Israel’s tightening restrictions are deepening the West Bank’s economic crisis. In part one of a four-part series, Jeremy Webb’s first-hand account examines unemployment, movement controls and mounting Palestinian economic hardship.

If you are one of the very few visitors to the West Bank in recent months, you will be struck, as I was, by the extent to which the Israeli government since 7 October is taking steps to further degrade the West Bank economy and aggressively increase restrictions on Palestinians’ daily life. It’s a combustible mix and one which indicates a rapid intensification of what is being called apartheid. Among Israelis, there is what amounts to an evident siege mentality. That global opinion is turning against their actions in the West Bank and Gaza is rarely acknowledged: any suggestion of apartheid being practised is most often seen as offensive and rejected outright.

For visitors to the West Bank, evidence of what is seen as apartheid is, however, ubiquitous. But it is being less well chronicled given Gaza has been sucking the oxygen out of coverage of the West Bank.

A traveller to Bethlehem will pass long stretches of walls, fences and numerous checkpoints. On arrival, what is striking is its third-world look, contrasting with the first-world feel of much of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In discussing the obviously dilapidated state of much........

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