‘All of Palestine is under attack’

JVL Introduction

We reproduce here the latest bulletin from US organisation Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

Below it, by way of illustration of what JVP rightly calls “a war on the Palestinian people”, we repost the latest newsletter from the Villages Group, detailing the brutal savagery and inhumanity of West Bank settlers towards the Palestinian villagers in the South Hebron Hills.

‘All of Palestine is under attack’

For many of us, it’s impossible to imagine the scale of death and destruction in Gaza.

In just two weeks, the Israeli military has killed over 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli warplanes have flattened entire neighborhoods. Shell-shocked children are left to search for their parents under the rubble. Millions of Palestinians have once again been made refugees, bombed as they tried to flee. Surgeons are operating by the light of their cellphones, increasingly without anesthesia.

Let us be clear: This is genocide.

This isn’t a war on Hamas. It’s a war on the Palestinian people. 

As Aseel Al Bajeh writes, “All of Palestine is under attack.”

While international attention is focused on Gaza, the Israeli government and extremist settler groups are taking the opportunity to accelerate the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israeli settlers are being armed by the Israeli state, and have become indistinguishable from Israeli soldiers. Both abuse Palestinians with impunity.

On October 12, as the last villagers of Wadi al-Seeq left their homes, driven out by ongoing settler terror, a group of Israeli “soldiers-settlers” — some dressed in military uniform and some in civilian clothing — took three Palestinian men captive.

For hours, the men were tortured: They beat them, forced them to strip down to their underwear, handcuffed and blindfolded them, urinated on them, extinguished cigarettes on their bodies, and attempted to sexually assault one of them.

Settlers have carried out dozens of attacks, setting Palestinian homes on fire, destroying their property, and shooting at them with live ammunition.

Over 90 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 26 children, have been murdered by the Israeli military and settlers since October 7.

They include 16-year-old Mohammad Rafat Mohammad Edwan, who was throwing stones at Israeli soldiers when he was shot with live ammunition. The bullet lodged itself in his lung, and four days later, on October 14, he was dead.

On October 12, 62-year-old Ibrahim Wadi and his son, 24-year-old Ahmad Wadi, were killed when Israeli settlers opened fire on the funeral procession of four Palestinians who had been murdered the previous day — three by Israeli settlers and one by an Israeli soldier.

And on October 19, 11-year-old Yousef Mohammad Omar Zaghdad was killed when the Israeli military fired a missile at a group of civilians inside Noor Shams refugee camp. Three other children were killed in the attack.

Enabled by the Israeli military and empowered by a climate of impunity and lawlessness, Israeli settlers are taking advantage of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza to steal more Palestinian land, thereby expanding Israeli control of the West Bank. Hundreds of Palestinians from over a dozen different communities in the West Bank have been displaced as a result.

“They came into the village and destroyed houses and sheep pens, beat an 85-year-old man, scared our children. Slowly our lives became unlivable,” Sliman al-Zawahri, a resident of the now-depopulated village of Ein Rashash, told the Guardian.

Israel’s war on Gaza has also heightened the discrimination faced by Palestinian citizens of Israel and those with Jerusalem IDs, who are increasingly being arrested, harassed, doxxed, suspended from school, and fired from their jobs for expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The expansion of Israel’s regime of Jewish supremacy relies on the destruction of all Palestinian life. For Palestinians, there is no right way to protest their subjugation, and nowhere safe from Israeli violence.

Erella reports on a Villages Group visit to the South Herbon Hills

On Friday, October 20th, we visited the villages of Tuba and Maghayir al-Abeed.

On Thursday, when the armed settlers from Havat Maon opened the faucet of one of the water tankers that A. had brought to Tuba that morning, courageous S. – 14-years-old – went to the tanker and closed the faucet. Immediately, as one of their revenge acts, the settlers of Havat Maon opened the faucets in both tankers and emptied them to the last drop.  As we sat with A. and his family for tea, they said they know these settlers, who visit them on a daily basis. I said that the settlers are now present in every single village. “Every village has its own settlers”, A. said, and we all laughed. “Humor is man’s highest spiritual level” I said, translating Abraham Maslow.

We left them the basic food stuffs we had brought and some creative materials for the children, and continued to Maghayir al-Abeed in Massafer Yatta.

Only our friend Sh. And his family now live in what once was a beautiful cave village. Settlers and soldiers harass him cruelly even on normal occupation days. Now it has become unbearable. They come with drawn weapons and threaten his life, beat up his wife, him and his children, and he – in his basic Hebrew – says: “We are not Hamas. I am very much against what they have done. I have many Jewish friends. We can live excellently together. There is room for everyone.” “Now it is war”, these spiritual “giants” answer. Settlers and soldiers. And he insists: “War is not here. So do not bring it here.” One’s heart breaks just listening to him. He possesses this innocence and total trust in the human spirit. And even this is about to break… All this happened on Friday, October 20th.

Then came Saturday. I visited some close friends of mine from Kibbutz Be’eri at the hotel on the shore of the Dead Sea. They had been rescued from that inferno and were beginning to receive the bitter news about the deaths of their loved ones. It was a horribly difficult day.

Coming home, I turned into a central depot of messages from the South Hebron Hills. Harassment, intimidation, threats, invasions of homes, violent searches etc. My reports contain only some selected stories…

On Sunday morning, October 22^nd, we were in south Mt. Hebron again. Checking with our local friends on military and/or settlers presence in the village or in the junctions, and then hurrying to Tha’ala village to bring medication for Jameel whose cancer bothers him, and he cannot get to his doctor in Bethlehem. Eyal treated him with oil and needles.  We brought him medication from the Israeli Bedouin town of Hura.  We also brought them medicines for children, Materna and diapers. The pharmacist did not want payment. He donated everything.

From there we proceeded to a-Tuwani.

“I know you. You were here a day before yesterday, and I already told you we are not Hamas” said an 8-year-girl to one of the 14 soldiers +a dog who raided the home of M. our friend from a-Tuwani, on Saturday night, again without permission. He lives in the outermost house of the village, a few dozen meters from the settlement of Havat Maon. “Now is war”, answered the soldier. “But the war is not here”, said the smart girl. The soldier didn’t pay her any attention. This time they didn’t trash the house. This they had already done two days earlier. They did break phones though, pushed R., his wife, out of the house and would not let her go back and carry her tiny baby with her. They smashed the outdoor camera with which M. could notice movements on the ground. (He cannot prevent settlers from entering his house, which takes place not only in wartime but also on regular occupation days, but at least he can know that they are about to arrive…). Soldiers also beat up the two international volunteers who were there to enable a measure of security for the family. Their phones were smashed, too. Then M. was threatened that if strangers or treacherous leftists come to see him again, he will pay a steep price for this. All this happened on Saturday, October 21st. So. when we came to a-Tuwani on Sunday, we asked whether we should come see him. “Come”, he said. We did. With all the fear that he already reported to me last night in real time. But a face-to-face meeting strengthens one’s spirit.

When we got to a-Tuwani, there was already a phone call from Tha’ala in real time, reporting a settlers ATV driving between the houses, its young driver spitting at people and children, cursing the whole way, and their fear grows and grows.

Now I am home. And again, it’s evening, and again we get desperate phone calls from the ground in real time, and there is nothing we can do.

Tomorrow we shall go again to the villages of south Mt. Hebron.

Farewell,
Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group