A ban on Israeli settlement goods is meaningless in stopping the ethnic cleansing of Palestine<\/p>\n
On September 2, without warning, Israeli bulldozers destroyed the homes of 12 Palestinian families in Khirbet al-Tabban, a herding community in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, leaving 70 people homeless, nearly half of them children.
\nRT\u2019s Charlotte Dubenskij visited the community soon after, interviewing the families and the head of Masafer Yatta council, Nidal Younis. Younis described the demolition as the erasure of this village. He said that in addition to the destroyed homes, \u201cwater sources were also targeted, including rainwater collection wells and the families\u2019 small water tanks.\u201d They also destroyed the\u00a0ten pens housing their 600 animals.
\nTerrain in the South Hebron Hills is desert-like, dry and hot, and the families\u2019 livelihoods mainly depend on the sheep, goats and chickens they raise and the vegetables they grow \u2013 all of which requires water.
\nAccording to Israeli rights group B\u2019Tselem, in the 1980s, around 3,000 hectares of the South Hebron Hills were declared a \u201crestricted military zone.\u201d\u00a0It notes that the expulsion of the roughly 700 residents of 12 villages occurred in 1999, \u201con the official grounds that they were \u2018illegally living in a firing zone\u2019. This flimsy argument blatantly ignored the fact that the families had been living in the area for many years, since before Israel occupied the West Bank and afterwards, with the full knowledge of Israeli authorities \u2026 These are false claims, meant to conceal Israel\u2019s aspirations to take over the land for its own purposes and use it to benefit the Jewish population only.\u201d
\nJust days after razing Khirbet al-Tabban homes, Israeli bulldozers erased another Masafer Yatta community, Khirbet al-Fakhit, leaving 32 more people homeless, and also demolished the home of seven people in still another community, Khirbet Khallet a-Dabe\u2019.
\nThe UN reports that between January 2023 and 31 August 2026, \u201c130 Palestinian communities experienced full or partial displacement. Of these, 48 communities have been fully displaced, including 12 so far in 2026. Overall, more than 6,400 Palestinians, including over 3,100 children, have been displaced in this context since January 2023. Of them, more than 2,500 people, including over 1,200 children, were displaced in 2026 alone.\u201d
\nAll the while Palestinians are being forcibly displaced from their homes, there are upwards of 800,000 Israeli settlers, internationally recognized as illegal, in ever-expanding colonies throughout the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Israeli settlers cutting water to drive Palestinians off land \u2013 RT report (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
Siege as a tool of forced displacement
\nThese colonists further aid in Israel\u2019s ethnic cleansing project by surrounding, blockading, and starving Palestinians. And they do so with the help of the Israeli army and government.
\nTake the case of Qusra, a village south of Nablus, where Palestinian homes have been cut off and besieged by colonists since August 9.
\nWhen activists or others try to bring food, water, medicine and other vital basics to the besieged families, the settlers and the Israeli army usually prevent them from entering, often detaining those trying to help. On September 4, Israeli soldiers blocked a group of around 100 peace activists trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the families.
\nTRT\u2019s Zena Tahhan reported on September 7 on the twelve Palestinians trapped inside their homes in Qusra. She explained, \u201cThe illegal Israeli settlement outpost at Qusra was established in January when settlers took over a nearby building under construction. In August, illegal settlers erected an outpost directly outside one family\u2019s home, blocking the only road, cutting off their electricity and water.\u201d
\nAccording to TRT, the families have received some food and basic necessities on several occasions through rights groups. \u201cThe army has said they can leave, but have given no guarantee they will be allowed to return to their home.\u201d
\nPalestinians know that if they do succumb and leave their homes, they almost certainly will never be allowed to return. \u201cIn July, a Palestinian family in the neighboring village of Jalud was forced from their home after a similar three-month siege.\u201d
\nThis siege is not only fully allowed by the Israeli government, but also assisted by Israeli soldiers and police. In effect, the fanatical settlers are doing the work for the Israeli authorities, setting the stage for still further forced expulsion of Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Israel used AI to kill thousands of Palestinians in Gaza \u2013 documentary<\/p>\n
Colonists continue deadly attacks
\nOn August 6, a Palestinian activist posted of an attack just two hours prior by settlers who \u201claunched a pogrom on the village of Tuba in my community Masafer Yatta, attempting to burn a family alive in their home. At least six people were injured, including two children.\u201d
\nAlmost every day and night there are new attacks by colonists who maim and kill Palestinian civilians by any means possible, from point-blank shooting to burning Palestinians alive. The ferocity and frequency of these attacks is so immense that it is difficult to keep up with their endless terrorism.
\nAnd terrorism it is, not only in the opinion myself and others who have watched the abuse of Palestinians for years, but even of one Israel\u2019s own military chiefs, who earlier this year described settler violence as \u201cJewish terrorism.\u201d
\nI\u2019ve written countless times over many years on this insane violence. While there has been a dramatic increase in attacks in the past few years, they have been ongoing for decades, aided and abetted by the Israeli military, police and government.
\nThe UN\u2019s OCHA reported that as of August 31, \u201c82 Palestinians, including 19 children, have been killed and about 1,900 injured by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank,\u201d since the start of 2026. It notes, \u201cOf these, 23 Palestinians were killed and over 1,100 injured in the context of settler attacks.\u201d
\nBy September 9, the number of Palestinians reported killed by armed colonists and Israeli forces since the start of the year had risen to 100. This is in the West Bank alone, and does not include the over 1,355 Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since October 2025, in violation of a ceasefire that the Israelis never intended to adhere to.
\nFar from the front pages of Western media who are always ready with a story about alleged human rights violations in Iran or North Korea, over three hundred Palestinian children from the West Bank languish in Israeli military detention \u2013 \u201cthe highest number in eight years,\u201d\u00a0according to UNICEF, which notes, \u201cNearly half \u2013 164 \u2013 are held under administrative detention without charge or trial.\u201d
\nThey are among the nearly 10,000 Palestinian hostages ignored by Western media and rights groups, many being starved, beaten, tortured, denied medical care, and nearly 3,200 of who were never actually charged with any crime but are being held under administrative detention.
\nThese are the brutal realities of daily life for Palestinians in the West Bank undergoing Israel\u2019s ethnic cleansing project of depopulating Palestinians from their homeland by any means possible. In full sight, for the world to see.
\nOnce again, it is useful to ask the rhetorical question: What would the reaction be by global media and politicians if this scenario was playing out over and over again in Iran, China, or another state vilified and targeted by the West?<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
\u2018Pack your suitcases\u2019: Israel\u2019s far right unveils its blueprint for emptying Gaza<\/p>\n
The UK ban on illegal colony goods is mere lip service
\nWhen British foreign minister Ed Miliband on September 8 announced plans to ban imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, it was wrongly perceived by some as concrete action, solidarity, or even a victory.
\nReports citing Bloomberg say Miliband assured Washington that the measures would be \u201clargely symbolic.\u201d\u00a0This is the only truth in the charade: It would put absolutely no pressure on Israel to stop expanding the colonies, and would not cause Israel to prevent the colonists from continuing their attacks on Palestinian civilians.
\nAs Palestinian author and writer, Ali Abunimah, noted, Miliband\u2019s statements in Parliament and on X, \u201creveal that Britain\u2019s overriding priority remains protecting Israel as a racist Jewish state…This \u2018solution\u2019 offers Palestinians disconnected enclaves under permanent Israeli military, economic and political domination \u2013 the equivalent of apartheid South Africa\u2019s Bantustans. They would be expected to call these fragments a state, renounce their right to return and accept Israel\u2019s permanent existence as a Jewish supremacist entity.\u201d
\nBack in 2007, after my eight months in different West Bank communities afflicted with near-daily violence from the Israeli army and from colonists, I understood the notion of a two-state solution has long been dead and has never been just.
\nAbunimah argues, and I agree, that the joint official statement which Canada, France and several other European countries support explicitly says the objective is to \u201cprotect\u201d the two-state solution. \u201cThis is coordinated action to rescue a segregation plan, not end Israel\u2019s racism. This is not solidarity with Palestinians. It is just the latest Western attempt to rescue the genocidal Jewish supremacist state that Britain created.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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