Settler Violence Called 'Escalation' After Decades of Dispossession
While The Independent notes Palestinian families are fleeing Ras Ein el-Auja, a village historically home to 700 people, due to settler attacks, it fails to mention the Nakba of 1948, the 1967 occupation, or the fact that Area C, where the Jordan Valley lies, is under full Israeli military and civil control, enabling these very settlements. It's not 'increased violence'; it's the predictable
outcome of an internationally condemned occupation funded in part by U.S. taxpayer dollars. One might wonder if 'official' U.S. policy, consistently greenlighting Israeli expansion while feigning concern, plays a role in fostering this 'violence.' We're told these towns are 'left standing,' yet the context of deliberate demolition, denial of permits, and constant harassment by settlers—often
supported by the Israeli military—is missing. This isn't an 'increase' in isolated incidents; it's the continuing dispossession of a people, meticulously documented by human rights groups for decades. The US State Department, for its part, last year certified that American aid to Israel is used for 'legitimate self-defense,' while ignoring the billions in aid that indirectly supports these very
settlements and the 'violence' they perpetuate.