Israel has ruled the West Bank since 1967. About half a million Israeli settlers now live there among three million Palestinians, and some two hundred thousand more in East Jerusalem. The settlers are Israeli citizens under Israeli law; their Palestinian neighbours live under military law. Almost every other state and the World Court hold the settlements to be illegal. Israel's present government is expanding them faster than any before it and says the land will never be given up.
The wider confrontation, its history and each side's full account: Israel in regional confrontation.
Where it stands · September 2026
On 6 September the prime minister ordered the removal of settler outposts in the West Bank. On 8 September Britain, France and Canada announced trade bans on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Israel closed the British consulate in Jerusalem. On 9 September Britain imposed trade restrictions on Israeli settlements. On 27 September Israel revoked the credentials of Dutch diplomats in Ramallah.
What the dispute is about
Whether there will be a Palestinian state at all. A state needs connected territory, and each new settlement, road and outpost divides what is left. Israel's government says so openly and counts it a success. For Palestinians the question is more immediate: land taken, olive groves burned, movement through checkpoints, and no authority to which they can appeal, since the army that rules them is answerable only to the settlers' state.
