My brother recently sent me a copy of an Israeli military order which was found by farmers on our land and neighboring plots in occupied West Bank. The document, accompanied by a card, indicates that the land is seized for military purposes.
It does not specify the duration of the land and offers landowners and users only seven days from a next field visit – coordinated between the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority Liaison Office – to file an objection to the legal advisor to the Israeli army. This field visit is generally used to delimit the limits of confiscated land.
According to the past experience of our family, confiscation under the guise of “security reasons” often precedes the establishment of a colonial. This occurred in 1973 when our family received a similar military order in the field along the road in Jerusalem-Hebron. In one week, a military post was created. Months later, civil regulations, Elazar, was erected in the same place.
What is shocking this time is that this new order barely made the headlines despite the size of the land provided for confiscation. According to the military prescription, it amounts to 5,758 dunums, more than 5.7 m² (2.2 miles to m²). Confiscation is not arbitrary. In the center of this particular area is the outpost of SDE Boaz, which was illegally established on private Palestinian land in 2002. Residents – around 50 families – are not marginal extremists. They are middle -class professionals, including doctors, engineers and accountants.
This confiscation is one of the many that have taken place in the past 21 months. Under the shadow of the genocidal war in Gaza, Israel accelerated its annexation campaign in the West Bank. The objective is to officially annex parties of what the Oslo peace agreements have designated as zone B, which represents 21% of the West Bank, and the entire C zone, which represents 60% of the West Bank and includes the entire campaign of Jordan and Jerusalem as well as other regions.
Most agricultural land and Palestinian pastures are located in this area, just like a large number of illegal colonies in Israel. My city, Al-Khader (St George), has more than 22,000 dunums (22 km2 / 8.5 m²), more than 20,500 (20.5 km / m² miles) are classified as zone C, 500 (square kilometer / 0.2 m²) as zone B, and less than 1,000 dunums (1sq km / 0.4.
Israeli settlers play an active role in the progress of this annexation plan. This is not limited to grasping strategic heights but also includes systematic violence against the Palestinians. The attacks of the colonists against Palestinian property, the torture and the murders of the Palestinians are all part of an organized campaign intended to uproot the Palestinians in areas B and C to facilitate annexation. This strategy aligns with what Israeli decision -makers call “voluntary transfer”, an understatement for the Palestinians ethnically cleaning their homeland.
All this is illegal, according to international law, and goes against the United Nations repeated resolutions and a decision in 2024 of the International Court of Justice. So who will stop Israel?
The AP, which nominally administers zone A in occupied West Bank, will certainly not do so. Since its creation as part of the Oslo peace process, the AP has not only failed to resist Israeli movements towards the annexation, but it has undoubtedly facilitated them by working with Israel to stem armed and even peaceful resistance which does not support its political program.
It is also unlikely that the international community to take decisive measures. For decades, Western governments, in particular, have offered rhetorical convictions while simultaneously providing security and economic support to Israel. These same actors who have failed to stop the current genocide in Gaza are unlikely to oppose if Israel trains its de facto annexation.
This was recently obvious during a diplomatic visit to Taybeh, a Palestinian village located northeast of Jerusalem and Ramallah. The visit, which included more than 20 diplomats from around the world, including European and American representatives, came in response to repeated attacks of Jewish settlers, which burned parts of the country of the village, including goods belonging to the local church. It was all these countries willing to do – send representatives to the region for a few hours to pronounce a few words of conviction. Beyond that, it is as usual in their relationships with Israel.
What remains then is resilience and the Palestinian people agency and their political movements in principle. In the current context, the simple presence of Palestinians on their land is an act of resistance.
To maintain this presence and strengthen their struggle, the Palestinians must continue to mobilize progressive world movements and freedom -oriented to support their cause – not only in solidarity but also in the context of a broader global fight against the far -right, racist and anti -justice forces which support Israel and simultaneously threaten civil rights and social justice in their own country.
Global solidarity activities should be strategic and impactful. They should focus on the disruption of all the components of the supply chain which benefit the Israeli occupation in general and colonialism of the colonists in particular. This means that citizens around the world in different sectors of society can contribute to the struggle for Palestine as producers and consumers taking into account the call to boycott and disinvesting Israel.
The direct actions of the working class are crucial. Workers can integrate the Palestinian cause into their requests for better working conditions. For example, public strikes in solidarity with Palestine, such as those organized by rail workers in European countries, could put pressure on governments to reconsider their support for Israel.
Likewise, port workers could strike to disrupt the expedition linked to Israel, pushing governments to reassess their positions. Employees of high -tech industries can play an essential role by supporting Palestinians by demanding that their companies align products, services and partnerships with international law, refusing to support accomplice technologies of Israeli occupation or settlers’ violence. If companies refuse, workers can degenerate to protest against measures, such as the disruption of supply chains and denunciators.
In addition to expanding and strengthening boycott, disinvestment, sanctions (BDS), there are other solidarity actions that could be carried out. In Palestine, individuals and groups can organize themselves to support Palestinian farmers on their land, serving as witnesses to settlers and attacks by soldiers while helping to protect communities.
They can also help Palestinian farmers and other communities by helping them sell their products. This questions the dominant business model that exploits small producers. I can attest to the importance of initiatives as I started to facilitate the connection of local Palestinian producers with the European market through the General Union of Cooperatives and Cooperatives in the United Kingdom.
Governments repeal their legal obligations to stop genocide and colonization, the mobilization of the base for impactful actions is the only way to disturb Israeli colonial activities. An active global movement can force Israeli citizens to face and abandon the racist, apartheid and colonialist foundations of their society, encouraging them to ask for real changes.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
