© Oren Ziv/AFP/Getty ImagesIsraeli soldiers stand by as Israeli settlers throw stones at Palestinians during clashes in the town of Huwara in the occupied West Bank on October 13, 2022.
But this past July, when another Palestinian, 27-year-old Ali Hassan Harb, was stabbed to death by an Israeli settler who was trying to illegally seize land in a Palestinian village, Israel's reaction was very different: It sufficed with closing the probe into Harb's death and letting the assailant walk free.
No condemnations or condolences were made. There was just deafening silence — from the Israeli government and the international community alike.
Harb's murder was no anomaly. The last few months have seen an unprecedented surge of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians and their property. In just 10 days, more than 100 "nationalist crimes" have been committed by large numbers of settlers, including women and children, against West Bank Palestinians, per security officials.
Yet there has been silence from the Biden administration, the EU, and Israeli government.
It's unforgivable. The apathy signals to Palestinians as well as to our assailants that this is our lot; it is expected that we will be attacked and killed.
The silence incentivizes the violence against us.
The attacks themselves are gut wrenchingly inhumane. In one incident last week, settlers set fire to three Palestinian-owned chicken coops in Nablus, burning some 30,000 chickens alive, then fired live ammunition at Palestinians, injuring two lightly and beating up another.
On Friday, settlers hurled stones at a vehicle belonging to a Palestinian television station that was clearly marked press, damaging its windows. On Saturday, a group of armed settlers marched into a village and started breaking into houses and beating people with clubs. In Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian man was hospitalized with serious head injury after being attacked by settlers. On Sunday, a Palestinian school was vandalized and partially set on fire by Israeli settlers in the Urif village. The racist Israeli politician Itamar Ben Gvir pulled out a gun during a provocation in Sheikh Jarrah, among others.
On Wednesday, masked settlers beat up a 70-year-old pro-Palestinian Israeli activist with clubs and stones, leading to her hospitalization with broken ribs and a punctured lung. On Thursday, settlers in the village of El Muayir burned down a Palestinian plant and set a car on fire.
Throughout this storm of brutality, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid's government has been standing idly by, opting to avoid upsetting the settlers as Israel heads to elections again in November.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Forces are often seen accompanying violent settlers and providing them cover.
There has also been violence by Palestinians against Israelis. An Israeli soldier was killed on duty in a violent attack in the Palestinian town of Shufat in East Jerusalem. But in that case, Israel imposed a full lockdown on the entire village, collectively punishing the people living there to send a clear message about how violence will be treated.
Yet after 100 attacks against Palestinians, the Israeli government has yet to show any form of action toward the growing settler violence. The only condemnations of settlers from the Israeli government were from those who attacked IDF soldiers.
The lesson is clear: There will be no consequences.
Israel's inaction toward settler terrorism and the growing brutality of the IDF toward Palestinians are the direct result of the Biden administration's consistent signals that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is completely off the agenda — a message sent by the EU as well, which resumed its top-level Association Council with Israel for the first time in a decade without asking for anything from Israel in return vis-à-vis the Palestinians.
The Israeli government expects no serious backlash, consequences, or pressure from the international community, no matter how ugly things become in the occupied territories. So why should Israel bother to do anything about settler violence?
Imagine for one second what would have happened if Israeli civilians suffered 100 "nationalist crimes" in 10 days. Imagine the number of EU and U.S. officials who would compete to be the first to condemn and denounce such violence, reiterating Israel's "right to defend itself" while exerting pressure on Palestinians to stop the violence.
Why is the exact opposite happening when Palestinian are victims?
The sacredness of life, whether Palestinian or Israeli, should be equally revered and protected. Neither people is less human than the other.
This shameful silence is the ultimate betrayal to both peoples. The longer the silence continues, the greater the despair and feeling of abandonment in the Palestinian community, leading the hopeless to take matters into their own hands and embrace violence as "the only language the enemy understands."
Palestinian militants in Nablus and Jenin have been engaging in armed confrontations with the Israeli army for months. It's only a matter of time before armed groups like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad see a pretext in the explosive situation in the West Bank to violently shake up the status quo and spark another war.
That would be disastrous for both sides.
The Biden administration cannot continue to keep the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the deep freezer. The West Bank is on fire. The blood of every Palestinian and Israeli is on the hands of those who stood idly by and remained silent, looking the other way when our blood called out to them from the earth.
About the Author:
Muhammad Shehada is a writer and civil society activist from the Gaza Strip and a student of development studies at Lund University, Sweden. He was the PR officer for the Gaza office of the Euro-Med Monitor for Human Rights. He is a columnist at the Forward.
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