Business as Usual – Destroying West Bank Villages
JVL Introduction
On Friday March 28th and Saturday 29th a vicious and sustained attack on the Masafer Yatta Village of Jinba took place with both settlers and soldiers involved. However, as we heard from the Villages Group, that has been working with the people of the South Hebron Hills, including Masafer Yatta for more than 25 years: “The latest attack by settlers and soldiers in the villages of Jinba was many times more serious than the attack in Susya, a few days earlier, that was widely reported, because it happened that one of the wounded and arrested there was Hamdan Balal, a co-creator of No Other Land. ” (my emph, Ed)
The people in the West Bank must not be forgotten even as the pulverisation and starvation of the people in Gaza continues. There are ongoing attacks in all parts of Area C as well as the horrendous “evacuations” of 40,000 people from the refugee camps of Tulkarm and Jenin. This impunity has to end. Below is an article from Ha’aretz reporting the events and their editorial and below those the notes from Breaking the Silence, who note that such raids are not uncommon and that “…even when soldiers don’t find anything on a raid, and just traumatize an entire village for nothing, one goal is always achieved – intimidation. “Lowering their heads.” Making sure that Palestinians know the IDF can do whatever it wants. Mission accomplished.”
LL
This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Sat 29 Mar 2025. Read the original here.
Over 100 Israeli Soldiers, Settlers Raid Village in West Bank's Masafer Yatta, Locals Say
Around 140 Israelis, both in uniform and in civilian clothing, entered the village in the early hours of Saturday. The attack was the second raid in as many days, following the wounding of six Palestinians and a mass arrest of residents by the IDF on Friday
Loading article text…
Kristallnacht in Jinba.
How do the so-called “free” nations of the West regard this? If it were Russians rampaging round Kiev there would be no end of comment and exhortations to spend more on arms to counter the threat. Even the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand provokes more accounts of countless victims buried under rubble and the apprehension the people experience when homes are destroyed, as if Gaza were just some peripheral issue on the edge of significance and already half-forgotten.
We are experiencing a level of official indifference to systematic violence and intimidation not seen in the post-second world war period. It just doesn’t matter what happens to the Palestinians wherever they are.
When the actual Refugee Camp itself is destroyed (as in Jenin) what then?
I agree totally with Paul Wimpeney.
Why are there so few Western Countries not condemning Israel and taking action against it?
“We” have spent years ignoring the ethnic cleansing of Occupied Palestine that all the illegal Jews/Zionist-only colonies represent, and not defended the rights of Palestinians to resist this by whatever means are available to them. “We” should hold ourselves – and our elected representatives – complicit in this Crime Against Humanity.