Israeli settlers have been marauding across the occupied West Bank for months, attacking Palestinian towns and villages with impunity. In the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, settlers have laid siege to three Palestinian households since Sunday, cutting off water and electricity. This incident has even drawn a rare condemnation from the Israeli government, with spokesperson David Mercer calling the settlers' actions 'deplorable' and 'unacceptable'.

However, analysts, campaigners, and Israeli parliamentarians have reacted with disbelief, pointing to the Israeli military's inability to stop the siege. Initially, Israeli soldiers were even seen mingling and praying with the settlers. Aida Touma-Sliman, a member of the Israeli parliament from the left-wing Hadash party, told Al Jazeera that government attempts to distance themselves from the violence are ridiculous, as they are complicit. She added that the government supplies, protects, and arms the settlers, making support for them a policy.

Yair Dvir of the Israeli rights organization B'Tselem said there is nothing new in what's happening in Qusra, as such incidents have been occurring for decades. He emphasized that settler violence is state violence, with the aim of displacing Palestinians and taking their land. Dvir noted that when international criticism arises, the government condemns the settlers, but they return as soon as attention shifts.

The speed and brutality of the Israeli government's encroachment on Palestinian land, in defiance of international law and the International Court of Justice ruling, has increased in recent months. UN monitoring shows settler violence rising with every week that Israel's October election and the potential end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government draw nearer. Neve Gordon, a professor of International Law at Queen Mary University, London, said the vote is like a rallying cry for the settler constituency to do as much as they can while they can.

The Israeli government has done little to distance itself from settler actions. Prominent members of Netanyahu's Likud party have attended settlement conferences, including those explicitly focused on ethnically cleansing Gaza. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are at the heart of settlement policy. Smotrich has overseen the expansion of illegal settlements at an unprecedented rate and boasted of making the two-state solution practically impossible with the E1 settlement project.

However, focusing on just two controversial figures misses the point, Gordon argued. He said the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank requires the complicity of the police, the attorney general, the military, and ultimately the public. Without the umbrella they provide, none of this would be possible. The situation underscores the systemic nature of the violence and the ongoing displacement of Palestinians, despite international condemnation and legal rulings.

Source: www.aljazeera.com