Israeli settler pogroms, annexation, and economic strangulation are eroding Palestinian life in the West Bank. So, why aren’t we seeing more Palestinian resistance to the existential threat erasing their communities?
After three men from the West Bank village of Abu Falah were killed in an Israeli settler pogrom, residents say they feel “paralyzed” and “humiliated” that they can be killed in front of their homes without consequences.
With the world’s attention focused on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, Israel is making conditions unlivable for Palestinians in the West Bank. Residents say that every Israeli measure to “strangle” Palestinians feels like it’s “irreversible.”
Israeli violence in the West Bank isn’t as dramatic as in Gaza, but it is methodical, durable, and sometimes harder to understand. Here’s how Israel is using settler terror, financial policies, and legal tactics to suffocate Palestinian life.
Ras Ain al-Auja was one of the largest Palestinian Bedouin villages in the West Bank. Now most of its 120 families have been forcibly displaced by state-backed Israeli settlers after nonstop attacks. Residents are calling it “another Nakba.”
The ancient Palestinian town of Sebastia in the northern West Bank is a testament to 5,000 years of Palestinian history. Israel announced that it plans to seize the village and its archaeological sites.
Since the Gaza ceasefire, Israel has intensified its operations against Palestinians in the West Bank, conducting military raids in the north and increasing settler attacks on Palestinians harvesting olive groves.
Awdah Hathaleen was killed by Israeli settler Yinon Levy in broad daylight. The perpetrator walks free, while Awdah’s body has been held hostage by the Israeli army. The village of Umm al-Khair is going on hunger strike to recover his body.
Israeli settlers have been targeting villages on the eastern slopes of Ramallah for months, with the latest attacks turning deadly. Villagers say it’s all part of Israel’s plans to drive Palestinians out of the area and pave the way for annexation.
The Trump administration is calling on Israel to investigate the killing of Sayfollah Musallet, but Israel rarely holds soldiers or settlers accountable for violence against Palestinians.