World

'US Has Funded This Carnage for 75 Years': West Bank Facing Escalation Amid Gaza Crisis

19:15 GMT, 8 November 2023
© AP Photo / Majdi Mohammed
Christina Malyk
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While the humanitarian disaster in Gaza has become one of the main global issues last month, problems faced by the West Bank residents are in the shadow of the Gaza tragedy. Since October 7, hundreds of people have also been killed there during clashes with the Israeli army.
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Reports from OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, have been warning of increased escalation not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank, for several weeks, noting the insecurity of the Palestinian population in every area.
"The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since 7 October accounts for more than one-third of all Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank in 2023 (397). About 55 per cent of the fatalities since 7 October occurred during confrontations that followed Israeli search-and-arrest operations, primarily in Jenin and Tulkarm governorates. Some 30 per cent were in the context of demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza; eight per cent were killed in settler attacks against Palestinians, and the remaining seven where while attacking or allegedly attacking Israeli forces or settlers."
Moreover, OCHA has recorded 218 Israeli settlers' attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank. In nearly half of all incidents, Israeli forces were either accompanying or actively supporting the attackers.

View From a West Bank Resident

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian nonviolent activist, founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, highlighted 'deepening crime of apartheid and racial discrimination in the West Bank'.

"We in the West Bank as Palestinians everywhere in the world witness this genocide and ethnic cleansing of a captive population in Gaza and know we are next. Already 163 Palestinians were murdered by the occupation army and settlers in the West Bank since 7 October and we expect the worse. Israel blocked our cantons and arrested/kidnapped over 2500 more Palestinians in the West Bank. And they are torturing these political prisoners, now over 11000 by direct physical abuse and denial of food and medcine.The mood is somber and angry. We just can't believe how the US government and its western allies colluded and collaborated and funded this carnage for 75 years," he added.

According to him, such a problem has not appeared in a sudden, noting 75 years of apartheid regime for the Palestinians.

"What happened October 7 and after as UN Chief Guterres said 'did not happen in a vacuum'. Palestinians endured ethnic cleansing and racist onslaught daily for 75 years. That left eight million Palestinians refugees or displaced people and the rest stored in disconnected concentration camps like Gaza, Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah, etc."

Nevertheless, the Palestinians "will continue to resist" in any circumstances, even if "the governments of both the West and many Arab countries take a stand of collusion, aiding and abetting genocide while issuing vague statement of concern," summed up Qumsiyeh.
WorldPalestine-Israel conflictMiddle EastWest BankPalestineThe United Nations (UN)UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
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