Deny and Demolish: Israel's Permitting System in the West Bank

February 2025

keyboard_arrow_down

Area C of the West Bank is completely controlled by the Israeli military. It's home to 300,000 Palestinians and 400,000 Israeli settlers.

Palestinians in Area C must receive building permits from the Israeli military's Civil Administration in order to legally build their homes, schools, and other structures. Here you can see how many permits the military has granted Palestinian residents over the last decade.

While Palestinians only secure a handful of permits every year, the Israeli settlers who live alongside them receive thousands.

Palestinians' lack of permits isn't for lack of trying. They've submitted thousands of applications to build on their land, which are represented as tiles here.

In theory, there's more than enough space to accomodate construction. Area C is relatively vast, constituting 61% of all land in the West Bank. However Israel only allows Palestinians to apply for permits on 0.6% of Area C's land, leaving much of the rest zoned for Israeli settlement.

And even within these narrow geographic confines, the Israeli military still rejects nearly all Palestinian applications. The Civil Administration has said these applications are rejected "for planning and policy reasons," while acknowledging that "in the Israeli-settler sector... 60-70% of the submitted and discussed plans are approved."

The policy guiding this huge disparity may be Israel's effort to promote Jewish settlement and exclusive sovereignty over the West Bank. These principles were articulated decades ago in the platform of the Likud - Israel's most dominant parliamentary party. They were also enshrined into Israeli law in 2018.

Without permits, Palestinians have no choice but to build illegally. The Israeli military, in turn, is empowered to demolish these buildings on the grounds that they're unlawfully constructed. Every year, the military demolishes thousands of buildings under these pretenses, erasing homes and communities throughout Area C.

This process of home demolition can feel Kafkaesque. Palestinians, who are effectively barred from receiving permits, are considered to be acting unlawfully when they build without them. The permitting regime leaves them in an impossible position: follow the rules, and you can't build a roof over your head. Disobey the rules, and the military may render you homeless anyway.

In these tiles are the stories of just a few of the thousands who have suffered from demolition.

Many have watched helplessly as the military destroyed their homes, schools, water storage, and electricity infrastructure. Some have peacefully protested against demolition for decades, but that itself is a risky proposition, since protesting requires a permit from an Israeli military commander.

Under all this pressure, communities have been forced to abandon their land entirely.