We will continue to be in the West Bank, despite reduced impact

JVL Introduction

This is a sobering account of the diminishing impact of “protective presence” and the determination of so many, like this activist, to continue to show up in solidarity.  We have, for example, carried several reports from the Villages Group. As recently as summer of 2024, the presence of international and Israeli peace and solidarity activists had some influence on curbing the worst of the behaviour of settlers and soldiers.  In the past, there was some understanding that it was not good to have such witnesses to atrocities. In 2012 I spent three months in the South Hebron Hills, part of my role being to provide that “protective presence” and, at least while we were there and videoing, there was some restraint. Now the additional years of impunity, the prominent role of settlers in the Knesset and the Cabinet, as well as the focus on Gaza rather than the West Bank since October 7th 2023, has removed all restraint and violence, up to and including murder. There are usually no consequences for the perpetrators and Israeli soldiers are more likely to declare an area a Closed Military Zone, meaning Palestinians cannot access their land, eg to harvest olives, than to arrest Israeli settlers who have evidentially carried out violence.

One day writes this activist, there will have to be a reckoning, a holding to account of the perpetrators and all who have facilitated the violence; the records are there, from Palestinians as well as from Israeli and international activists.

LL

This article was originally published by Vashti Media on Sun 19 Oct 2025. Read the original here.