‘Like we don’t exist’: Palestinians in West Bank denied say in Israel vote

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have no voice in the October 27 election, even as Israel’s government shapes their lives through settlement expansion, home demolitions and movement restrictions. Save Share Jabal al-Baba, occupied West Bank –In Jabal al-Baba, a small Bedouin community east of Jerusalem, Israel controls almost every aspect of Palestinians’ daily life, from building homes and accessing water to moving freely. Yet when Israelishead to the pollson October 27, the vast majority of the nearly three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank will have no say in choosing the government that rules their lives under occupation – unlike the 700,000 Jewish settlers living in some 300 illegal settlements and outposts across the territory, including occupied East Jerusalem. “They treat us like something that doesn’t exist,” said Atallah al-Jahalin, Jabal al-Baba’s community representative. “You don’t have the right to vote. You don’t have the rights that you would have in a democratic state.” About 450 people live in Jabal al-Baba, a community in Area C, which makes up about 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and remains under full Israeli military and civil control. Many residents here raise sheep and goats beside homes made from corrugated metal. Most belong to the Jahalin tribe, whose families were expelled from the Naqab (Negev) desert region by Israeli authorities in the years after the Nakba, the violent ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias in 1948. “You are forbidden from building a house. You are forbidden from building a street. You are forbidden from building a school,” said al-Jahalin. “Everything is forbidden to us.” Residents face constant pressure from Israeli soldiers and settlers, al-Jahalin said, on top of repeated demolitions. “In the past few years, we have had more than 100 demolition operations in our community,” he said. “We were constantly rebuilding our homes.” Israel says it demolishes Palestinian structuresbuilt without permits, which are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain. Israeli rights group Bimkom found authorities rejected more than 99 percent of Palestinian building permit applications in Area C between 2021 and 2024. While Palestinians are restricted from developing, Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law, are expanding at a record pace....