The Israeli army has been protecting violent settlers in the West Bank for decades (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
Violence in Palestine has become so extreme that even US officials have been forced to condemn Israeli settlers. But it will take more than words to stop the terror state.
Around a dozen settlers blocked a road in the village of Qusra near Nablus in the West Bank this week. It has left two families under siege. They are cut off from electricity and water and unable to leave their homes.
The families were forced to appeal for help on social media after food supplies started to run low.
Aysha Hassan, from one of the families, said they were “dying of fear, extremely terrified”, after the settlers started throwing stones at them.
Palestinian home owners complained to the Israeli army, but they failed to get the settlers to leave. And at one point soldiers were seen praying alongside the settlers.
Instead of tackling the settlers, the Israeli Defence Forces have ordered Palestinian families to leave their homes.
In the West Bank village of Umm al-Khair, harassment and attacks by settlers are an almost daily reality. And recently they shut the gate to Masafer Yatta, the collection of communities that includes the village.
“They prevented everything from passing, people couldn’t go to the market or the hospital,” Umm al-Khair resident Mahmoud told Socialist Worker.
In the same village, a family of eight people saw their house demolished last month. Mahmoud said that house demolitions by the armed forces and the Israeli civil administration are “continuing and increasing every day”.
“Nobody can stop this,” he said. “Even if people go to the courts the Israelis don’t respond to it. They demolish the house before the court decision.”
The Israeli armed forces even harassed Palestinians commemorating the life of Mahmoud’s cousin, the activist Awdah Hathaleen, who was shot and killed by Israeli settler Yinon Levi last July.
Mahmoud says the next two months “will be a difficult time”. In the run-up to Israeli parliamentary elections at the end of October, extremist settlers are taking the opportunity to try to create a new reality on the ground.
It’s a reality that doesn’t include Palestinians.
He said, “They will try to confiscate more land and try to establish more outposts. They think it’s time to make a change in the West Bank and force people to leave. We expect more attacks and no-one can stop them.”
He added, “Palestinian people face a lot of problems, no work, no money, no fuel. The people have lost hope for the future.
“Every day I meet younger people who ask how can they get out of Palestine? How can they emigrate? All the people here think that life is miserable.”
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, responded to the siege of Qusra by calling settlers “terrorists”.
On Thursday he said, “Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting.”
The settlements are illegal under both Israeli and international law. But it is unusual for a strong supporter of Israel to use the language of terrorism to describe the settlers.
British prime minister Andy Burnham said earlier this month that he will announce some firmer measures against Israeli settlements “in due course”.
But Western governments have done nothing to stop produce flowing from Israeli settlements or to impose sanctions on the Israeli state that backs up and defends the settlers.
Trade with the West helps secure the continued existence of the settlements and legitimise their presence.
Research by the legal not for profit organisation Global Echo found that one in six shipments of agricultural products from Israel to Britain and the European Union originated from illegal settlements. And this figure doesn’t take into account that settlements trade in services as well as goods.
Many of the ruling classes of neighbouring countries also accept the continued existence of a settler colonial state in the region.
The rulers of Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, betrayed Palestinians when they signed up to the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020. Lebanese rulers have also recently opened negotiations with Israel.
It has only furthered Israel’s occupation in Palestine.
Palestinians like Mahmoud feel that they have been left alone to fight a much more powerful enemy.
They need the backing of a solidarity movement that wins demands for boycott, divestment and sanctions and of the masses in the wider region who have the potential to topple their own rulers.
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