Enduring amid Violence: Dispatches from the West Bank

by John Whitehead

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While we can hope the Gaza ceasefire agreement brings an end to the war there, Israeli injustices and acts of violence against Palestinians are far from over. Gaza has understandably received the most attention recently, but abuses against Palestinians are also being perpetrated in the West Bank.

Along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, the West Bank has been under varying degrees of Israeli control since 1967. Some parts of the West Bank are ruled by the Palestinian Authority, but large parts of the region, including most rural and agricultural areas, are under direct Israeli control. Further, Israeli security forces exert significant control even in areas under Palestinian Authority rule.   

Along with the Palestinians, the West Bank is inhabited by Israeli settlers. Roughly 160 settlements housing about 700,000 people have been established in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled these Israeli settlements were illegal, a ruling the Israeli government rejected.

While war has been raging in Gaza, Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military personnel and settlers in the West Bank. United Nations agencies estimate that more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 213 of them children, have been killed by Israelis since October 7, 2023. Violence by Palestinians has killed 59 Israelis in the West Bank and Israel, 5 of them children, since October 7, 2023. During the past two years, many Palestinians have had property destroyed or been forced from their homes by settlers.

To assist Palestinian resistance, five American activists have traveled to the West Bank this autumn. Known as a Meta Peace Team (MPT) (https://www.metapeaceteam.org/), the activists are committed to “creating a nonviolent alternative to militarism.” During their West Bank work, the MPT is collaborating with the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement (ISM) (https://palsolidarity.org/). 

As an announcement about the West Bank trip explains, the MPT and ISM’s joint mission includes “participating in Palestinian-led demonstrations, creatively disrupting activity by the Israeli occupation forces, [and] accompanying children to school and farmers to their fields.” They also aim to document for local and international media violations of Palestinian human rights by Israeli military personnel and settlers.

Some highlights of the MPT’s experiences are recounted below.

Hardships in Al-Khalil

Following their arrival in the region, the MPT traveled to the West Bank city of Al-Khalil, also known as Hebron. The historical section of Al-Khalil, known as the Old City, is the location of the tomb of the patriarch Abraham/Ibrahim, a site sacred in both Judaism and Islam. 

The MPT found the once-busy city had been transformed since the start of the Gaza war, its streets largely empty and marked by shuttered shops, with garbage piling up on the sidewalks. Two former shopkeepers reported to the MPT that the lack of tourists, combined with an increase in the Israeli military presence and settler violence, had taken an economic toll on Al-Khalil. The two residents estimated more than 500 shops in the Old City had closed since October 7, 2023.

Another Palestinian businessman in Al-Khalil is custodian of a piece of history: a stone building that dates back centuries and contains a 300-year-old sesame seed press. The building was restored to serve as a cultural site of interest and tourism destination.

In addition to managing this historical site, the man runs a shop selling blown and painted glass. For decades, producing the glass had involved blowing it in Al-Khalil and then driving the wares to Gaza, where relatives and colleagues would paint it. Once, he recalled, the transportation process “would take just under an hour.”

In the 2000s, though, the growth of Israeli military checkpoints across the region made traveling from the West Bank to Gaza much more complicated. He commented, "We had to take the blown glass to the border of the West Bank in one car, then go through a checkpoint with all of our materials and transfer them into another car in order to drive through Israel. Then we'd do the same when we got to Gaza."

Once the Gaza War began, all travel to Gaza to have the blown glass painted stopped. The shop’s current wares are all old. Further, like so many other stores in Al-Khalil, the shop is now often empty of customers. The proprietor still opens the shop every morning, though.

Life is Al-Khalil is further complicated by the presence of thousands of Israeli soldiers stationed in the city to protect settlers there. One resident commented, "they treat us worse than the animals but we do our best to resist."

Every week, Al-Khalil’s Old City is visited by groups of settlers and tourists who are escorted by dozens of soldiers in armored personnel carriers (APCs). The military escorts force Palestinians and international journalists off the streets and make Palestinian businesspeople close their shops.

These militarized visits can lead to destructive encounters. One shopkeeper showed the MPT the damage done to his son’s car from one of the APCs. During one visit, the MPT witnessed a soldier harassing an elderly man and his 2-year-old grandson: the soldier forced the boy to get off his tricycle and then drop-kicked the tricycle across the street.

Violence at the Olive Harvest

Autumn olive harvesting lasts about a month and is a time for Palestinians to return home to visit their families and help with the work. The work is also dangerous, though, as Israeli soldiers will randomly declare land “closed military zones” and arrest people who try to harvest the olives on their land. Settlers will also attack Palestinians and international observers during olive harvesting.

The MPT traveled to the Palestinian village of Beita to assist families in the olive harvest. Grassroots organizations had arranged this support for local residents. The harvest site was a hillside covered by hundreds of trees. Close by were some trailer homes serving as “outposts” for settlers.

After arriving at the harvest site, the MPT was met by a group of Israeli soldiers who told them that Palestinians were “forbidden” to harvest olives in certain land tracts. Although the MPT stayed where they were told, the soldiers used sound grenades and tear gas against the group. One journalist with the group required medical attention after being shot in the foot with a tear gas cannister.

Despite this attack, the MPT proceeded to spend the morning harvesting olives. They persisted despite harassment from a group of settlers and another announcement from the soldiers about off-limits areas. Then, events took a dramatic turn.

Not far from the harvesting site, a land rover being used by Palestinians to transport olives was firebombed by settlers. One MPT member describes what followed:

Large flames and plumes of smoke consumed the car as a group of about 30 masked illegal Israeli settlers carrying clubs and pistols began attacking Palestinian harvesters with stones. About half of our group moved toward the harvesters and the burning car to offer protective presence while the other half stayed back to stay with other harvesters, to film, and to take cover. As we watched more illegal Israeli settlers move along the ridge, we heard live fire and shouts of "Get down! Take cover!"

"Yalla! Let's go!" shouted our Palestinian organizers with urgency, as they ushered us down the steep, rocky hillside. We ran from the live ammunition for about 15 minutes, helping one another slide down breaks in the rock terraces, until Palestinian vans picked us up and brought us to our vehicles parked safely at the bottom.

No one was killed in this episode. One Palestinian suffered a gunshot wound. An activist had a broken arm after being attacked by settlers. Overall, 20 people were injured, and a dozen went to the hospital. Eight cars were set on fire, and an ambulance was flipped over. 

Following the violence, one MPT member asked a Palestinian colleague if he had expected it. “Yes,” he answered, “We expected the violence. But it was good to have so many of us. It gives the villagers courage to continue." 

The next day, the Beita villagers returned to the same spot to harvest olives again.

 More stories from the MPT trip to the West Bank will be shared in a future article.