This week’s Palestine This Week with Nasim Ahmed and guest Mouin Rabbani tackle the worsening situation in the West Bank and Israel’s tightening control over the occupied territory. The discussion kicks off with a look at Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s plan for permanent control of the West Bank, questioning whether this is another ploy by Israel to squeeze concessions from the international community. The talk then turns to the worrying rise in settler violence, as highlighted in a recent New York Times piece, which paints a bleak picture of the apartheid-like conditions Palestinians are enduring under occupation.
The show also addresses the troubling reports of sexual abuse of Palestinians at Israel’s Sde Teiman detention centre, dubbed by some as a “death camp” on par with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
The conversation then moves to the Israeli military’s struggles, including heavy damage to armoured vehicles in Gaza and growing unrest within its ranks, as shown by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling to abolish the ultra-Orthodox Jewish military exemption and reports of low morale and soldiers refusing to serve.
Finally, the show explores the West’s continued backing of Israel, including unprecedented moves by US lawmakers to censor the Palestinian death toll and Germany’s introduction of an Israel ‘loyalty‘ test in its new citizenship law, and how such policies may be affected by the upcoming elections in light of of the large campaign donations from pro-Israel billionaires.