IN the midst of the Gaza genocide, Israel has announced plans to build more illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that would effectively seal the fate of the already moribund two-state solution.
The Zionist state’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich — one of the most extreme anti-Palestine voices in the ruling set-up — announced on Thursday that the Israeli regime planned to go ahead with the so-called E1 scheme in the West Bank. He added that the plan would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”, observing that it was “Zionism at its best”.
Perhaps it is because many of Israel’s Western friends have, in reaction to the Gaza holocaust, said they would recognise a Palestinian state, that Tel Aviv has taken the extreme move. A UN official has termed the settlement plan a potential war crime. But at least Mr Smotrich should be ‘credited’ with dropping the pretence and describing Tel Aviv’s actual plans: the full occupation of Palestinian land, and obliteration of the Palestinian identity.
It is moves like these that have fuelled Palestinian resistance over the past several decades. Hamas’ Oct 7 operation — though the targeting of non-combatants is unacceptable — was, in fact, a Palestinian ghetto uprising against the chokehold of Zionist rule. It is wrong to assume that the people of Palestine are fighting their occupiers due to some inbuilt hatred of Jews; the fact is that Jews had been living in the holy land for centuries with Muslims.
The Palestinians resist because since the Nakba, they have watched their land devoured by foreign settlers, their children slaughtered, their men and women humiliated. Plans such as the two-state solution have failed as there has been no real desire on the Israeli side to create a viable Palestinian state. Tel Aviv has always sought to maintain its colonial rule over the Palestinians, while giving them minimal powers and moth-eaten territory. Gaza is already burning; the West Bank may explode in rebellion next if the settlement plan goes ahead. Little can be expected of the international community, which has shamefully watched mass murder and starvation unfold in Gaza. Mr Smotrich said that his sinister scheme has the backing of Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. This is the crux of the problem, as Israel’s crimes cannot be stopped as long as Tel Aviv has America’s blessings to wreak havoc.
Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2025