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October 23, 2026
- WEST BANK: Netanyahu Threatens Major WB Operation; IDF Reportedly Scales Up Outpost Removal
- EAST JERUSALEM: Amana Advances New Sheikh Jarrah Plan; Demolition Warning in Al-Bustan/Silwan, New Report by Ir Amim Documents “State Architecture of Dispossession”
- STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERROR
- INTERNATIONAL SCENE: Canadian Complaint Targets Settlement Real Estate Sales
- BONUS READS
WEST BANK
Netanyahu Threatens Major West Bank Escalation
On Friday, October 23rd a Palestinian gunman shot and killed two Israeli soldiers, and injured three others, near Herbon. In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu has threatened to shut down the entire West Bank and carry out an IDF operation “of a scale not seen since the Six-Day War.” According to reports Israeli forces have sealed off Hebron entirely and have carried out several demolitions in northern Hebron, with Netanyahu threatening to demolish the entire neighborhood where the gunmen were allegedly living. Prominent Hebron activist Issa Amro reports being trapped in his home.
Netanyahu continued:
“Israel is ‘going to destroy the terrorist infrastructure, and we are going to build settlement infrastructure…We are building and legalizing more than 100 new settlements right here, and not just here. And, of course, more than 100 farms as well. We will destroy the terrorist infrastructure and establish more and more settlements.’”
Outpost Removal
The Jerusalem Post reports the IDF has been demolishing 7-10 outposts each week over the past month in an effort to stem settler violence, and the IDF has reportedly looking to increase that weekly average moving forward. The Jerusalem Post article quotes Israeli security officials who complain that Israeli courts are failing to punish the settlers who are arrested for attacking security forces during outpost removals, allowing those settlers to continue establishing more outposts. A senior security official told JP:
“Outposts are constantly being evacuated. People are constantly being arrested. The question is what happens to them afterward.”
EAST JERUSALEM
Amana Advances New Plan for Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah
Ir Amim reports that the settler group Amana (which is sanctioned by Canada and the U.K.) is advancing a settler project in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, its first settlement plan in East Jerusalem. The plan calls for 122 settlement units to be built at the historic Shepherd Hotel.
Ire Amim reports the details:
“Under Amana’s new plan, the existing residential buildings would be demolished to make way for a substantially larger settlement, while the historic Shepherd Hotel building, once associated with the Mufti of Jerusalem, would be preserved. In recent years, the land has undergone formal land registration process, officially known as settlement of land title (SOLT). Parts of the property were registered under the Custodian of Absentee Property, while others were registered under a foreign company believed to be linked to Ateret Cohanim. It remains unclear how Amana came to lead the project or whether any property rights were transferred between the organizations. The plan was submitted by Eliyahu Menachem Hirschhorn on behalf of Amana.
Amana’s new settlement plan is part of a broader wave of projects being promoted in Sheikh Jarrah by Israeli government bodies alongside the longtime efforts of settler groups to displace Palestinian families and seize their properties for Israeli settlement. Together, these projects are advancing the construction of thousands of housing units for Israeli settlers rather than the neighborhood’s Palestinian residents. The sheer scale of the planned construction and the breadth of state and settler involvement underscore the systematic nature of Israel’s efforts to fundamentally reshape Sheikh Jarrah’s demographic character and further entrench Israeli control over the neighborhood.”
Israel Delivers Demolition Warning in Al-Bustan, Silwan
Ir Amim reports the Jerusalem Municipality has delivered a 20-day demolition notice to Fakhri Abu Diab, a well-known Palestinian activist in the al-Bustan section of Silwan. Abu Diab and his wife are living in a caravan on their land, after Israel demolished their home twice in 2024.
Ir Amim said:
“At Ir Amim, we are deeply concerned by this latest threat and stand in solidarity with Fakhri. His story extends beyond the demolition of a home or the removal of a temporary shelter. It reflects the reality facing Palestinian families across Jerusalem, including in Al-Bustan, where 42 structures, including 28 homes, have been demolished since the beginning of the year. Restrictions and threats persist even after families lose their homes, undermining their right to remain on their land and in the places where their lives and memories are rooted.”
NEW REPORT by IR AMIM: “Expulsion: The State Architecture of Dispossession”
In a new report, Ir Amim describes the network of state authorities that operate in an integrated manner to take over Palestinian land and property in East Jerusalem. The report takes a deep dive into the mechanisms by which eight Israeli government entities are driving the dispossession of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, those entities being:
- The Jerusalem Municipality
- Ministry of Interior
- Minister of Jerusalem Affairs
- Ministry of Justice
- Statutory Bodies
- Ministry of National Security
- Ministry of Housing & Construction
- Ministry of Finance
The report concludes:
“The report exposes a comprehensive, coordinated inter-governmental apparatus that works to take over Palestinian land and properties in East Jerusalem. In recent years, the activity of this apparatus has intensified, and the authorities now pursue this goal openly and in coordination.
Six government ministries, the Jerusalem Municipality, and statutory bodies work in concert to create facts on the ground that deepen annexation and drive Palestinians out of East Jerusalem. They do so through discrimination in planning, home demolitions, forced evictions, land registration, new Israeli settlement plans, takeovers of properties, and more. The synergy between these mechanisms turns the policy of expulsion and dispossession into a national project designed to cement Jewish supremacy and block a sustainable diplomatic solution.
As detailed in the report, what is unique about annexation and displacement in East Jerusalem is that they are carried out under the guise of Israeli law, through official state bodies and procedures. In this way, state mechanisms become instruments of displacement, both through discriminatory laws, exploitative application of these laws and through the deployment of old and new measures whose sole purpose is to facilitate dispossession and expulsion.”
STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERROR
The olive harvest is underway, and state-backed settler violence continues to terrorize Palestinians. Yesh Din reports there have been at least 672 violent attacks since September 27th. Two stories that received a lot of coverage this week are a vicious attack by settlers on Washington Post reporter Heidi Levine who was covering settlers attacking olive harvesters in Abu Falah, and the detention of U.S. Congressional candidate Brad Lander and a large group of solidarity activists who joined Palestinians to harvest olives near Nehalim.
Attacks on Palestinians proceed on a daily basis.
INTERNATIONAL SCENE
Canada Legal Suit Challenges Settlement Sales
Global Echo Litigation Center and Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR), have filed a first-of-its-kind complaint with Canada’s Competition Bureau asking it to investigate the activities of five real estate companies that it alleges have purposefully misled Canadian customers while marketing the sale of settlement properties.
Global Echo writes:
“Our case summary explains how the complaint uses the activities of five real estate companies as representative examples of a longstanding pattern of allegedly misleading advertising about settlement properties marketed at events in Montréal and Toronto and online between 2024 and 2026
According to the complaint, these companies marketed residential properties located in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem (such as Adam, Ma’ale Adumim, Efrat, Gush Etzion, and Givat HaMatos) using slogans like, “Find Your Dream Home in Israel,” and in some cases advertising them as being located “in Israel.” If the allegations are substantiated, in obscuring the true geographic and legal status of these properties, these companies may have deprived Canadian consumers of information essential to making informed purchasing decisions and, moreover, potentially exposing them to significant legal and financial risks.”
BONUS READS
- “Israel’s Moderate Settlers Would Rather Ethnically Cleanse the Palestinians More Politely” (Haaretz, 10/21/2026)
- “Settlement security chief charged with shooting Palestinian woman at pirate roadblock” (The Times of Israel, 10/23/2026)
- “How an Israeli outpost in the West Bank has become part of a wider cycle of violence against Palestinians” (CNN, 10/21/2026)
- “Netanyahu: Israel needs to prep ‘alternate economy’ to circumvent any global sanctions” (The Times of Israel, 10/23/2026)
- “Statement on E-1 Settlement Tender” (Statement by UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband)
- “Outposts, violence, impunity: The anatomy of Israeli settler land grabs” (Al Jazeera, 10/22/2026)
- “IDF Chief, Jewish Terrorism in the West Bank Is on You” (Haaretz, 10/19/2026)