The West Bank land grab no one’s watching
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With the world’s attention fixed on the war in Iran, Israeli settler gangs are rapidly and violently expanding outposts in the West Bank – seemingly with impunity. So, what’s it like on the ground? Is the Israeli government softening to the ‘extremist’ settler movement? And will settlers ever be held accountable?
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Guest: Richard Spencer, world affairs correspondent, The Times
Host: Manveen Rana
Producers: Sophie McNulty, Taryn Siegel
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Read more: Israel’s settlers seize their chance to snatch land in West Bank
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 0:06.2 | I'm Manvina Rana. |
| 0:12.5 | While the world's attention is fixed some 1,500 kilometers to the east... |
| 0:18.6 | Where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night. |
| 0:26.5 | Tensions are quietly mounting in the West Bank. |
| 0:31.5 | Producer Abir Salman identifies us as journalists before translating the soldier's commands. |
| 0:39.3 | At the end of March, a CNN crew was arrested by an IDF patrol after interviewing residents in the West Bank. |
| 0:47.5 | So we're currently detained by the Israeli military. They've told us to sit in our cars and wait. |
| 0:52.6 | As you can see, one of them is right here. |
| 1:01.5 | From inside the car, where he's being detained, the CNN journalist asks the soldier what he's doing here. |
| 1:05.8 | We're here because this is our place. |
| 1:07.9 | The land is ours. |
| 1:17.8 | The West Bank, been occupied by Israel since 1967. |
| 1:21.1 | It's about half the size of Northern Ireland. |
| 1:30.1 | Since the war in Iran began six weeks ago, violence by Israeli settlers has shot up, killing seven Palestinians. |
| 1:37.2 | Every day, every single minute, there is another attack on our homes, our people, even our olive trees. A heavy cloud of grief has settled over us. The West Bank is home to over 2 million Palestinians. |
| 1:51.0 | But now, more and more Israelis are displacing the Palestinians and settling in their territory. |
| 1:58.0 | Their numbers have reached more than 700,000. So what's going on in the West Bank? |
| 2:03.6 | How are settler gangs using force to establish new outposts? |
| 2:08.6 | And will they ever be held accountable? The story today, how settlers are using the Iran war to seize the West Bank. |
| 2:34.1 | So Aboufala is in the West Bank. |
| 2:36.4 | It's about half an hour's drive north of Ramallah, which is the sort of de facto capital |
... |
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