As the world watches the numbers of killed and injured Palestinians climb daily in Gaza — as of March 12, the dead number more than 31,000 — the media spotlight hasn’t focused much on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where 2.9 million Palestinians live ever more threatened, circumscribed lives.
The violence and repression from both the Israeli army and Israeli settlers ramped up in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on southern Israel. At least 275 Palestinians, including 63 children, have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7.
Tensions are now also rising between Israel and the Lebanese armed militia group Hezbollah, where an escalation in cross-border air strikes and rocket attacks increase the danger of a wider regional war. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Mazin Qumsiyeh, professor, founder and volunteer director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University. Here he describes the repression and violence impacting daily life for Palestinians in the West Bank and outlines what supporters of Palestine can do to address the injustice and oppression.
[Web editor’s note: The audio version of this interview may differ from this transcript due to broadcasting time constraints.]
MAZIN QUMSIYEH: The West Bank is basically a bunch of bantustans or ghettoes or concentration camps. Since Oct. 7, 2023, for the past five-plus months, we’ve been cooped up in these concentration areas. Roads are blocked. Israel allows settlers to rampage in the West Bank, killing a lot of Palestinians, by both settlers and soldiers. I think 80 children so far have been killed. And demolishing homes – 22 communities have been ethnically cleansed in the West Bank. So, the situation is horrible also in the West Bank, not just in Gaza, but at least we don’t have mass starvation like is happening in Gaza, even though the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics just came up with numbers in terms of the disastrous state of the economy here. In total, between the West Bank and Gaza, in the first four months of this most recent conflict, the Palestinian economy lost $2.3 billion. Most people are unemployed and cannot provide for their families, because 150,000 used to work in Israel; another 150,000 used to work in the tourism industry. All of this is shut down. In Gaza, of course, everything is shut down.
MELINDA TUHUS: You said villages had been ethnically cleansed. Say more about that. What does that mean?
MAZIN QUMSIYEH: Well, the Israeli military took the preoccupation of the world with Gaza and came here in the West Bank and started removing some Palestinians from their homes and lands, kicking them out, destroying their homes. So, 22 communities were removed that were housing more than 3,000 people. They were in the remote areas, especially, so that they came and destroyed their houses, their tents, their caves even. Some Bedouins in caves and tents and houses, they removed them. The South Hebron Hills villagers, most of them were removed. So that’s natural for colonizers, sort of like the U.S. did with native Americans.
MELINDA TUHUS: I was talking to an Israeli friend who is an activist. He was saying that the Jewish Israelis can pretty much post what they want, like if they’re against the war, but Palestinian Israelis can’t and there’s a lot more repression. So, what does it look like in terms of political repression or being able to go out on the street. Like, can you go out and oppose the war in Gaza, safely?
MAZIN QUMSIYEH: No. Even those with Israeli citizenship – Jews and non-Jews – are attacked, beaten, jailed, for trying to say stop the genocide in Gaza, or declare ceasefire. So they have been under tremendous pressure, and many lost their jobs even for posting on Facebook items related to ceasefire, or negotiate now or stop the genocide or anything like that.
MELINDA TUHUS: As you know, there’s been a lot of uproar in the U.S. From my perspective it seems to be very weighted on the ceasefire side, on the Palestinian side, but I guess in terms of policy people don’t have to demonstrate in the streets because they have the political winds at their back in terms of the president and most of the members of Congress. What’s the best thing that people who want a permanent ceasefire and justice for Palestinians throughout the Palestinian territories – what do you think is the best thing that people could be doing?
MAZIN QUMSIYEH: Well, they need to challenge their politicians. They need to engage in civil disobedience. They need to write to the media. They need to engage in boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israeli products that are in American markets, like dates and stuff like that. They need to write and speak to other people and mobilize more people. We are millions on the streets but we need to be hundreds of millions around the world. Without noise, without speaking, without posting on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Telegram – people can do that. It doesn’t take too much time to keep posting, keep showing videos of the genocide that’s ongoing in Gaza.
For more information, contact Mazin Qumsiyeh at Mazin@qumsiyeh.org. Visit the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at palestinenature.
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