In a special investigation on a "revolution" that has taken place over the past three years, Haaretz reporters Yarden Michaeli, Matan Golan and Yaniv Kubovich detailed the push to restore and drastically expand Israeli presence in the northern West Bank that was part of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan in 2005.

On the Haaretz Podcast, Michaeli discusses how the settler movement and far-right politicians have spent the 20 years since the disengagement took place planning how to execute their "return" to four West Bank settlements located in the largest contiguous area of Palestinian population in the area.

With the ascent of the most far-right government in history in 2022, members of the movement have used their power and influence in what is essentially "the settlers' government" to "return big time," Michaeli said.

In the newly published Haaretz investigation, "Undoing History," Michaeli and his team reveal how 18 new settlements and eight new army bases are cutting through the largest contiguous Palestinian population in the West Bank.

The comprehensive effort includes military deployments, new bases and checkpoints, road construction, land expropriations, the displacement of more than 40,000 residents from three refugee camps and the terrorizing of daily Palestinian life in what senior military officials warn could destabilize an already volatile region.

Every aspect of the plan, Michaeli warned, is "bad news" and "harmful" to the Palestinians living there, and that the infrastructure in place "will be very hard to remove" – undermining the Oslo Accords and the possibility of a two-state solution.

Read more: 

Undoing History: As the World Watched Gaza, Settlers Charged Ahead in the West Bank. A Clash Is Imminent

Foreign Ministry Rejects Smotrich's Claim He Axed 1997 Hebron Accord With PA, as Israel Takes Municipal Powers From Palestinians

How Israel Is Using Archaeology to Advance West Bank Annexation

Former PM Ehud Olmert: Israel Is Conducting a Systematic Campaign of Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in the West Bank

'Nobody's Born a Soldier': The Israeli Teens Refusing the Military Draft Say They Can Take the Backlash