‘The population is strong and we are weak’: West Bank Palestinians have lost hope as violence escalates

Samir Messaoud was working his farm near Burqa, a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, when he received a call warning that a group of Jewish settlers had set fire to the family’s barn.

Messaoud turned back, only to have his attempts to control the blaze foiled by Israeli soldiers who arrived at the scene and fired tear gas at him while trying to fetch water from a nearby tank. “I told them: Go ahead and shoot me,” he said, gesturing around the burned-out building, with melted wire fittings to his right and ashes of wood and straw at his feet. “It was my livelihood. And now it is.

Last month’s torching – confirmed by Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group – was part of a wider escalation of settler violence against Palestinians under Israel’s far-right government, which took office last December. According to UN data, the rate of attacks by Palestinians and settlers on their property in the first five months of the year was 18 percent above the previous year’s level.

Locals in burqas fear the situation will only worsen as the coalition presses on with plans to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which Palestinians have long sought as the heart of a future state. The international community considers these settlements illegal. But they have swelled to accommodate more than 500,000 people, and observers say the arrival of Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government has upended the settler community.

In the past five months, the coalition has approved the legalization of nine settlement outposts, previously considered illegal by Israel. It has also advanced plans for 7,000 new settlement housing units, pledged billions of shekels for settlements and roads in the West Bank, and transferred major powers over civilian life in the region to Bezalel Smotrich, an ultranationalist settler. and are proponents of its annexation by Israel. Who was appointed Finance Minister and given a senior role in the Defense Ministry.

Last month, the authorities took another high-profile step, giving settlers a yeshiva – A religious school – In Homesh, an illegal outpost opposite Burka where a settlement was liquidated in 2005. The move was condemned by Washington, as it went against Israel’s commitments to the US in 2004 to vacate the settlement.

Yonatan Mizrahi of the Israeli advocacy group Peace Now said, “(Homesh) is a game-changer.” “Instead of turning a blind eye to illegal work like in the past, this government is supporting it. This is a statement.

At Homesh Hilltop, the statement has been well received. Menachem ben Shachar, a rabbi yeshivaSaid that the original decision to end the settlement and three others, along with Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, was a capitulation to Palestinian terrorists.

“They took it as a reward for themselves, and now we want to defeat terror and return to our land of Israel,” he said, as the young men brought new furniture to the prefab yeshiva While the soldiers were guarding nearby. “I hope the government will create a legal community here. So far it is only yeshiva, I want a community with houses and streets.

For residents of Burqa, this prospect is a disaster. Nasir Hijji, an imam in the town of about 5,000 people, said restrictions imposed by the army around Homesh meant locals were already unable to access much of their land. Now they fear more restrictions on movement and more difficulties in reaching their farms.

“It’s becoming a nightmare,” he said. “People have lost hope (of getting justice) and have no faith – neither in international law, nor in human rights law, nor in the Israeli High Court. , , It is like we are living in the jungle.

The biggest fear, however, is further violence. According to the United Nations, this year is on course to be the bloodiest in decades in the West Bank, with Israeli forces killing 112 Palestinians in the territory and Palestinians killing 15 Israelis in the first five months of the year.

Hijji said that in recent months the settlers destroyed hundreds of olive groves in Burqa, depriving farmers of a major source of income, and launched several attacks on property.

“The population now feel that they are empowered and that they are controlling the army. It is not the other way around,” said Ghassan Douglas, an official with Burqa, who monitors settlers’ activity in the West Bank. “( Israel) is shifting more and more to the right. , , And we are the ones who are paying the price for their electoral choices.”

Ben Shachar denied that Homesh residents had participated in the violence against the burqa. “They throw stones (at us), this is what they teach,” he said. “We just study Torah.”

Israeli army spokesmen and Homesh did not respond to requests for comment.

In an interview with Sky News last week, Netanyahu denied that the expansion of Israeli settlements was hindering the peace process. “The idea that there is a presence of Jews in their ancestral homeland, which has been our homeland for the past 3,000 years, that Jews should not live there . . . I think it is an obstacle to peace,” he said.

However, critics say the government’s move will kill any long-term chance of a two-state solution. Noah Landau, deputy editor of Haaretz newspaper, wrote last week, “Ignoring what is happening in Homesh leads to a continued legitimization of the settlement policy, which will result in the permanent establishment of a supremacist Jewish state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.” Will happen.” ,

In Burqa, Messaoud has long given up hope of an independent Palestine. “There are no states. States are only for the strong, They said. “(The population) are strong and we are weak. They have it all and they are the ones who are able to carry out their plans.

Samir Messaoud was working his farm near Burqa, a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, when he received a call warning that a group of Jewish settlers had set fire to the family’s barn.

Messaoud turned back, only to have his attempts to control the blaze foiled by Israeli soldiers who arrived at the scene and fired tear gas at him while trying to fetch water from a nearby tank. “I told them: Go ahead and shoot me,” he said, gesturing around the burned-out building, with melted wire fittings to his right and ashes of wood and straw at his feet. “It was my livelihood. And now it is.

Last month’s torching – confirmed by Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group – was part of a wider escalation of settler violence against Palestinians under Israel’s far-right government, which took office last December. According to UN data, the rate of attacks by Palestinians and settlers on their property in the first five months of the year was 18 percent above the previous year’s level.

Locals in burqas fear the situation will only worsen as the coalition presses on with plans to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which Palestinians have long sought as the heart of a future state. The international community considers these settlements illegal. But they have swelled to accommodate more than 500,000 people, and observers say the arrival of Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government has upended the settler community.

In the past five months, the coalition has approved the legalization of nine settlement outposts, previously considered illegal by Israel. It has also advanced plans for 7,000 new settlement housing units, pledged billions of shekels for settlements and roads in the West Bank, and transferred major powers over civilian life in the region to Bezalel Smotrich, an ultranationalist settler. and are proponents of its annexation by Israel. Who was appointed Finance Minister and given a senior role in the Defense Ministry.

Last month, the authorities took another high-profile step, giving settlers a yeshiva – A religious school – In Homesh, an illegal outpost opposite Burka where a settlement was liquidated in 2005. The move was condemned by Washington, as it went against Israel’s commitments to the US in 2004 to vacate the settlement.

Yonatan Mizrahi of the Israeli advocacy group Peace Now said, “(Homesh) is a game-changer.” “Instead of turning a blind eye to illegal work like in the past, this government is supporting it. This is a statement.

At Homesh Hilltop, the statement has been well received. Menachem ben Shachar, a rabbi yeshivaSaid that the original decision to end the settlement and three others, along with Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, was a capitulation to Palestinian terrorists.

“They took it as a reward for themselves, and now we want to defeat terror and return to our land of Israel,” he said, as the young men brought new furniture to the prefab yeshiva While the soldiers were guarding nearby. “I hope the government will create a legal community here. So far it is only yeshiva, I want a community with houses and streets.

For residents of Burqa, this prospect is a disaster. Nasir Hijji, an imam in the town of about 5,000 people, said restrictions imposed by the army around Homesh meant locals were already unable to access much of their land. Now they fear more restrictions on movement and more difficulties in reaching their farms.

“It’s becoming a nightmare,” he said. “People have lost hope (of getting justice) and have no faith – neither in international law, nor in human rights law, nor in the Israeli High Court. , , It is like we are living in the jungle.

The biggest fear, however, is further violence. According to the United Nations, this year is on course to be the bloodiest in decades in the West Bank, with Israeli forces killing 112 Palestinians in the territory and Palestinians killing 15 Israelis in the first five months of the year.

Hijji said that in recent months the settlers destroyed hundreds of olive groves in Burqa, depriving farmers of a major source of income, and launched several attacks on property.

“The population now feel that they are empowered and that they are controlling the army. It is not the other way around,” said Ghassan Douglas, an official with Burqa, who monitors settlers’ activity in the West Bank. “( Israel) is shifting more and more to the right. , , And we are the ones who are paying the price for their electoral choices.”

Ben Shachar denied that Homesh residents had participated in the violence against the burqa. “They throw stones (at us), this is what they teach,” he said. “We just study Torah.”

Israeli army spokesmen and Homesh did not respond to requests for comment.

In an interview with Sky News last week, Netanyahu denied that the expansion of Israeli settlements was hindering the peace process. “The idea that there is a presence of Jews in their ancestral homeland, which has been our homeland for the past 3,000 years, that Jews should not live there . . . I think it is an obstacle to peace,” he said.

However, critics say the government’s move will kill any long-term chance of a two-state solution. Noah Landau, deputy editor of Haaretz newspaper, wrote last week, “Ignoring what is happening in Homesh leads to a continued legitimization of the settlement policy, which will result in the permanent establishment of a supremacist Jewish state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.” Will happen.” ,

In Burqa, Messaoud has long given up hope of an independent Palestine. “There are no states. States are only for the strong, They said. “(The population) are strong and we are weak. They have it all and they are the ones who are able to carry out their plans.