Thursday morning, Israelis forces killed a young Palestinian man in a predawn raid on the Balata refugee camp. Hours later an Israeli settler committed a car-ramming attack against a Palestinian man near Ramallah, killing him.

2021 was a watershed year for Palestinians. The struggle for Palestinian freedom and liberation saw unprecedented levels of global solidarity and unity amongst Palestinians despite their forced fragmentation. The year did not come without its challenges, however.

Several Palestinians were injured and 63-year-old Ghadeer Fuqaha Masalmeh was killed on Friday, as a wave of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and their homes has swept across the occupied West Bank. Masalmeh is the third Palestinian to be killed in the West Bank over the past week. 2021 has seen a staggering rise in settler violence, with UN OCHA reporting at least 450 settler attacks against Palestinians and their property as of December 6th.

After an Israeli official tells an American diplomat that the country will treat settler violence against Palestinians “severely,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett leaps in to defend the settlers, his political base. “There are marginal elements in every community… but we must not generalize about an entire community.”

A wave of settler violence spread across the occupied West Bank in the early hours of Friday morning, severely injuring several Palestinians and causing damage to their property, in a series of “revenge” attacks following the killing of an Israeli settler. 

The Israeli government “fully supports and assists” the recent spike in settler violence against Palestinians. Because “Continuous, systemic violence meted out by settlers is part of Israel’s official policy, driving massive takeover of Palestinian” lands, B’Tselem says in a groundbreaking report. But the Washington Post’s recent article on settler violence suggests that the Israeli government is taking it on vigorously.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank town of Beita have been struggling to access their land for the olive harvest due to the Israeli military’s continued occupation of Jabal Sabih. “No matter what, we will not leave this land,” Beita resident Ammar Hamayel tells Mondoweiss. “We grew up here, we learned here what it means to be Palestinian and what the land means to us. I will not leave here until my soul leaves my body.”

There are more than two settler attacks on Palestinians a day this year on average. According to two Israeli human rights experts, the violent settlers are working with the cooperation of the army and the Israeli government to take over more and more land for Jewish settlement in a policy of pushing Palestinians out of Area C. This is a traditional use by the army of Israeli settlers.

Thousands of Israelis participated in the ultra-nationalist “Flag March” in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday, marching through the streets of the city chanting “Death to Arabs,” “may your village burn,” and “a second Nakba is coming.” Among the participants of the march were right-wing Israeli lawmakers and members of parliament including Bezalel Smotrich, Shlomo Karai, Itamar Ben Gvir and Orit Struck.

Following a night of racist attacks by far-right Israeli extremists, Palestinians living in Lydda (Lod) are calling for immediate international intervention to defend them before it is too late.