Settler Torture: Another Tuesday in the Occupied West Bank
When Al Jazeera details a Palestinian teenager, Oweis Hemam, claiming kidnap and torture by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, it’s presented as a harrowing, yet somehow singular, event. What's often missing from discussions in mainstream U.S. outlets is the consistent pattern of settler violence. Organizations like B'Tselem have documented these acts for years, noting how the Israeli
military frequently stands by or even participates, effectively enabling the violence. This isn't a bug; it's a feature of the occupation. One might wonder if the endless U.S. aid—over $3.8 billion annually to Israel, as per the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding—indirectly finances the infrastructure that supports and protects these very settlements. It's a convenient silence: condemn individual
acts while funding the system that perpetuates them. How many teenagers have to be 'allegedly' tortured before we acknowledge a pattern, not an anomaly?