In any corner of the Occupied West Bank tragic stories are hidden. They are stories of common lives, but they contain high doses of dispossession, imprisonment, exile and much, much suffering. “My neighbors are artists, but they can’t leave here to show their art,” he says. Monaa young mother from the north of the besieged Palestinian territories who prefers to hide her identity. This time he tells the lives of others, because to tell one’s own is to sink into a mud of sorrow. “One of them was released from prison after being sentenced to life sentence“, he tells EL PERIÓDICO. With the passage of time, the existence of the palestinians of the occupied West Bank is reduced to an increasingly smaller space, although just as violent.
Just in the last month Israeli forces and settlers have carried out 2,350 attacks in the occupied Palestinian territories. “A continuous cycle of terror,” has been described by the Commission for Resistance to Colonization and the Wall of Palestinian Authorityin charge of accounting for this macabre balance. The troops of Israeli army have been the authors of at least 1,584 attackswhich include direct physical attacksthe house demolition and the uprooting of olive trees in the middle of the olive harvest season. Most of the violence has been concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah (542), Nablus (412), from where Mona speaks, and Hebron (401).
Israeli settlers clash with Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest campaign, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on October 29. / ALAA BADARNEH / EFE
In turn, the colonists They have unleashed their aggressive hatred with 766 attacks only during the month of October. It is a new high by these inhabitants of the illegal settlements. They have also concentrated their brutality in the same three governorates. Against those who have been most violent is against olive pickersthat the head of the Commission, the minister Muayyad Shabandefines them as victims of “state terrorismorchestrated in the shadows of the occupation government.” “The colonizing militias perpetrate these terrorist attacks with complete disregard for the most basic human rights and ethics,” he added, demanding a “firm international stance that protects the Palestinian people and saves the world from their continued moral deficiencies.”
Israeli Government Actions
While soldiers and settlers spread terror on the ground, the Israeli authorities are in charge of transforming Palestinian land. Since the beginning of this year, a total of 5,667 homes in settlementsaccording to counts from the Israeli human rights organization Peace Now. This supposes a historical recordwhich exceeds the previous record year by 50%, which was 2018 with 3,808 homes. “After the attack of October 7, 2023 [por parte de Hamás y la posterior guerra en Gaza]the Israeli Government has taken advantage of the situation to continue implementing its plan, which is clear to everyone: a Jewish supremacy state between river [Jordán] and the sea [Mediterráneo]”, he notes Mauricio LapchnikIsraeli anti-occupation activist. “They are achieving it gradually,” he tells this newspaper.
Only in the month of October have the settlers attempted to establish seven new settlements in Palestinian territory in the governorates of Hebron and Nablus. Furthermore, they have destroyed and poisoned 1,200 olive trees there and also in Ramallah, Tubas, Qalqilya and Bethlehem. In recent weeks, devastating images have been recorded, such as fields of burned ancient olive trees or soldiers beating women and elderly people in their ancestral lands. The report describes several cases of vandalism and theft perpetrated by Israelis in collusion with the troops. The hundreds of Western and Israeli activists who have mobilized to protect Palestinian pickers in this season that is key for their economy the rest of the year, in addition to a important Palestinian cultural symbolthey have been of no use.
Israeli soldiers in the streets of Hebron, on November 1. / MAMOUN WAZWAZ / CONTACT / EUROPA PRESS
Burying the idea of a Palestinian state
Over the past two years, the occupied West Bank has undergone some radical changes, and more are expected to take place. This Wednesday, Israel’s Higher Planning Council, which is part of the Civil Administration of the Israeli Army that oversees this territory, will meet to discuss the construction of other 1,985 new housing units in the settlements. He international law considers that these colonies are illegal, but, more than half a million Israelis after decades of exponential growth and global inaction. However, in peace plans such as the one proposed by the American president Donald Trump for the Gaza Stripthere is usually no mention of the West Bank.
“It is not a peace planit is an agreement between governments, which does not include the people involved,” criticizes Marwa Hammadfrom the Palestinian organization Women of the Sun, from Bethlehem. “When countries say they recognize the State of PalestineDo you know what is happening on the ground? “Are they going to treat us like a Palestinian State?” he asks, denouncing the lack of concreteness of all the measures related to Palestinian sovereignty. Furthermore, in August, the Israeli Finance Minister, the far-right settler Bezalel Smotrichsaid plans to build thousands of homes as part of the proposed E1 settlement project in the West Bank “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.” Although the Trump Administration has opposed the Israeli annexation of the West Bankhas done little, or rather nothing, to stop the changes on the ground.
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