Settler violence is erasing Palestinian communities in the West Bank [View all]

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/09/west-bank-israel-settlers-violence/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNjk5NTA2MDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzAwODg4Mzk5LCJpYXQiOjE2OTk1MDYwMDAsImp0aSI6ImZkNTY5OWU2LTA3OGQtNDJmNS05YTg4LWY3ZWNhMDVkNzY5NSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS93b3JsZC8yMDIzLzExLzA5L3dlc3QtYmFuay1pc3JhZWwtc2V0dGxlcnMtdmlvbGVuY2UvIn0.6NmvMS3JT-XvC-5xs9V5P2IotbCU1OvpW6dVj2EY1i4

In the Palestinian village of Umm al-Kheir, residents described masked men in army uniforms overrunning their community last week. The men smashed residents’ cellphones so no one could document the beatings that followed.

In nearby Susiya, five men in similar dress beat Ahmed Nawaja, 38, underneath his olive tree. His daughters cried, he said, as the attackers slammed their rifle butts down on his body.

Violence by Israeli settlers, long aimed at depopulating rural Palestinian parts of the occupied West Bank, had grown common in the months since Prime Minister President Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late December — at the head of a coalition that included far-right settler activists who have been convicted of anti-Arab incitement and have advocated for the annexation of the West Bank.

Since Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people and plunged Israel into war on Oct. 7, the pace of the assaults has more than doubled, as the radical settler movement exploits the crisis to hasten demographic change across the territory. At least 11 Palestinian communities have been completely abandoned since the beginning of the year, including six since Oct. 7, according to the West Bank Protection Consortium, a group of nongovernmental organizations funded by the European Union.