New research by the Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University and reported by Ha'aretz revealed the extreme lengths the Israeli government took to dispossess Palestinians of their land to build settlements.
Settlement construction in the occupied West Bank is a determined policy of successive Israeli governments, whether from the right, centre or left. The settlement construction began in earnest in September 1967, near al-Khalil (Hebron), mere months after the occupation by the Israeli army.
In 1972, the Israeli military used a crop duster to spray toxic chemicals to render Palestinian land sterile to deter farmers from the village of Aqraba from cultivating their fields. The drastic measure came after the Israeli military made several attempts to discourage farmers from growing crops. First, they told the village farmers their land would be declared a military training zone. When that didn't work, the Israeli army sabotaged agricultural tools and used vehicles to destroy crops.