Eurasia Press & News
“Every day there is a new demolition operation. Every day settlers take more and more land. Every day there is violence. ”
Gaza is not the only focus of Israel’s terror regime. In the West Bank, settlers and the Israeli occupation is destroying the lives of Palestinians.
Mahmoud lives in Umm al-Khair, a village south of Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank. He said Israel is conducting a “slow genocide” in the West Bank and watched a settler murder someone from his village.
“There is no infrastructure, no water, no electricity, no basic human rights,” he told Socialist Worker.
“People need education and healthcare—but that does not exist here.”
Umm al-Khair is in Area C, the largest of three areas of the West Bank, which Israel has full control over. “All the houses of Palestinian people in Area C are being demolished. Every day when people wake, they ask if today is the day their house will be demolished.”
In the last three years, Mahmoud explained, Israeli settlers have stolen more than 381,000 square kilometres of Palestinian land in Area C.
“When the settlers come, they use their power to remove us.”
As Area C is under full Israeli control, Palestinians can only call the Israeli police. “We call the police, but the real decision is in the hands of the settlers—the police and army try to protect the settlers from us.
“When we call them, they take a lot of time to come stop the settlers.
“We have a decision from the Israeli court that this is an area for Palestinian people. They cannot remove us legally—so they use illegal ways.
“A month ago, we discovered that settlers were making a new farm in our land. We tried to stop them in non-violent way, and we called the police.
“The police took two hours to come, and the settlers were violent against us during that time.
“Soldiers came and lied to protect the settlers and didn’t allow us to remove the new farm in our lands. Then police came and told the settlers to leave—the civil administration told them this was Palestinian land.
“But the settlers left and came again in the night and tried to complete the work. We called the police again but they have not stopped the settlers’ actions.”
All of this is underlined by brutal settler violence. Mahmoud described one instance—the murder of Awdah Hathaleen, an activist and contributor to the documentary No Other Land.
“On 28 July, one settler with a bulldozer tried to come onto our land. The people of the village tried to stop the bulldozer—then the settler came out and started to shoot.”
“He shot one person from the village and killed him.” The person killed Hathaleen.
“The soldiers then came to protect the settlers. But then the police came and arrested 18 people from our village.”
The Israeli court ruled that settler Yinon Levi was acting in “self-defence”. He was put under house arrest for three days and then released.
“The Israeli army detained Awdah’s body for ten days. We asked to bury him on our land, but Israeli forces said we must bury him in Hebron, or in the village during the night with no more than 15 people.
“60 women went on hunger strike against the army’s decision to withhold the body and arrest the people from our village. After 10 days, they let us bury him where he the settler’s martyred him.”
The brutal violence and murder is protected by the Israeli state. The clear aim of the settler regime is to colonise the entire West Bank—that means destroying what Palestinians need to survive to force them to leave.
“Israel now is doing a ‘slow genocide’ in the West Bank. They kill in Gaza, but in the West Bank they do everything slowly.
“All their procedures are trying to force us to leave our land. They come and try to cut the water pipelines. They take away resources, water and electricity, and use our resources to supply their chicken farms with electricity.”
And Israel denies Palestinians to build any more houses. “You need a permit, so you have to go to Israel, but then Israel won’t give you a permit—they won’t let you use your land.
“They won’t let you get electricity lines, it’s forbidden to put down water pipes.”
Mahmoud said that all this means people like himself are being forced out of the countryside and into big towns such as Hebron, Ramallah and Jenin.
“Our livelihood depends on the sheep and goats, but Israel prevents us from feeding our sheep, it won’t let us use water for sheep and goats, for people.
“We are prevented from living a Bedouin life—but it’s allowed for the settlers.
“The colonialists of Israel change the life of people in the West Bank into a hard life, a miserable life so people are suffering every day to ensure their needs are met.”
Israel’s crimes do not stop at its barbaric genocide in Gaza. Its violent, colonial project in the West Bank is part of the same regime to ethnically cleanse all of Palestine.
