I told the truth about the West Bank and was threatened and assaulted. Now I’m relying on you to act

Our lives are blighted by illegal settlements, and Israel has just approved 22 more. Without concrete action, we will be erased

Issa Amro

Each of the 22 illegal settlements approved by Israel last week is another nail in the coffin of the peace process, hammered in by the complicity of western governments and corporations. Israeli settlements are not benign civilian neighbourhoods – they are primary instruments of dispossession, control and apartheid. Settlements are closed militarised zones on Palestinians’ stolen land, cutting off our access to our resources, our farms, our schools, our jobs and each other. Palestinian lands rapidly shrink, our livelihoods are devastated, our rights are systematically violated and our identity is undermined.

Western lawmakers look on, expressing commitment to peace through a two-state solution but choosing to do nothing to achieve this goal. Instead, their policies and inaction enable yet further settlement activity. In the West Bank we live in an obvious two-tier system, yet most lawmakers continue to shun the word “apartheid” despite Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations concurring on its accuracy and the international court of justice (ICJ) reaffirming it last July. The Settlers, the BBC documentary by Louis Theroux, helped expose this reality, showing me being prevented from even walking on the same streets as Israelis in the neighbourhood of Hebron, where I was born.

In response to the documentary, Israeli settlers and soldiers broke into my yard, vandalised it and assaulted me. Soldiers made no arrests but instead threatened to arrest me if I filed a complaint. Then one morning at 4am, young settlers made a bonfire on private Palestinian land outside my home and chanted that they hoped to see me killed. One individual showed up right in front of my house in army fatigues and with a semi-automatic rifle to intimidate me. Settlers then stole my pan-African flag, given to me by Black Lives Matter, and burned it among a pile of Palestinian flags.

It is the same story in nearby Masafer Yatta, featured not only in The Settlers but also in the Oscar-winning film No Other Land. Directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham called for interventions last week to help stop its destruction, and co-director Hamdan Ballal was detained and beaten in reprisal for its production.

The ICJ found Israel responsible for the crime of apartheid, yet western leaders bite their tongues. It found that not only Israel’s settlements but also its whole occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip are unlawful, and that the international community is obliged to help dismantle the settlements, evacuate the settlers and end the occupation as quickly as possible. Why are western leaders inert?

It seems that western governments would rather undermine the international justice system than hold Israel to account. Even when there are some stronger criticisms of Israel, it continues with its war crimes, as Nesrine Malik wrote last week, regardless….

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/03/israeli-settlements-west-bank-international-law-illegal

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Michael Brenner: The West’s Reckoning?

A Conspiracy of Silence / The Killing Floor of Gaza

The Death of Liberal Zionism

GABOR MATE interview: Zionism will be looked upon as one of the greatest disasters in Jewish history

Arab Failures: The Unspoken Complicity in Israel’s Genocide

Gaza death toll 40% higher than official number, Lancet study finds

The Hindu: Gaza and the moral crisis facing us. The Guardian on Gaza: a deepening disaster

My remarks at the Oxford Union debate

Israel Exposes its Agenda: land, not ‘security’; Gaza as Prelude, West Bank as Prize / The Israel Lobby’s Demise & The Future of Gaza: Chris Hedges with Professor Ilan Pappé

Israel-Hamas War: US arms industry stocks rocket (October 10)