The key facts
- Mustafa Barghouti: more than 1,300 military checkpoints have fragmented the West Bank into 'fragmented prisons'
- According to him, the restrictions have paralyzed the economy, education and healthcare; the surge in violence coincided with the olive harvest season
- Palestinian figures: about 750,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 194 settlements and roughly 400 outposts
Statement by a Palestinian politician
Israeli forces have turned the occupied West Bank into 'fragmented prisons', and settler violence has made it a 'battlefield', said Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, in his statement on Thursday.
Checkpoints and consequences for daily life
According to Barghouti, the Israeli army has fragmented the West Bank with more than 1,300 military checkpoints, most of which are closed, turning cities and towns into 'fragmented prisons, separated from one another'. He claims these restrictions have 'seriously paralyzed economic activity, education and healthcare services'. The situation, as he describes it, is accompanied by Israeli army raids across all governorates of the West Bank, mass arrests, ongoing repression, home demolitions and the obstruction of most Palestinian farmers' access to their land for the olive harvest.
Settlers and the goals, in Barghouti's view
'The Israeli occupation uses settler terror gangs as an advance force for the expansion of settlements,' Barghouti said. According to him, these groups continue attacks on towns and villages across the West Bank, turning it into 'a battlefield where terror does not stop'. He stated that the goal of the 'occupation's war of terror' is to drive Palestinians out of most of their land and realize the 'Zionist expansionist dream' of annexation, Judaization and displacement. The resilience of the Palestinian people and the popular committees confronting the occupiers, in his view, are 'the only factor preventing the implementation of the Israeli plan'.
Call to the international community
Barghouti called on the international community to stop turning a blind eye to Israeli crimes and stressed the need to support Palestinian resilience by imposing sanctions and boycotting the entire occupation and settlement system, including the government of Israel.
Context
Attacks by Israeli settlers and the army against Palestinians and their land in the occupied West Bank have intensified during the olive harvest season. According to Palestinian figures, about 750,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, in 194 settlements and roughly 400 outposts. Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law. Barghouti's statement reflects the Palestinian side's position; the Israeli point of view is not presented in the publication.
