Khalil, a shy 21-year-old whose name has been changed, was arrested in a pre-dawn raid last October for his allegiance to Hamas. But when Israeli forces smashed through the door of his family home, they didn’t tell him why they were detaining him. He was imprisoned for six months without charge, in conditions he described as “unbelievable”.
“The Israelis are trying to restrain and terrorise us using these methods,” he said. “People are afraid. There is no freedom of speech … I’m scared to travel to any of the cities in the West Bank in case I get detained. Still, it feels like they could raid my house at any minute.”
But as Israeli forces continue to pummel Gaza, claiming to be targeting the remaining Hamas brigades, they have also swept up thousands of Palestinians in raids in the West Bank. The majority, according to the Palestinian prisoners’ commission, are not aligned to Hamas. Even so, the raids and an increasing number of settler attacks have succeeded in creating a climate of fear that is undermining Hamas’s rivals Fatah, who operate the ruling Palestinian Authority, highlighting its inability to protect Palestinians and quietly fuelling Hamas’s popularity.
“These raids are generating distrust towards the Palestinian Authority but also fear of attack by them – they can’t protect us but at the same time they could attack us too,” said Khalil, pointing to the authority’s history of detaining members of Hamas in the West Bank.
Wow repressing a population under the pretext of fighting terrorists only radicalises that population. We certainly couldn’t have predicted this based on millennia of examples.
The Israeli government / far right / zionists WANT the Palestinian people as oppressed and radicalized as possible — to guarantee a future pipeline of terrorism so they can use it to gain global sympathy, support, and justification for killing 10-1000x and accelerating both their genocide and land reclamation.
The goal hasn’t changed in 80 years. The Nakba never ended, and will not end until the entire developed world codemns and sanctions Israel — especially in depriving them of all weaponry and military support.
Even when not resisting nothing changes for the Palestinians in the west bank. When all peaceful means have been exhausted and we continue to support Israel raiding the west bank despite their violations, why would these Palestinians believe that they should just keep telling the teacher that the bully is hitting them? They must hit back sooner or later.
Nakhba is Israel’s true name
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