Settler attacks in the West Bank: Memories of the pre-Nakba period

The Gaza Strip has been witnessing a genocide perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army since October 2023, while the West Bank is witnessing systematic ethnic cleansing by terrorist settlers under the protection of the Israeli occupation army.

This atmosphere brings to our mind, as Palestinians in the occupied territories, the period preceding the Nakba of 1948, which led to the catastrophe and displacement of most of the Palestinian people and the establishment of the State of Israel on 78 per cent of historic Palestine, amid Arab weakness and international approval. It seems that Israel now sees the conditions ripe to complete imposing its sovereignty and annexing the remainder of Palestine.

Since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza, the West Bank has witnessed fierce settler attacks on West Bank villages. These attacks have become increasingly violent, destructive, and bloody, occurring daily and increasingly, occurring simultaneously across the entire West Bank, with the aim of expelling the indigenous population and seizing their lands.

These attacks are carried out under the watchful eye of the Israeli occupation army and police, who provide the settlers with impunity for their crimes. However, recent days have seen settlers attack Israeli military installations in the Beit El settlement near Ramallah, protesting the short arrest of several settlers who had thrown stones at Israeli soldiers.

These scenes bring to mind for us Palestinians the violence and massacres perpetrated by Zionist gangs before the Nakba in 1948, under the watchful eye of the British Army, and the subsequent escalation of these crimes, which later targeted British military installations and served as a prelude to the ethnic cleansing that preceded and accompanied the Nakba.

Settler terrorism is paving the way for a new Nakba

Settler attacks have become more violent and widespread because they enjoy political, military, and legal cover, as well as financial backing from the Israeli government. They also enjoy full American support, particularly since Donald Trump assumed the White House, and Western complicity.

Politically, the most prominent settler leaders are in the government, making political decisions and granting legitimacy to the settler leaders and their rabble, particularly through the extremist ministers: Itamar Ben-Gvir and Betslael Smotrich. They make no secret of their intention to implement the plan to annex the West Bank and impose Israeli sovereignty over it, in what they call the “decisive plan.” They openly incite the killing and displacement of Palestinians, both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

This political cover is accompanied by the Israeli government, specifically the extremist Minister of National Security Ben-Gvir, carrying out extensive arming for settlers to defend themselves against “Palestinian terrorism.” This translates into these weapons being given to settlers to kill and terrorize Palestinians and seize their lands by force.

On the other hand, settler attacks on Palestinian villages are taking place under heavy Israeli military presence, which only intervenes if Palestinians resist the attacks. The army then shoots to kill the Palestinians, as happened in the village of Kafr Malik- east of  Ramallah- last week.

The occupation army also installed iron gates and barriers at the entrances to all Palestinian villages and cities to prevent Palestinian movement and cut off the West Bank through more than 900 barriers and gates in the West Bank. This collective punishment aims to undermine any attempt at territorial contiguity or self-defense by Palestinians and leaves freedom of movement exclusively to settlers, giving them an offensive advantage.

The Israeli government invented legal measures issued in the form of military orders from the civil administration to change the demographic and geographic reality of the West Bank, expelling more residents and enabling settlers to seize control of the area. The occupation authorities have instituted what they call “pastoral settlement”. This means that the occupation authorities allow a single settler—or a very small number of settlers—to seize thousands of dunams of Palestinian land for grazing livestock. Palestinians are prohibited from cultivating or using these lands because they have become pastureland.

Imagine the immense wealth this settler, who benefits from these pastures, will enjoy when he takes possession of these lands after annexing the West Bank and imposing Israeli sovereignty over them. It reminds of the American Wild West and the stories of cowboys who killed native Americans, appropriated their lands, and became wealthy.

The civil administration also issues military orders declaring vast areas as “nature reserves,” prohibiting Palestinian owners from cultivating or harvesting them, even though they are privately owned and have been cultivated for hundreds of years. The purpose of this measure is to expel the indigenous population and replace them with settlers.

Another method of expelling populations and seizing land is declaring large swaths of land as “military zones”, which Palestinians are prohibited from entering. These areas are then given to settlers for use under military cover.

Daily settler attacks include the burning of property such as homes and cars, the burning of crops, particularly olive trees and wheat fields, the stoning of Palestinian vehicles traveling on main roads. In many cases, Palestinians have been shot and killed. Significantly, none of the settlers has been brought to justice, nor has any investigation ever been opened into the incidents.

World silence is complicity

The settlers and their leaders see the opportunity now to annex the West Bank, or a large part of it, to Israel. They interpret the world’s silence and failure to stop Israel’s crimes as a green light to complete the mission. In light of the world’s inability to stop the war of annihilation in Gaza, and the Israeli war on Iran, especially given the presence of a pro-Israeli American president who aligns almost entirely with the Israeli aggression.

All these circumstances and events are very similar to the conditions that prevailed in the mid-1940s. Following the victory of Britain and its allies in World War II, the Zionist armed fighters finished their job at the front and came to Palestine. They declared the beginning of the decisive battle that led to the ethnic cleansing of 78 per cent of historic Palestine in preparation for the establishment of the Jewish state, with international and especially Western approval.

During that period, attacks against the indigenous population intensified and expanded and Zionist gangs committed numerous massacres, particularly the Deir Yassin massacre, with the aim of terrorising the population and forcing them to leave and seize their lands, which is what later happened.

Zionist gangs felt increasingly confident and emboldened, and began attacking British military installations and personnel, as well as the British authorities who had aided their growth, armed them, and permitted Jewish immigration to Palestine. One of the most notable terrorist attacks was the 1946 attack on the British administrative headquarters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

We, as Palestinians living in the West Bank, are exhausted by the ongoing war against us for more than a century. We feel this new catastrophe approaching us little by little. We are defenseless and lack the means to defend ourselves against organised, armed gangs supported by a government and an army that are rampaging across the entire Middle East.

The Arab world remains silent and does nothing, except condemn and denounce the settler attacks, while the West is complicit in the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

Our only hope for survival lies in the continued pressure of free peoples on their governments, and in the world turning its verbal condemnation into real action on the ground, holding Israel and its leaders accountable for their crimes, boycotting them economically and politically, and imposing sanctions on them before it is too late.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.