Fundamental Changes in Governance Structures Effect a Revolution in Israeli Facts on the Ground in the West Bank
Bet El, Feb 20, 2026: WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com is pleased to announce the release of its annual report, updated through January 1, 2026. The report reveals that the Jewish population in the West Bank grew by an impressive 2.2% in 2025, reaching a total of 541,085 residents—more than double the growth rate of Israel's general population, which increased by 1.1%, bringing Israel’s total population to 10,178,000, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
The detailed report includes a breakdown of Jewish towns and villages in the West Bank by region, as well as population data for each individual village, based on Israel’s Population Registry. The report also tracks the growth of these communities over the last five years.
The PDF report is attached to this email, An online flip-book version is available to view here.
Over the past three years, a quiet but far-reaching revolution has taken place in Judea and Samaria. At the center of this transformation stand Religious Zionist Party Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Orit Strock, whose reshaping of Israel’s administrative and planning architecture has translated ideology into facts on the ground.
In coalition negotiatings after the 2022 elections, Minister Smotrich insisted on the establishment of the Settlement Administration within the Ministry of Defense under his party’s authority which centralizes planning and land policy for the West Bank region.
In addition, dozens of key powers (about 70) were transferred from the head of the West Bank Civil Administration (a senior military officer) to a civilian deputy appointed by Smotrich who effectively became the de facto governor of civilian life in Judea and Samaria. With this move, Smotrich wrested practical control over land allocation, planning, and enforcement from military beaucrats who were less sympathetic to a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria to his appointees in the Civil Administration and Defense Ministry.
In the last two years, Finance Minister Smotrich has established 69 new Jewish towns, approved for construction over 60,000 new homes, and declared tens of thousands of dunams - amounting to many thousands of acres – to be “state lands (and thus available for Jewish development),” invested 7 billion shekels in highways, 140 Jewish farms which have reclaimed 700,000 dunam (roughly 170,000 acres) from Arab squatters. all this was done by legally by government authority, on the table , with budgeting, and coordinated with military security. Simultaneously, Smotrich has increased enforcement and quadrupled the demolition of illegal Arab structures such that for the first time in 2025, there were more illegal Arab structures demolished than built.
The 2026 West Bank Jewish Population Stats Report, offering comprehensive insights into this demographic's growth, is available by subscribing (free) at WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com.
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