Israel’s escalating campaign of demolishing Palestinian homes in the West Bank is the other side of the coin of seizing Palestinian land for settlement expansion. The objective is to force Palestinians to silently leave.
What is regarded as “calm” in the West Bank is a daily reality of settler and army violence, home demolitions, and arrests. It is as if for Palestinians to exist in the media, they have to be killed.
As both Eastern and Western Christians prepare to celebrate Easter, the divide between Palestinian Christians and those in the West has never been larger. The core of this divide is the racist theology of Christian Zionism.
Internal dissent in Israel’s military establishment is pushing the government to sign a ceasefire deal that would return Israeli captives at any cost. Netanyahu might find a political way out by promising right-wing allies that the West Bank is next.
“Displacement has been our constant reality for almost two years,” says Malek, a father of two in Khan Younis. “Every day, we are forced to find new ways to survive in a situation where the only thing that has become cheaper is human life.”
Israel is expanding its “Iron Wall” offensive in the West Bank as it approves plans to separate the northern West Bank from the south. The plan is an accelerated prelude to Israel’s expected annexation of the West Bank.
Ahmad Manasra was arrested at 13 and kept in solitary confinement for years. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in prison and was at serious risk of self-harm. His release to a remote location far from his family was Israel’s final act of torture.
Despite widespread participation in a general strike protesting the genocide in Gaza, organized Palestinian forces in the West Bank are experiencing a “moment of weakness,” civil society activists say, due to Israel’s campaign of terror.
Netanyahu is replacing officials in key state positions with his own loyalists in a bid to consolidate power — and he is using the escalating war on Gaza to do it.
Sometimes I wonder if journalism is as pointless as politics. But when I speak to families in Gaza, I am reminded that in the face of global indifference, there is a duty, even if just to my own conscience, to try and change this horrible reality.