Israel is making the West Bank unsafe for Palestinians

JVL Introduction

The appalling situation in Qusra where Israeli settlers had cut off all services for Palestinians and blocked them from going shopping or supplies being brought to them.  This caught the attention of the western media, perhaps because the owner of one of the houses under siege was owned by a US citizen.

In reality there are dozens of Qusras in the West Bank where settlers attack Palestinian villages, burning property, including homes, injuring – and even killing – Palestinians.  In the Jordan Valley, for example, settlers emptied costly water tanks onto the ground depriving Palestinians of desperately needed water for themselves and their animals.

The Army’s response, despite  Netanyahu decrying ‘criminal violence’ after settlers again raid Qusra is all too often to declare the area closed military zone, which means no access for Palestinians to their own homes and barring of activists who are there trying to support them, leaving the settlers to roam free. Even the Times of Israel noted that these “extremists” have not been arrested (also all too often Palestinians in such situations are Ed).  Several days after the article below was published that journal was clear that “Footage from Saturday’s settler raid on the village showed that IDF soldiers were in the area when it occurred, but that they stood by and allowed the rampaging extremists to attack a home on the outskirts of the town.”

The IDF and the “extremist” settlers are almost indistinguishable; movement restrictions are ever more severe and and in spreading settlements, in encroaching ever further into Palestinian land, they are doing the work of the State, making it clear that Palestinians are not wanted and making sure that there is a heavy price to pay for staying.

This article was originally published by The New Arab on Mon 24 Aug 2026. Read the original here.