Updates & Analysis

Israeli forces have displaced 1,527 Palestinians and demolished 1,164 structures across the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the first eight months of 2025, maintaining a relentless pace of dispossession that targets homes, schools, and water infrastructure. From forced self-demolitions in Silwan where families must pay to destroy their own homes, to the destruction of agricultural facilities and animal shelters in Bedouin communities, the data reveals how bureaucratic violence and permit denials function as tools of ethnic cleansing. With 84 schools facing demolition orders and 73 communities lacking water networks, Israel's systematic erasure of Palestinian life continues to clear ground for exclusive Jewish settlement expansion.

TThirty years after the Oslo Accords were signed with promises of peace and Palestinian statehood, the reality on the ground tells a starkly different story. What was sold to the world as a historic breakthrough has functioned as one of the most effective tools for advancing Zionist colonization while maintaining a veneer of legitimacy through endless negotiations.

The pace of demolitions in 2025 remains higher than historical averages, despite the relative downward trend in recent months. With 333 operations displacing 1,419 people in just 210 days, projections indicate 579 total incidents affecting 2,466 people by year's end. This would make 2025 the second-worst year since 2009, surpassed only by 4,293 displacements in 2024.

Today I hosted friends visiting Palestine for the first time, showing them Bethlehem's most important sites in just a few hours. We visited the apartheid wall, checkpoint 300, Aida refugee camp, and the old city, while I shared both historical context and my personal journey of transformation. Over the years, the consistent support of friends, activists, and everyday people has made our critical work possible—supporting local communities, advising international organizing efforts, conducting research, and organizing campaigns.

Israel's parliament voted Wednesday on a symbolic motion calling for West Bank annexation, drawing sharp Palestinian condemnation. The nonbinding proposal, passing 71-13.

Comparing yearly totals, 2024's catastrophic 4,293 displaced Palestinians dwarfs the 593 displaced in 2010—a seven-fold increase. The 2025 projection of 2,502 displaced continues this elevated baseline of violence, cementing displacement at historically unprecedented levels.

Since the mid-March collapse of Gaza’s ceasefire, Israel’s assault has killed or injured tens of thousands, crushed what remains of vital infrastructure, and forced more than 640,000 people into an ever-shrinking patchwork of so-called ‘safe zones.’ Even ‘humanitarian aid’ distribution sites and food lines have been made fatal, prompting UN calls for an independent inquiry. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Green Line, the Israeli cabinet rubber-stamped 22 new settlements—and legalised nine outposts—while bulldozers resumed razing homes in Nur Shams refugee camp, Tulkarm. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and its acceleration of land grabs in the West Bank reveal a single, coordinated strategy of expulsion and enclosure that is reshaping Palestinian life from river to sea.

With the long history of international aid doing more to disrupt Palestinian organizing than support it, the Good Shepherd Collective relies on people like you—folks willing to make meaningful personal sacrifices—to keep this critical work moving forward in Palestine