Smotrich & Co. to ramp-up home demolitions

Yesterday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that his goal for 2025 was to demolish more than Palestinians would build in the West Bank. Smotrich holds a unique position in the Israeli Defense Ministry as well, which has given him significant control over civilian matters in the West Bank — among them, the demolition of Palestinian property. His stated goal comes after many years of working to increase the pace of demolition of Palestinian homes, businesses, and agricultural buildings as the co-founder of Regavim, an Israeli NGO dedicated to this project. It also comes after the dramatic increase in demolitions in 2024, which saw the highest number of Israeli demolitions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1948 Nakba.

In 2024, the number of demolitions reached 1,766 structures, almost double the number from 2023 and four times the total in 2020. At least 4,275 people were displaced in 2024 alone — only in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These demolitions are facilitated and compounded by an official policy to reject Palestinian construction applications in Area C of the West Bank, making the vast majority of construction illegal by default. Unlike settler construction, Palestinian structures do not receive the benefit of legalization after the fact by Israeli authorities.

So far in 2025, while the ceasefire in Gaza has thankfully continued, Israeli forces have ramped up their violent invasions and aggressions across the West Bank, particularly targeting refugee camps in northern cities including Jenin and Tulkarm. Israeli forces’ invasion of Jenin and Tulkarm refugee camps are ongoing, entering their 28th and 22nd days, respectively. These aggressions are not only marked by forced expulsions, with at least 40,000 people being forcibly displaced from four refugee camps near Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarm — but also by systematic destruction of local infrastructure. Israeli forces have used bulldozers to dig up roads in these camps, destroy water infrastructure, detonate homes, destroy vehicles, and abduct, injure, and murder Palestinian residents who remain.

While it is not clear exactly how many structures have been destroyed in these ongoing invasions alone, UN OCHA reported that on February 2, 2025 alone, Israeli forces detonated 23 residential structures in the Jenin refugee camp, affecting more than 50 families. Wafa News Agency estimated only a few days ago that as many as 470 homes in Jenin refugee camp may have been destroyed or damaged. This act of massive destruction, carried out in moments, will ensure that families have no homes to return to in a refugee camp — a place they built and reside in as a direct result of Israel’s colonization and theft of their former homes.

In the context of these figures and this information, we must take Smotrich’s threat very seriously. This is not just about the wanton destruction of Palestinian life and infrastructure; it is part of a plan to make life impossible for Palestinians here, and particularly to make resistance to zionist colonization impossible. As Palestinians resist erasure and genocide on the ground, folks abroad must raise their voices against zionism, colonialism, capitalism, and all of the forces animating this grotesque cruelty.

As for our part, GSC is organizing a series of events and public conversations over the next year to discuss Palestine and resistance around the world — particularly in the US, UK, and South Africa. But there is no conversation without our friends and comrades around the world who can help make this possible through financial contributions and organizing events near you. You can make a monthly donation, or a one-time contribution to this project here. Please reach out if you would like to organize an event in your community!