaeological and historical importance to the Israeli side,” including the Hasmonean Palaces which, according to the accords, would eventually come under Palestinians control and would be subject to a joint Palestinian-Israeli professional committee. That committee was never convened.

The Hasmonean Palaces are also one of several major antiquity sites that the current Minister of Heritage, Amihai Eliyahu, had defined as “anchor sites” in the plan to develop Judeo-centric archaeological theme parks across the West Bank. In July 2023, the government had allocated 20 million NIS for the development of the site into a tourist attraction. At the time it was said that the Binyamin Regional Council would operate the site. The community of Ein ad-Duyuk al-Tahta is situated in part on what Israel considers state land and in part on land privately owned by East Jerusalemite families. The area under seizure order is privately owned, but as of June 2026, the owners have not yet been located.

In recent years, a settler-led campaign, spearheaded by the NGO Guardians of Eternity, claimed deliberate destruction of “Jewish” antiquities by the Palestinians, in an attempt to push the government to expand control over West Bank sites. The Hasmonean Palaces site was often mentioned in this context. Over the years, the SOA has carried out numerous enforcement actions at the site, including stopping works, confiscating equipment, and demolishing what it defines as illegal construction.

Military seizure orders are ostensibly temporary, and the land they cover may, in principle, be used only for urgent security purposes. However, the concept of "security needs" is subordinated first and foremost to the interests of the settlement enterprise.

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the number of seizure orders that have been issued by the military. Between 2023 and 2025, the military issued at least 140 seizure orders, under which about 3,370 dunams were seized. Of the 140 orders reviewed, 113 (about 81 percent) were issued to serve settlers' interests - mainly for protecting settlements and illegal outposts. Another seizure order linked to development plans for an antiquity site was issued for the sumit of Sebastia in July 2024.

As for 2026, we do not yet have the full data needed to present a full comprehensive picture of the seizure orders issued, though it seems that the trends are similar to ones we have seen in the last few years. Seizure order T-24/26 is an obvious example for an order that was issued to serve settler interests, rather than what can be described as “urgent security purposes”.

23/06/2026

This week, Haaretz published an important journalistic project: a collection of articles, photographs, videos, and maps documenting Israel’s return to the northern West Bank. For the extremist settler right leading this effort, the elections expected this October raise the possibility that political conditions may change. Hence the rush to create as many facts on the ground as possible before then. Link to the project in the comments.
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In 2005, Israel evacuated four small and isolated settlements in the northern West Bank. Homesh and Sa-Nur were located along the Nablus–Jenin road (Route 60), while Ganim and Kadim stood east of Jenin. On the eve of their evacuation, approximately 800 settlers lived in these four settlements. Following their removal as part of the 2005 Disengagement Plan, the army declared their sites closed military zones and prohibited Israelis from entering them.

These settlements had been established by Likud governments in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their residents were largely secular or traditional Israelis whose willingness to continue risking—and at times losing—their lives in Palestinian shooting attacks in order to pursue the dream of a private house and a garden in an isolated settlement proved limited. The decision to evacuate these four settlements was therefore not accidental. Their location required the army to invest enormous resources in protecting them, particularly after the outbreak of the Second Intifada.

Shortly after the evacuation, settlers fearful of further withdrawals identified Homesh as the place through which to begin reversing the disengagement. Homesh was the closest and most accessible of the four evacuated settlements, particularly from the direction of the nearby settlement of Shavei Shomron, where the most radical core of former Homesh settlers had relocated. Although the site had been declared a closed military zone, an exceptionally violent group took control of it and prevented Palestinian landowners from returning to rehabilitate lands seized from them in the late 1970s. A link to our December 2021 post on the history of Homesh appears in the comments.

In March 2023, Israel’s racist and corrupt government initiated legislation repealing the law that prohibited Israelis from entering the areas of the evacuated settlements in the northern West Bank. This officially launched the process of returning settlers to the region.

Yet the government's ambitions extend far beyond the four settlements evacuated in 2005. Homesh, which has been officially re-established under the guise of an “educational institution,” bears little resemblance to the settlement that existed before 2005. Today it dominates thousands of dunams, including areas inside Area A, while settler violence and terror have spilled into the built-up areas of every surrounding Palestinian community: Burqa, Silat al-Dhahr, al-Funduqomiya, Beit Imrin, and Bazariya.

The areas of Ganim and Kadim east of Jenin have likewise been expanded through military orders issued by the commander of the apartheid command, settler Avi Bluth, in preparation for the settlers’ return. At the same time, a new bypass road—about which we wrote last week—is steadily being built, while the government has approved the establishment or legalization of fourteen additional settlements in the northern West Bank.

As always, the objective is to fragment and disrupt the lives of roughly 700,000 Palestinians living in the triangle formed by Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarm.

Alongside the violent settlers already arriving—and those expected to arrive in the coming months—comes an unprecedented military presence. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from refugee camps near Jenin and Tulkarm. Land is being seized to establish military bases whose purpose is to tighten the army’s grip on the Palestinian population, whose daily lives, never easy to begin with, are being torn apart even further.

Armed militias roam between villages and have already begun looting and terrorizing residents, as happened recently when a family's cattle herd was stolen in the village of Sa-Nur. A link to our post appears in the comments.

Over the past months, we have spent considerable time in the northern West Bank in an effort to understand and monitor processes we have documented for years elsewhere in the West Bank. Palestinian agriculture in this region—the largest breadbasket in the West Bank—survived since 1967 largely because relatively few settlements were established there in the first place. The violence that the advancing settlers and military presence are bringing with them may destroy it beyond repair.

16/06/2026

For those who believe that Israel never truly intended to fulfill its commitment to dismantle settlements and withdraw from the West Bank, there is no shortage of evidence. One such piece of evidence is the Silat al-Dhahr bypass road, approved in 2001—just over five years after the signing of Oslo II. The road was designed to allow settlers from Homesh and Sa-Nur to travel without passing through Palestinian villages. The settlements were evacuated four years later as part of the Disengagement Plan, but have since been re-established by Israel’s criminal and racist government. Now, the government is finally implementing the road plan as well.

*****
About a month ago (12.5.2026), the commander of the apartheid command, settler Avi Bluth, signed a new construction ban order, No. 1/26. The order entered into force immediately upon signing and is currently valid through the end of 2028, though one can safely assume that Bluth’s successor will extend it when the time comes. Construction ban orders are tools the army uses to prevent Palestinian construction, primarily along roads and the route of the Separation Barrier. Collectively, dozens of such orders cover an area approaching almost half a million dunams.

The new order applies to an enormous area of 4,731 dunams, almost entirely in Area C, with roughly 100 dunams falling within Area B. Its purpose is to prohibit construction along a new bypass road that the government has approved for construction. The road is intended to connect Highway 57 (the Tulkarm–Nablus road) to the isolated and violent settlements of Homesh and Sa-Nur, bypassing the Palestinian villages of Deir Sharaf and Silat al-Dhahr.

Earlier this year, we published a post describing the government’s plans to re-establish and expand settlement control in the Jenin area. Among other things, we noted that a few weeks earlier the commander of the apartheid command had signed a “temporary security seizure order,” No. 175/25. That order was intended to facilitate construction of the northern section of the same road, bypassing Silat al-Dhahr. In recent months that section has been carved out, though it has not yet been paved. A link to our earlier post appears in the comments.

Now, based on the map attached to the new construction prohibition order, it has become clear that the government also intends to pave the southern section of the road, extending all the way to Highway 57.

The plan for what the authorities call the “Silat al-Dhahr Bypass Road” (Plan No. 901/19) was approved on January 26, 2001. In other words, just over five years after Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo II Agreement—which enshrined Israel’s commitment to withdraw from the West Bank—the planning bodies of the Civil Administration were busy preparing and approving a bypass road intended to serve the two most isolated settlements in the northern West Bank.

How exactly does that fit with the Oslo Accords?

It doesn’t.

Incidentally, when the road was approved, Ehud Barak was both chairman of the Labor Party and Prime Minister of Israel. Four and a half years later, the government led by Ariel Sharon evacuated the settlements of Homesh and Sa-Nur as part of the Disengagement Plan, and the road was never built.

Construction Ban Order 1/26 is the second such order signed by the current commander of the apartheid command, settler Avi Bluth, in this part of the West Bank. In August 2024, only months after taking office, he signed Construction Ban Order 2/24, covering more than 4,200 dunams along the access road to—and surrounding—the military base and newly established settlement of Ebal, north of Nablus.

Since 1967, there have been twenty-six different commanders of Israel’s Central Command. All contributed, in one way or another, to entrenching the settlement enterprise and institutionalizing the apartheid regime. Yet it is doubtful whether any of the twenty-five commanders who preceded Bluth were as openly committed to advancing the most extreme and violent elements of that project as he is. Construction Ban Order 1/26 is yet another illustration of that commitment.

Links to Construction Ban Orders 2/24 and 1/26 appear in the comments.

12/06/2026

Retired Judge Asher Kula has dismissed our complaint against Rabbi Avraham Zarviv, claiming that “the Office of the Ombudsman for Complaints Against Judges is not a platform for examining claims of this nature, which should be addressed by the competent judicial or regulatory authorities.” He apparently prefers to ignore the fact that he is precisely the regulatory authority responsible for examining the claims we raised.........
About two months ago, we submitted a complaint to retired Judge Asher Kula, the Ombudsman for Complaints Against Judges, concerning Rabbi Avraham Zarviv, who resides in the settlement of Beit El. As we detailed in the complaint, Zarviv lives in a house built illegally, against which a demolition order has been outstanding for 26 years. The house was built on privately owned land that Zarviv unlawfully appropriated. A link to our post on the matter appears in the comments.

On Wednesday (10.6.2026), we received Judge Kula’s response. In Section 9 of his letter, under the heading “Conclusions and Decision,” he writes:

“After a thorough review of the complaint and its attachments, the inevitable conclusion is that it is not appropriate for examination within the framework of a complaint to the Ombudsman for Complaints Against Judges. The Ombudsman is not a platform for examining claims of this nature, which should be addressed by the competent judicial or regulatory authorities. The role of the Ombudsman is to examine complaints concerning the conduct of judges and rabbinical judges, whether in the course of their duties or outside them, insofar as they relate to integrity or ethical rules, and this must be based on proven facts rather than allegations requiring extensive factual and legal examination beyond the Ombudsman’s authority. Moreover, it is puzzling that the complainant chose to submit the complaint only now, despite claiming that the events in question occurred years ago.”

A link to Judge Kula’s letter appears in the comments.

In our view, Judge Kula’s assertion that the documented allegations raised in our complaint against Zarviv should be examined by “the competent judicial or regulatory authorities” is, with all due respect, not a serious answer. It is an attempt to evade the simple fact that he is precisely the regulatory authority charged with examining such allegations.

The unfortunate—though hardly surprising—result is that a person like Zarviv, who is personally involved in illegal construction and the appropriation of property (quite apart from the alleged war crimes he documented himself committing in Gaza), continues to hold judicial office. That fact is a disgrace to the judicial system in particular and to the State of Israel in general.

Kerem Navot - Naboth’s Vineyard

13/07/2026

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