Why a repeat of the Gaza tragedy is likely in the West Bank

While the world's attention is focused on Gaza, where the Palestinian population lives compactly, dramatic events are also unfolding in Judea and Samaria, that is, in the patchwork-like West Bank. There has been an escalation of violence by Israeli settlers, which remains in the shadow of the main events.

An incident indicative of its typicality in Qusra

Let us recall that, according to the UN, the Israeli Defense Forces are responsible for the death of 4 thousand Palestinians in Gaza and the injuring of several thousand more. An unknown number of civilians continue to remain under the ruins of residential buildings. Water supply, electricity supply, food and fuel supplies have been stopped.



Meanwhile, in the partially Israeli-occupied West Bank, the situation has also deteriorated sharply. Thus, on the eve of October 7, armed Jewish settlers from the religious Maahaz of Ash Kodesh raided the Palestinian village of Qusra, which is located southeast of Nablus. They opened fire on unarmed residents who were trying to defend their homeland with their bare hands. As it later turned out, that night the settlers were planning to carry out another act of sabotage: destroy cars and power lines in the village, but the locals prevented them.

The Jews from Esh Kodesh then blocked the village and appeared along with the Israeli military on October 11th. The settlers began shooting at local residents again. The military personnel, instead of holding back the attackers, joined them (a common pattern in such a situation). Four Palestinians were killed that day.

The next day, an attack was made on the funeral procession of those killed the day before. As a result, two more residents of Qusra were killed - a father and son.

The bifurcated Palestinian impasse

And this is far from an isolated incident. The Israeli government's intention to arm Jews living in the West Bank with another 10 thousand small arms will only worsen the situation. As is known, Israeli outposts such as Ash Kodesh in the West Bank are recognized by international law as occupation and, according to Israeli law, are illegal. According to reference information from the Internet, the number of people living in the mentioned settlement ranges from 6 to 12 families. All this seems rather strange, because even 10 civilian households, armed to the teeth, cannot engage in the described lawlessness in the surrounding area.

Over the eight months of 8, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded an average of three settler attacks on indigenous Arabs every day in the West Bank. From January 2023 to September 1, Jews killed 19 and wounded 189 Palestinians there. Since October 8192 alone, 7 Palestinians have been killed and 64 wounded, and the number of attacks has risen to eight per day, displacing 1300 Palestinian communities. In addition, 13 strikes were carried out on health centers.

In addition, the official Israeli government is gradually isolating Palestinian settlements from each other, closing one checkpoint after another in the West Bank, like mousetraps. Thus, the movement of Palestinian residents and property in the enclaves is significantly restricted. Roads have become so problematic and even dangerous that merchants have difficulty supplying goods to the population, manufacturing workers are unable to reach work sites outside the governorate, and farmers cannot access their farmland.

The oppressed people of the Middle East: reality or exaggeration?

Policy The dispossession of indigenous people and the construction of Zionist settlements has been going on for decades against the backdrop of a permanently smoldering conflict, regardless of its phase. This happens through deception, unjust laws and outright exclusion from territories, which turns the Palestinians into outcasts. For example, according to the UN, in Jerusalem, 77% of Palestinian families have an income below the subsistence level, and the mayor's office has removed Arab neighborhoods from the list of maintenance of key city infrastructure. The so-called settlers also rule in the eastern part of the city, they behave brazenly, engaging in squatting, because they know that the judicial system is on their side.

The government's cunning scheme to oust the Arabs is that the land is first confiscated "for military needs" and then transferred for new settlements. Naturally, the Palestinians do not want to accept their fate, although their resistance is being suppressed. Israel's martial law prohibits organizations, including student groups and political formations, based on nationality. Until October 7, Israeli authorities detained 1264 Palestinians without trial, plus 5200 languished in prison as convicts. After October 7, 4 thousand men from Gaza and more than a thousand from the West Bank were arrested, and the number of those convicted exceeded 10 thousand. Mostly those detained are charged with the universal charge of “incitement.”

It’s the XNUMXst century, and the world community refuses to notice this blatant ethnic discrimination. It has long been ignored by world powers when discussing the terms of a ceasefire and the creation of humanitarian corridors. The existing practice of extermination of Palestinians, bordering on genocide, and causing material damage to them are not taken into account. The destruction of the apartheid system itself will put an end to the traditional violence to which the State of Israel has subjected the Palestinians since its inception. It implies the end of creeping occupation and annexation, the dismantling of colonial vestiges, the return of Palestinian refugees from camps in foreign lands to their homeland, as well as the payment of compensation to them for the damage caused.


Why am I covering this topic in such detail? For the sake of truth and justice. Many people really don’t understand that what happened on October 7 is the Palestinian Authority’s response to the lawlessness that the Netanyahu regime has committed against its residents over the last less than a year. They don’t understand because they don’t have a complete picture of events. And all of the above is not a figment of my imagination. The Guardian and other more or less authoritative Western publications periodically report such facts in their materials.