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Israel’s new West Bank registration process declares Palestinian land ‘state property’

The Cradle | February 16, 2026

The Israeli government has approved a land registration process, which will allow Israel to claim territory in the occupied West Bank as “state property” if Palestinians cannot prove ownership, a move that has been described as “de facto annexation.”

Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) reported that the proposal was submitted by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and Defense Minister Israel Katz.

“We are continuing the revolution of settlement and strengthening our hold across all parts of our land,” Smotrich said.

Katz called the move a vital security measure and an “appropriate response to illegal land registration processes promoted by the Palestinian Authority.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the registration process will allow for “transparency” and will help resolve land disputes.

The bar for proving Palestinian land ownership is extremely high due to Israel’s restrictive legal system.

Palestinian claims of ownership are rarely granted. Many families rely on decades-old Ottoman documents, or have never had their land properly registered.

Similarly, Israel rarely grants building permits to Palestinians, allowing troops to demolish homes across the occupied West Bank. According to Israel’s Channel 14, Smotrich has established a paramilitary unit whose job is the destruction of Palestinian property.

The registration measures approved on Sunday were frozen in 1968.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas called the approval of the land registration process “de facto annexation.”

“The decision to classify West Bank land as state land under Israeli authority constitutes a direct threat to security and stability. The measure amounts to de facto annexation of occupied Palestinian territory and signals the beginning of the implementation of annexation plans aimed at entrenching the occupation through illegal settlement expansion,” the PA presidency said in a statement on Sunday.

Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government came to power, it has been rapidly advancing plans to illegally annex the West Bank – occupied by Israel in 1967.

Israel’s security cabinet approved new measures on 8 February aimed at drastically overhauling the occupied West Bank’s legal and civil framework, allowing Tel Aviv to further expand illegal settlements and strengthen its grip on the territory.

Last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on reviving the controversial E1 settlement project. The project aims to link Maale Adumim to occupied East Jerusalem, which is viewed as integral to a future Palestinian state.

Israel’s cabinet also voted in 2025 to take full responsibility for land registration in Area C of the occupied West Bank – an area comprising around 60 percent of the territory and home to the vast majority of Israeli settlements. That move was also described as a de facto annexation.

February 16, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Two children killed in Palestinian Authority ambush in West Bank; Hamas slams attack as ‘black mark’

Press TV – February 16, 2026

Two children have been killed after Palestinian Authority (PA) forces opened fire on a vehicle carrying their father, a resistance fighter, in the town of Tamoun in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank.

The three-year-old daughter of Samer Samara succumbed to her wounds on Sunday after being shot by the forces, Palestinian media outlets reported.

Her 16-year-old brother, Ali, was killed after being shot in the head. Their father was wounded and later abducted by PA forces.

According to the reports, the forces shot Samara in the legs before abducting him.

Local reports said units from the PA’s so-called Preventive Security Service and a special unit set up the ambush and fired heavy gunfire at the car during an operation to abduct Samara, who is wanted by Israeli occupation forces.

Following the killings, the youths of the town of Tamoun launched a demonstration and a general strike. Reports said the PA sent reinforcements to suppress the demonstration.

The Gaza Strip’s Hamas resistance movement condemned the atrocities, holding the Authority fully responsible for the consequences of targeting resistance fighters and killing children.

In a statement, the group described what happened as a “serious crime” and a “black mark in the record of the security services that continue to overpower our people instead of protecting them.”

The movement warned that the policy could damage Palestinian internal cohesion and demanded accountability.

It called for “holding all those involved accountable, stopping the pursuit of wanted Palestinians, and releasing political detainees.”

The Committee of Families of Political Prisoners also condemned the shooting, describing it as the result of a “systematic policy targeting resistance fighters.”

It said the incident represented a “dangerous deviation” that placed security services in confrontation with the population rather than protecting them.

Human rights organizations say such incidents risk deepening internal tensions at a time when Palestinians in the West Bank also face ongoing Israeli military raids and settler violence, contributing to what observers describe as a climate of compounded insecurity for civilians.

February 16, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

World’s largest shipping firm facilitates US trade with illegal Israeli settlements

The Cradle | February 9, 2026

The world’s largest shipping firm, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), has been transporting goods from the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to the US, including via European ports.

According to a joint investigation by Al-Jazeera and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) published on 9 February, commercial documents obtained through US import databases show that between 1 January and 22 November 2025, MSC facilitated at least 957 shipments of goods from Israeli settlements to the US.

Of these shipments, more than half transited through European ports, including 390 in Spain, 115 in Portugal, 22 in the Netherlands, and two in Belgium.

MSC is privately owned by Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte and his Italian-Israeli wife, Rafaela Aponte-Diamant.

“Israeli settlements are widely considered illegal under international law, because they are built on occupied territory, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” noted Nicola Perugini, senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Edinburgh.

“Commercialising products from these settlements effectively supports the illegal settlements,” she affirmed.

A wide range of products are produced in the settlements, from food items and textiles to skin care and natural stones, Al-Jazeera noted.

Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza during the Six-Day War in 1967 and has sought to oust the native Palestinian Muslims and Christians and replace them with Jewish Israelis in an effort to create “Greater Israel.”

Professor Perugini called on states to ban trade with illegal settlements entirely. “You cannot normalize the profits of an illegal occupation,” he said.

The US and EU allow imports of products from Israeli settlements, despite policies formally acknowledging the settlements are illegal.

MSC also facilitates shipments from the US and Europe to the Israeli settlements.

In 2025, MSC facilitated at least 14 shipments from the Italian port of Ravenna, listing the names and zip codes of Israeli settlements as recipients.

MSC also holds cooperation and vessel-sharing agreements with Israel’s publicly held cargo shipping company, ZIM.

Such shipments may be illegal under international law following a 2024 opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advising that third states are obliged to “prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The ICJ opinion does not directly address the responsibility of private corporations like MSC.

PYM, a grassroots, international pro-Palestinian movement, found last year that Danish shipping firm Maersk, the world’s second largest, also ships products to and from Israeli settlements.

According to UN estimates, businesses located in illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem contribute about $30 billion to the Israeli economy each year.

Settlement businesses are often unusually profitable as they are established on stolen Palestinian land that the company has not paid for.

Israel has recently accelerated efforts to expand the E1 settlement project, designed sever the West Bank into two parts, isolate it from East Jerusalem, and ensure a two-state solution becomes impossible.

The plan calls for constructing 3,500 apartments next to the existing settlement of Maale Adumim.

On Sunday, the Israeli government approved sweeping changes to land registration and civil control in the occupied West Bank, which will dramatically expand settlement construction, Middle East Eye (MEE) reported on Monday.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the policy changes are intended to pave the way for expanded settlements and land seizures.

Under the new measures, the military will be allowed to demolish Palestinian buildings and homes for which Israel refused to issue a building permit in areas A and B of the West Bank

The changes would also open West Bank land registries to the Israeli public, enabling settlers to identify Palestinian landowners and pressure them to sell their land.

Making ownership records public could also make it easier for settlers to forge claims over Palestinian land, and thereby seize Palestinian land through Israeli courts, MEE added.

The measures also loosen restrictions on the sale of Palestinian land to Israelis, overturning a Jordanian-era law prohibiting transfers to non-Palestinians.

February 10, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Ten elected West Bank lawmakers held in Israeli prisons

Palestinian Information Center – February 7, 2026

RAMALLAH – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continue to target elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in the West Bank, with 10 lawmakers currently held in Israeli prisons, despite the council having been effectively suspended for years by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Among the detainees are two of the longest-held Palestinian political prisoners: Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat, both serving life sentences. The oldest detainee is Jerusalem lawmaker Mohammad Abu Tir, 75.

Abu Tir was rearrested on November 24, 2025, after the IOF raided his home in Dar Salah, near Bethlehem. He is among several Jerusalem lawmakers whose residency IDs were revoked in 2006 and who have since faced repeated arrests and forced removals from the city.

He has spent nearly half his life in Israeli detention and is currently held in harsh conditions in an underground section of Nitzan prison in Ramla under a four-month administrative detention order.

On September 25, 2025, the IOF arrested lawmaker Yasser Mansour from his home in Nablus. Another PLC member, Nasser Abdul Jawad, 57, was detained on August 21, 2025, from Deir Ballut, west of Salfit. Abdul Jawad, an academic and political figure, has spent around 20 years in Israeli prisons.

Israeli forces also arrested lawmaker Anwar Zaboun, 58, from Bethlehem on August 17, 2025. Husni al-Bourini was detained in October 2024 after a raid on his home in Asira al-Shamaliya in Nablus, while Khaled Suleiman was arrested in Jenin in August 2024.

Lawmaker Mohammad Jamal al-Natsheh, 68, was detained in Al-Khalil in March 2025 and is considered one of the most serious medical cases in Israeli custody.

Senior Hamas figure and PLC member Sheikh Hassan Yousef, 73, was rearrested in October 2023. A prominent West Bank leader and one of the Marj al-Zohour deportees in 1992, he won his parliamentary seat while imprisoned and has spent more than 27 years in Israeli jails.

Rights groups say the detention of elected lawmakers lacks legal basis, constitutes political retaliation, and represents a grave violation of international law, democratic norms, and Palestinian self-governance.

February 7, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Spain Opens Probe Into Israeli Tourism Firms

IMEMC | January 26, 2026

Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs, and Agenda 2030 has opened a formal investigation into Israeli tourism companies suspected of promoting goods or services linked to Israeli colonies built on occupied Palestinian land.

In a statement issued Sunday, the ministry said the inquiry aims to determine whether companies operating in Spain have advertised or sold tourism‑related services connected to Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank, in violation of Spanish law.

The investigation is based on Royal Decree‑Law 10/2025, which prohibits the advertising of goods or services originating from occupied territories.

The decree was adopted in September 2025 as part of Spain’s emergency measures responding to the genocide in Gaza and to ensure that companies operating in Spain do not profit from activities tied to Israel’s occupation.

According to the ministry, the probe focuses on allegations that certain Israeli tourism firms promoted services linked to colonies illegally constructed on Palestinian land under military occupation.

Spanish officials emphasized that such activity would constitute illegal advertising under the decree, given the internationally recognized status of the West Bank as occupied territory and the illegality of Israeli colonial activity under international law.

The ministry stated that the purpose of the inquiry is to identify all companies involved and determine whether their conduct violates Spanish consumer and advertising regulations. If breaches are confirmed, authorities may impose sanctions or restrict the companies’ ability to operate commercially in Spain.

Spanish officials underscored that the investigation reflects the government’s commitment to ensuring that businesses in Spain do not contribute to or profit from Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian land.


All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.

Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.

Articles 53 and 147 prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.

January 26, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Shot, amputated, and imprisoned: Palestinian man seeks to rebuild life after being maimed and tortured by Israeli forces

International Solidarity Movement | January 25, 2026

Ahmad is a 27-year-old Palestinian living in the occupied West Bank. On June 12, 2023, an Israeli soldier shot him in his village near Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank. A bullet hit him in the leg as the military invaded the city; the soldiers left him bleeding and prevented the ambulance from arriving. He almost died. It is a miracle he survived with the blockade delaying rescue efforts, requiring his leg to be amputated. Four months later, he was arrested and placed in administrative detention without charge. He was held for two years in al-Naqab prison in Israel and subjected to repeat torture.

Ahmad was released two months ago. Now, he requires a prosthetic leg, which costs 24,000 shekels, so he can regain control over his life. He is an only child, his father died years ago, and he now lives alone with his elderly mother. Economic conditions are difficult in the West Bank, and he and his mother receive no subsidies. For income and his livelihood, Ahmad used to be a truck driver, which he is no longer able to do because of his injuries and the amputation.

Ahmad’s story:

The bullet that struck Ahmad was the type that explodes when it hits its target. His leg was seriously injured and Ahmad lost a lot of blood. The ambulance was blocked by the Israeli army, and Ahmad was taken to a distant hospital because the road was also blocked by the army. If he had been rescued in time, his leg could have been saved.

“I just want to be able to have a semi-normal life,” he says. “To support myself, to support my mother. I used to drive heavy vehicles, it was my job. Without a leg, I can’t do any job, and I don’t know how to survive.”

Ahmad was arrested just four months after he was injured. No charges, no conviction: he remained for two years under administrative detention, which allows Israel to imprison anyone for years without reason. Despite his health condition, Ahmad was not spared the torture inflicted on the approximately 11,000 prisoners held in Israeli prisons since October 7.

“They beat us every day,” he says. “They fed us only once, and almost exclusively rice. One cup per person. You had to drink a lot of water so you wouldn’t feel hungry all the time,” he reports.

Ahmad lost a lot of weight. The total lack of medical care inside the prison and the harsh living conditions caused him to suffer from severe pain throughout his body, which he still has to deal with today. For weeks, they didn’t give him crutches, and Ahmad couldn’t even get up without help.

“It was very cold, and they took all our clothes. They removed the windows to make us colder, and left us with only one blanket. We all had scabies, and they never gave us any medicine. When we washed our clothes, we had to put them back on wet, because they were the only ones we had.”

The torture described by Ahmad is only a fraction of the torment suffered by Palestinian prisoners.

January 25, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Report warns that ‘Jewish terrorism is out of control’ and could lead to major security escalation

MEMO | January 22, 2026

An Israeli report warns of a rapid rise in Jewish terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank, saying it has become a widespread phenomenon with serious security and strategic implications. The report cautions that this trend aims to undermine the Palestinian presence and could trigger large waves of violence, while also causing growing damage to Israel’s international standing.

The report, issued on Tuesday by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University (INSS), says recent years—especially since 7 October 2023—have seen a sharp increase in both the scale and severity of attacks carried out by Jews against Palestinians. It describes these acts as part of a “struggle over control of land” and “growing attempts to weaken the Palestinian presence”, particularly in areas classified as Area C.

According to the report, data from Israeli military and international sources point to a steep rise in such attacks. Figures from the Israeli army’s Central Command show that in 2025 there was an increase of about 27 per cent in incidents classified by the security establishment as “nationalist crime”. Around 870 offences were recorded, including 120 described as serious, compared with 83 serious offences in 2024.

United Nations data, however, present an even darker picture. In 2024, about 1,420 attacks against Palestinians were documented, a 16 per cent rise compared with 2023 and the highest level since systematic monitoring began in 2006. The report says these attacks led to the killing of five Palestinians and injuries to around 350 others. More than 300 Palestinian families — nearly 1,700 people — were also displaced from their homes.

The report adds that the upward trend has continued, noting that the number of attacks in 2025 has “exceeded 1,770 incidents”, surpassing the peak recorded the previous year.

January 22, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Knesset advances bill mandating death by hanging for Palestinian prisoners

The Cradle | January 13, 2026

Israeli lawmakers are advancing a bill that would introduce executions by hanging for Palestinians convicted under military law, according to a report by Haaretz published on 13 January.

The report detailed the proposal and internal objections following its approval in a first Knesset reading in November.

The legislation, formally titled the “death penalty for terrorists” bill, was initiated by Israeli lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit party and approved by a vote of 39-16.

It would allow Israeli military courts to impose death sentences without a prosecutor’s request and by a simple majority rather than unanimous verdicts.

Under the proposal, executions would be carried out by hanging and completed within 90 days of a final ruling, following a judge-signed order and under the supervision of the Israel Prison Service.

A designated prison officer would perform the execution, appointed directly by the prison service commissioner.

The bill mandates near-total isolation for prisoners sentenced to death, with visits restricted to authorized personnel and legal consultations limited to visual contact via video calls only, with no possibility of sentence reduction once imposed.

Prison officers and the state would be granted full civil and criminal immunity for carrying out executions.

While execution details would be published on the prison service website, the Freedom of Information Law would not apply, and those involved would remain anonymous.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir celebrated the vote by handing out sweets and wearing a gold noose pin.

He later said the noose represented “one of the options,” adding that “the electric chair” and “lethal injection” were also possibilities.

Legal advisors to the Knesset’s National Security Committee warned that the bill raises serious constitutional and legal concerns, saying it would apply only to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, creating a separate legal regime and risking violations of international treaties.

Human rights groups condemned the proposal, with The Association for Civil Rights in Israel saying it would grant the state power to carry out “the intentional taking of a human life,” calling it another step toward a “racist legal system” built on selective and oppressive enforcement against Palestinians.

January 13, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli forces arrest writer and political researcher Sari Orabi

MEMO | December 26, 2025

Israeli occupation forces arrested the writer and political researcher Sari Orabi after raiding his home at dawn on Thursday in the town of Rafat, north of occupied Jerusalem, according to local media sources.

The sources said Israeli forces carried out wide arrest raids early on Thursday across several areas of the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. The raids targeted a number of young men and former prisoners after their homes were stormed, searched and damaged.

Sari Orabi is a writer and researcher specialising in politics and Islamic thought. His articles have been published in several newspapers, magazines, websites and research centres. He also regularly appears as a commentator on cultural, intellectual and political issues on a number of television channels.

In addition to Orabi, Israeli forces arrested Ibrahim Hourani after raiding his home in the city of Qalqilya. In the town of Aroura, north of Ramallah, they arrested Nasser Mufaraj and his son Amr, and re-arrested former prisoner Tayseer Khusaib following home raids.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said the continued arrest campaigns show that Israeli policy targets academics, writers, former prisoners and young people alike, rather than a specific group. It said this reflects a clear attempt to suppress public awareness and social influence within Palestinian society.

December 26, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel Orders Demolition of 25 Buildings in Nur Shams

IMEMC | December 14, 2025

Israeli occupation forces issued a military order on Sunday to demolish twenty‑five new buildings in the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank.

The decision has drawn sharp condemnation from Palestinian officials, who warn of escalating destruction and forced displacement in the area.

Governor of Tulkarem Abdullah Kamil urged the international community, human rights organizations, diplomatic missions, and embassies to intervene immediately to stop the order.

He described the military order as a continuation of Israel’s systematic campaign of demolition and collective punishment against the residents of Tulkarem and Nur Shams, stressing that it represents a flagrant violation of international law, humanitarian conventions, and human rights treaties.

Kamil emphasized that the measures are part of a deliberate policy of devastation targeting civilians and their property, resulting in widespread displacement.

The two refugee camps have already endured extensive destruction. Earlier this year, more than one hundred buildings and housing units were demolished in both Tulkarem and Nur Shams, in what residents say was an attempt to alter their geographic and social character.

The new order comes as Israeli forces maintain a prolonged siege: Nur Shams has been under siege for three hundred and nine consecutive days, while Tulkarem city and Tulkarem refugee camp have been under siege for three hundred and twenty‑two days.

Entrances remain blocked with earth mounds, concrete cubes, and iron gates, while heavy gunfire is reported daily inside the camps. Residents are barred from returning to their homes, and several houses have been seized and converted into military outposts.

The humanitarian toll has been devastating. More than five thousand families, amounting to over twenty‑five thousand residents, have been displaced from the two refugee camps.

More than six hundred homes have been completely destroyed, while more than two thousand five hundred others have been partially damaged, leaving vast areas uninhabitable.

The ongoing assault has killed fourteen Palestinians, including a child and two women, one of them eight months pregnant.

Dozens more have been injured or abducted, while widespread destruction has devastated infrastructure, homes, shops, and vehicles.

The demolition order in Nur Shams underscores the intensifying Israeli campaign of collective punishment in the occupied West Bank.

With prolonged sieges, forced displacement, and systematic destruction, Tulkarem and its refugee camps have been transformed into zones emptied of civilian life, in clear violation of international law.

Since the beginning of the Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israeli soldiers and paramilitary colonizers have killed 1097 Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, including 226 children and 24 women.

In the Jenin governorate, 308 Palestinians have been killed, while 213 were killed in Tulkarem, 138 in Nablus, 105 in Hebron, 98 in Tubas, 81 in Ramallah, 60 in Jerusalem, 42 in Qalqilia, 32 in Bethlehem, 13 in Jericho and the Jordan Valley, and 7 in Salfit.

December 14, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Indiscriminate killings: New footage refutes Israel’s pretext for Palestinian teen’s killing

17-year-old Palestinian, Ahmed Khalil Rajabi, who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank
Press TV – December 12, 2025

New footage has emerged that challenges Israel’s justification for the killing of a Palestinian teenager last week in the occupied West Bank, which Israeli troops described as a car-ramming attack.

The footage shows 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil Rajabi approaching Israeli soldiers who signaled for him to stop. His car paused briefly, but as the occupation soldiers advanced, one aimed a gun at his vehicle.

In a bid to save his life, Rajabi reversed and made contact with one of the soldiers. And they reportedly chased him and shot him dead.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said, “The teenager was injured and fled towards Hebron. He was later found and killed inside a car. The body is now being withheld by Israeli forces in what is now standard operating procedure.”

The Israeli forces also shot dead a 55-year-old municipal sanitation worker, Ziad Na’im Jabara Abu Dawud, who was in the area during the incident.

Child rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) also questioned Israel’s narrative and quoted Ahmed’s father as saying his son was “visiting a patient at the hospital and was on his way home” when he was shot.

Israeli forces have withheld the body of Rajabi, refusing to allow his family to bury him.

The Israeli regime has escalated its West Bank violence since October 7, 2023, when it launched a genocidal war on Gaza. Since then, Israeli forces and settlers have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied territory.

December 12, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

If Gaza resistance ends: What history tells us about the Palestinian fate

By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | December 10, 2025

US President Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ is reportedly set to be announced before the year’s end. This news coincides with increasing reports that the US administration is serious about pushing forward the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

However, many critical questions remain unanswered. How can a governing council be superimposed on Gaza when Palestinians are unified in their rejection of any new form of Western mandate over their lives?

Furthermore, how can the proposed ‘International Stabilization Force’ (ISF) operate in Gaza without total clarity regarding its mission? If the ISF ends up serving primarily as an Israeli line of defense, the entire project will collapse before it begins.

Neither Arab nor Muslim countries will seriously engage in subduing Palestinians on behalf of Israel. Any other participating force will inevitably be treated by Palestinians as an occupation force.

The main obstacle, however, is the fact that Israel has never truly respected the first phase of the ceasefire, which began, in theory, on October 10. Since that date, Israeli forces have killed over 360 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more, while demolishing thousands of residential structures, according to satellite images verified by the BBC.

Worse, Israel has habitually bombed targets beyond the ‘Yellow Line’, which was designated as the Palestinian area where humanitarian aid is allowed to flow and people are meant to return to some kind of normalcy, despite Gaza’s near-total destruction.

Israel is hoping to make the first phase of the agreement a permanent one. This intent is evident in the continued bombings, the prevention of life-saving supplies and aid, and the constant, unsubstantiated accusations that Palestinians are the ones violating the ceasefire.

It is expected that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will make the disarmament of Gaza the main sticking point, knowing in advance that Gaza will not surrender its weapons. He has made this clear and repeatedly so, including on 15 November, when he stated that “Hamas will be disarmed — either the easy way or the hard way”.

But what if Gaza agrees to surrender its weapons? Will Israel leave the Palestinians alone? Will the prospects of a just peace and Palestinian freedom increase exponentially? To address this question, let’s delve very quickly into three experiences, two from history.

Palestinian and even some Israeli historians have argued that, during the ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine, the Nakba, Israel had the intention of depopulating the country regardless of whether Palestinians resisted or not.

The implementation of Plan Dalet, the operation aimed at expelling the Palestinian population, was in no way related to the method or intensity of Palestinian resistance to Zionist militia violence.

In fact, the framework of that expulsion was predicated on the use of war as a pretext, as opposed to war as a response to Palestinian resistance. “The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war,” wrote Zionist leader and Israel’s first prime minister at the time, David Ben-Gurion.

Though some Mukhtars (village leaders) assumed that no resistance meant that they would be spared the same fate as those who resisted, they were wrong. Israeli historian Ilan Pappe writes: “Whereas the official Plan Dalet gave the villages the option to surrender, the operational orders did not exempt any village for any reason”.

The same pattern was repeated throughout history. In 1982, after a US-brokered agreement to evacuate Palestinian PLO forces out of Lebanon, the assumption was that their departure would keep the Israeli army from attacking Palestinian civilians.

Indeed, on 21 August 1982, PLO factions began leaving the country, leaving the camps undefended and their Lebanese allies vulnerable. However, Israeli violence in West Beirut had grown, not subsided, leading in September 1982 to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, which killed up to 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians.

All the promises by Washington, the supposed ‘guarantees’, and the diplomatic language of US envoy Philip Habib, who acted as the President’s Special Envoy, meant absolutely nothing, as Israel helped facilitate one of history’s most brutal massacres.

And, of course, there is the ongoing saga of the West Bank itself, which, unlike Gaza, lacks armed resistance infrastructure and is administered by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which operates based on an Israeli-US-Western mandate.

Yet, even before the Gaza genocide, the West Bank’s suffering had grown, its land confiscated, entire communities ethnically cleansed, whole refugee camps destroyed, and hundreds of residents killed.

Between 7 October 2023, and late 2025, UN and human rights reports indicate that Israeli forces and settlers killed over 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (more than 200 children). Thousands more were injured, and Israeli authorities destroyed or confiscated thousands of Palestinian-owned structures, displacing many. Additionally, an estimated 10,000 Palestinians from the West Bank were arrested between October 2023 and August 2024.

If Israel’s genocide in Gaza is entirely motivated by the desire to crush the armed groups, then why the continued crushing of the West Bank?

Those who continue to entertain the Israeli narrative regarding Gaza must confront this historical record and acknowledge two crucial, enduring realities. First, Israel’s violence is fundamentally driven by its settler-colonial ambitions, not merely by Palestinian resistance. Second, Palestinian resistance is a deeply rooted historical imperative — the native population’s determined struggle for self-liberation from foreign occupation.

Only by abandoning the reductionist language that frames Israeli wars as simple responses to armed groups can we arrive at a profound understanding of events in Palestine, Israel’s true motives, and the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle.

December 10, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular | , , , , | Leave a comment