Open Letter to Al-Monitor: Your 'Surge' Suggests a Halt
To the editors of Al-Monitor, we note your recent report on the tragic killing of Thaer Hamayel, a 30-year-old Palestinian, by Israeli settlers in Abu Falah. You present this as a 'surge' in violence 'during Iran war.' While Mr. Hamayel's death is a horrific consequence of Israeli expansionism, your framing suggests a temporary, crisis-driven escalation, implying a baseline of peace that simply
does not exist for Palestinians. What your coverage omits, or rather, conveniently de-emphasizes, is the systemic nature of this violence. Organizations like B'Tselem have meticulously documented settler violence for years, detailing how it serves as an unofficial arm of the Israeli state, dispossessing Palestinians from their lands to enable further illegal settlement expansion. This isn't a
'surge' in isolated incidents; it's a constant, deliberate campaign. Furthermore, the US administration, while publicly decrying such acts, has simultaneously provided over $3.8 billion annually in military aid to Israel, effectively subsidizing the infrastructure that enables these very actions. This consistent aid has flowed even as Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, violating
international law and setting a dangerous precedent for unilateral strikes. The idea that such violence is a recent 'surge' is a dangerous fiction. The displacement of Palestinians through settler aggression is as old as the Nakba itself, accelerating dramatically after the 1967 occupation of the West Bank. The Israeli government has issued hundreds of military orders confiscating private