As settlement expansion accelerates across the occupied West Bank, one figure has become central to this campaign: Yossi Dagan, head of the Northern West Bank Settlements Council. Far from a mere bureaucrat, he is increasingly portrayed as the architect of a vision designed to fragment Palestinian life while embedding settlers permanently into the landscape. With ambitions that extend to a million settlers in the northern West Bank by 2050, his plans include new roads, housing blocs, transport hubs, and even an airport, all woven into a blueprint that entrenches control and erases the land’s original identity.

Dagan’s reach stretches beyond infrastructure. He has actively promoted the return of settlements dismantled in Gaza, signed export contracts for settlement products with international partners, and lobbied foreign officials to back his expansionist project. In parallel, he has mobilised financial networks to arm settlers with advanced weapons, fuelling a climate of intimidation in Palestinian towns and villages. His tent pitched in Bruqin has become emblematic of his style: drawing new lines on the ground, backed by bulldozers, to decide the fate of entire communities.

The settler leader’s growing popularity mirrors Israel’s shift further to the right, where ideas once considered extreme are now mainstream. With strong ties to political elites, foreign supporters, and religious groups abroad, Dagan embodies the push to impose sovereignty over the West Bank and erase any possibility of a Palestinian presence. His ascent signals not only the hardening of settler influence but also a dangerous future where displacement is institutionalised and normalised.