B'Tselem Report 'The Elimination Project' Accuses Israel of Systematic Campaign to Erase Palestinian Presence in West Bank

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem published a report on Monday, September 14, 2026, titled 'The Elimination Project,' arguing that Israeli policy in the occupied West Bank amounts to a systematic dismantling of the conditions that allow Palestinians to function as a community, rather than a series of isolated incidents. Drawing on roughly 2,000 Palestinian testimonies, the report identifies five interconnected mechanisms: violence and intimidation by military forces and armed settler militias; movement restrictions (925 physical obstacles -- gates and checkpoints -- recorded by December 2025); economic strangulation (West Bank unemployment doubling to 27.5% by end-2025, 115,000 work permits frozen); social and political destruction; and what the report calls ethnic cleansing. It says settlers now control nearly 20% of West Bank territory, records 1,600+ settler attacks in 2025, 104 new settlements approved since 2022, and at least 1,107 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank between October 2023 and the report's publication. The report links the current campaign to a 2017 'Decisive Plan' and says the pace has accelerated since October 2023. The Israeli government did not immediately respond to the report's characterization.