*Israeli Settlers, Soldiers 'Wiping Palestinian Communities Off the Map' in the West Bank* *"While the attention of the world is focused on Gaza, abuses in the West Bank, fueled by decades of impunity and complacency among Israel's allies, are soaring."* by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, April 17, 2024 https://www.commondreams.org/news/west-bank-communities-israeli-settlers
Israeli soldiers have either passively watched or participated in the uprooting of at least seven communities in the West Bank since October of last year, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a new report <https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/17/west-bank-israel-responsible-rising-settler-violence> documenting surging settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territory. The rights group interviewed dozens of eyewitnesses and examined video footage showing harassment and other abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank "by men in Israeli military uniforms carrying M16 assault rifles." . . . HRW's investigation found that "armed settlers, with the active participation of army units, repeatedly cut off road access and raided Palestinian communities, detained, assaulted, and tortured residents, chased them out of their homes and off their lands at gunpoint or coerced them to leave with death threats, and blocked them from taking their belongings." "Israeli settlers and soldiers are literally wiping Palestinian communities off the map," said <https://twitter.com/OmarSShakir/status/1780576064109945068> Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine director. . . . *Israel Is Expanding Settlements in East Jerusalem at “Unparalleled” Rate* *Violent settler activity in the occupied West Bank has also reached a record rate amid the genocide*. by Sharon Zhang, Truthout, April 17, 2024 https://truthout.org/articles/israel-is-expanding-settlements-in-east-jerusalem-at-unparalleled-rate/ As Israeli forces have been carrying out their genocide of Gaza over the past six months, Israeli officials have been expanding construction of illegal settlements <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/6/who-are-israeli-settlers-and-why-do-they-live-on-palestinian-lands> in East Jerusalem at a speed not previously seen in modern times, new reporting finds. In a report published Wednesday, *The Guardian* <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/17/revealed-israel-has-sped-up-settlement-building-in-east-jerusalem-since-gaza-war-began> revealed that the Israeli government has approved or advanced the building of thousands of housing units, spread over 20 different projects. . . . . . Israel has also been intensifying its settling of the occupied West Bank amid its genocide. A UN report last month found <https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/un-human-rights-chief-deplores-new-moves-expand-israeli-settlements-occupied> that settlements are expanding extremely rapidly as the Israeli government increases its collaboration with the violent settler movement to an “unprecedented” level. Settlers have been attacking <https://www.npr.org/2024/03/23/1236628495/israel-settlers-attack-west-bank-palestinians-settlement-outposts> Palestinains in the West Bank at an increasing rate: stealing their belongings, setting their homes on fire <https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/12/middleeast/west-bank-village-stormed-by-israeli-settlers-intl/index.html> and forcing them to leave their neighborhoods under threat with help from the Israeli military <https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/17/west-bank-israel-responsible-rising-settler-violence>. Palestinians say that they have experienced some of the worst settler violence <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/16/israel-settlers-attack-violence-palestinians/> in living memory since Israel’s genocide began. This violence is fueling a record death toll in the West Bank. Last year, 507 Palestinians, including 124 children, were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the deadliest year for Palestinians <https://truthout.org/articles/as-israel-razed-gaza-it-also-fueled-record-death-toll-in-west-bank-in-2023/> since the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) began recording deaths in 2005. The death toll in the West Bank was more than triple the previous record high, which was recorded in 2022. # # # *Under Cover of War in Gaza, Assault on West Bank Intensifies* *Interview*: Palestinian Journalist Dalia Hatuqa DemocracyNow! April 16, 2024 https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/16/west_bank_update *The Western corporate media is failing in its coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, says Palestinian independent journalist Dalia Hatuqa. “A lot of what’s missing from the bigger portrait … is the Palestinian voice,” says Hatuqa, who applauds local journalists in Gaza for providing the world a crucial window into what’s happening there while international reporters are blocked by Israel from entering the territory. “Nobody knows Gaza better than the Gazan journalists on the ground.” Hatuqa also speaks about her latest piece for The Century Foundation about rising Israeli state and settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which she says can accurately be described as pogroms. “The fog of war has allowed Israel to perpetuate crimes at a very large scale, not only throughout the West Bank, but including occupied East Jerusalem.”* . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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