Settler-colonial violence and annexation continue to accelerate in Palestine despite the ceasefire in GazaWhile the ceasefire of 19 January 2025 offers a temporary decrease in the direct violence against the Palestinian population in Gaza, it has not stopped the underlying material conditions of the genocidal and settler-colonial violence inflicted on the territory and people of Palestine. Since the ceasefire, the West Bank has experienced a further escalation in violence from the Israeli military, including the recent near-complete forced evacuation of residents in Jenin refugee camp by the Israeli military as part of what they call Operation Iron Wall. The recent military campaign in Gaza since October 2023, along with the ongoing escalation in the West Bank, can be understood as ruptures in pace, marking a shift from the slow violence of blockades and settlements expansion, to the more acute and fast-paced violence of large-scale displacement, widespread destruction, territorial reorganisation and reconstruction.The rapid escalation of violence since October 2023 has not been an anomaly but part of a protracted settler-colonial project spanning all historic Palestine since the early 20th century. The State of Israel was established in 1948 on 78 per cent of historic Palestine, following an ethnic cleansing process that displaced over 750,000 Palestinians an event known as the Nakba. This territory was significantly larger than the 56 per cent allocated to the proposed Jewish state under the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which Palestinians rejected. The plan granted a majority of the land to the Jewish state, including several major Palestinian urban centres, despite Jewish ownership of only 6 per cent of historic Palestine at the time. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel further occupied the remaining 22 per cent of historic Palestine, comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including the eastern part of Jerusalem. These territories have since been subjected to varying degrees of Israeli military occupation, settlement expansion and administrative control, further entrenching the territorial fragmentation of Palestine and displacement of Palestinian communities.Map of the territorial contraction of Palestine from the UN Partition Plan of 1947 (never implemented) to 2023Credit:Forensic Architecture 2025The 1948 and 1967 wars marked profound ruptures in the spatial and demographic organisation of historic Palestine, laying the groundwork for ongoing cycles of displacement and annexation. These wars represent acute, rapid phases of violence that served as a foundation for a slower, more insidious process of land appropriation and structural violence. Immediately following the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank in 1967, Israeli settlements were established in both regions. Between 1967 and 1977, the proposed Allon Plan aimed to annex significant portions of the West Bank and establish Jewish settlements in the Jordan Valley, near Jerusalem, and in the Hebron area, for security purposes.Israeli settlements in the 1960s and 70s were primarily concentrated in the Jordan Valley, serving as a so-called buffer zone established by the Israeli military between the recently occupied territory and Jordan, which had controlled the West Bank prior to the Israeli occupation. The primary objective was to establish control over the Jordan Valley, effectively separating Palestinian villages and cities from Jordan. This was achieved through first partitioning the territory with the construction of the Route 90 road in 1967, and then with the development of major Israeli settlements along this corridor. The Jordan Valley buffer zone notably coincides with some of the West Banks most fertile agricultural lands and water resources that had historically been essential to Palestinian sustenance, mirroring a pattern seen in Gaza where buffer zones in the north and south encompass crucial farmland that was vital for sustaining life in the besieged strip.The Jordan Valley buffer zone notably coincides with some of the West Banks most fertile agricultural lands and water resources that had historically been essential to Palestinian sustenanceSince then, the Israeli occupation has continued to expand settlements in the West Bank. The incremental expansion of settlements established a new status quo, with 60 per cent of the West Bank placed under Israeli military control an area designated as Area C under the Oslo Accords of 1995. The Palestinian Authority oversees most civil affairs including internal security in an area of only 18 per cent of the West Bank, made up of Palestinian built-up areas (classified as Area A), and manages education, health and the economy in a further 21 per cent of the West Bank (Area B). But in both Areas A and B, Israel retains security control, enabling its military to conduct raids or detain individuals at any time.Israeli settlements in the West Bank (present) and Gaza (19672005)Credit:Forensic Architecture 2025To consolidate control in the West Bank, multiple roads were constructed to further fragment Palestinian communities and isolate them from both each other and the Jordan Valley. A key example is the JerichoJerusalem (E1) corridor, which bisects the West Bank at its centre. The illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, strategically positioned to sever the eastern part of Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, plays a central role in this fragmentation. It features a checkpoint located approximately 15km from the Container (Jabal An-Nar) checkpoint, which functions as the primary control point for Palestinian movement between the central and southern West Bank. These corridors not only divide Palestinian territories but also serve as mechanisms for asserting Israeli control and limiting Palestinian mobility.The corridors not only divide Palestinian territories but also serve as mechanisms for asserting Israeli control and limiting Palestinian mobilitySince the state of emergency was declared in October 2023, the violence in the West Bank has rapidly increased. This included the demolition of more than 1,200 Palestinian structures and the seizing of approximately 12km2 of land in March 2024, marking the largest land appropriation since the 1993 Oslo Accords. Some 40,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced and medical infrastructures have been attacked. Over 50 new military outposts and more than 13,000 new settlement units have been approved for construction. Plans have also been made to approve 2,350 additional homes in the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, 300 in Kedar and according to reports on 17 February nearly 1,000 in Efrat.In the Gaza Strip, Israeli settlements established since 1967 contributed to a similar pattern of fragmentation. After these settlements were dismantled in 2005 due to the increasing cost of securing them, the land was physically reconnected as the barriers that once divided different parts of Gaza were removed but a siege imposed on the strip effectively maintained territorial control through other means.Map of Gaza showing the expanded buffer zone, raid routes, and the Philadelphi and Netzarim Corridors as of 18 January 2025Credit:Forensic Architecture 2025On 13 October 2023, Israel ordered approximately 1.4 million Palestinians living north of the river Wadi Gaza to evacuate within 24 hours. While framed as a temporary security measure, this order effectively constituted forced displacement. Almost immediately after the evacuation order, a new military boundary was established, preventing those who fled from returning to their homes. Under the guise of emergency, this boundary known as the Netzarim corridor quickly assumed the characteristics of a permanent partition, dividing Gaza into two distinct halves: north and south. The corridor was solidified with the opening of a new road and the establishment of military checkpoints and bases along its length, marking the newly drawn border. This border extended far beyond the width of the road itself, encompassing a 4km-wide buffer zone of complete destruction 2km on either side of the corridor effectively carving through the strip and creating a significant zone of displacement and control. The corridors alignment along Wadi Gaza was not accidental, as this specific geographical feature has deep colonial resonance, historically regarded by multiple imperial powers as a natural boundary signifying a perceived end of Palestine. British Mandate-era documents, as well as later Israeli planning rhetoric, often cast Wadi Gaza as a strategic dividing line, reinforcing its function as a de facto frontier.Within a year, nearly 36 per cent of the Gaza Strip was designated as buffer zones, including areas along the Netzarim corridor, the Philadelphi corridor at the border with Egypt, and the further expansions of the already existing buffer zone along the north and east side of Gaza. These zones significantly reduced the land available for Palestinians to use, and would have acted as a basis for future annexation and settlement given that they largely coincide with the locations of former Israeli settlements in Gaza, including Netzarim, after which the corridor is named. A mutually reinforcing relationship exists between areas confiscated for buffer zones and those designated for Israeli settlements. Many settlements were established on land initially designated by Israel as buffer zones, yet the establishment and expansion of these settlements also required the creation of additional buffer zones to secure their perimeters and the construction of new roads to connect them while further partitioning Palestinian communities.A mutually reinforcing relationship exists between areas confiscated for buffer zones and those designated for Israeli settlementsThe mass evacuation in October 2023 was accompanied by the systematic destruction of conditions necessary for life, aimed at preventing Palestinians from remaining and returning to the area. When this destruction failed to completely displace the population, the Israeli military imposed yet another division in October 2024, splitting northern Gaza from Gaza City. This iteration of partitioning was marked by the construction of a new military corridor to segment northern Gaza and an intensification of destruction designed to force further displacement. These spatial practices are interconnected; the logic of partitioning and displacement is integral to Israels expansionist project and annexation strategies. Each division of land is followed by further fragmentation and displacement, creating a fractal-like repetition of partitioning and control across multiple scales and intensities.Spatial fragmentation of the West Bank (present) and Gaza (October 2023 to January 2025)Credit:Forensic Architecture 2025The recent genocidal violence in Gaza and the similar patterns of violence repeating in the West Bank are not isolated episodes but part of a protracted settler-colonial project; the underlying spatial logic aligns with previous and ongoing Israeli practices in Palestine. Incremental strategies such as settlement expansion lay the groundwork for rapid, large-scale escalations. Slow violence normalises structural control and limits resistance, while fast violence exploits emergencies to enact radical changes to the spatial and demographic landscape. In areas where immediate military-enforced mass displacement like the operations in Gaza and the Jenin refugee camp proves challenging, the continuous interplay between rapid military operations and gradual structural pressures serves to systematically empty targeted territories, enabling expanded military control and settlement growth.Each division of land is followed by further fragmentation and displacement, creating a fractal-like repetition of partitioning and controlThe recent events in the Jenin, Nur Shams and El Fara refugee camps in the West Bank, along with the violence of the past 15 months, signals a shift in Israeli military tactics in the West Bank that mirrors the destruction and mass displacement operations carried out in Gaza. Meanwhile, the dismantling of the Netzarim corridor, dividing northern and southern Gaza, as part of the ceasefire terms agreed on 19 January, marks the first time since the Nakba that Palestinians have achieved return in large groups. Despite the US administrations recent discourse of reconstructing Gaza, effectively through ethnic cleansing, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are returning to what remains of their homes in the north of Wadi Gaza. Such statements from the US government reaffirm and further expose the settler-colonial logicbehind Israels actions, seeking to normalise the settler imaginary even after the ceasefire. Such ruptures of violence whether rhetoricalor physical are not new and remain integral to this logic. The Palestinian return to northern Gaza is not merely about reuniting the Gaza Strip; it is also a vital act of resistance aimed at dismantling the settler-colonial project that, for generations, has torn apart and uprooted the Palestinian population.2025-02-28Kristina RapackiShare AR February 2025ExtensionsBuy Now