Since Oct. 7, the world’s attention has focused on the Gaza Strip. Following the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 civilians, Israel has retaliated with immense force aiming to destroy the terrorist group, killing an estimated 40,000 Palestinians including thousands of children while leveling neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and mosques. Gaza’s future once the war ends appears grim.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israel has mounted extensive military operations aimed at rooting out Palestinian militants — the most extensive since the start of the Second Intifada 24 years ago. Since Oct. 7, however, violence by extremist settlers, abetted by the Israel Defense Forces, has gone largely unnoticed compared to the war in Gaza. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank.
In this episode of History As It Happens, Omar Rahman of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs explains how Israel’s occupation of the West Bank functions with its two separate justice systems — one for Jews, one for Arabs — more than 50 years after the Jewish state took control of the land in the Six-Day War in June 1967.
“In a very basic framing, Israel is the military occupying power, and it has occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for 56 years and counting. In another sense, it is also a colonial power because it has moved its population into the occupied territory from the start,” said Mr. Rahman, referring to the 750,000 Jewish settlers who now live in the West Bank in what international law views as illegal settlements.
“When you start building settlements, what comes with that is land confiscation, resource confiscation and pillaging, and the protection of the civilian population you are putting into occupied territory, which comes with repression. And any people will resist that type of encroachment on your land and livelihood,” Mr. Rahman added. In his view, a de facto annexation of the West Bank has been underway for years, which is also illegal under international law.
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