The "Gazafication" of the West Bank
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Presented by UMKR and MFSA
Rampant ethnic cleansing, terrifying rise in state-sanctioned violence, tens of thousands made homeless and entire communities disappeared...
We are NOT speaking of Gaza, that is the WEST BANK today.
With genocidal horrors continuing in Gaza, and the recent violent exchange between Israel and Iran, it is too easy for the world to overlook the extraordinary crimes Israel has been committing in the West Bank.
Military attacks on refugee camps, destruction of entire villages, vigilante settlers terrorizing Palestinian towns, extreme restriction of movement, mass arrests, prisoners tortured, almost 1000 Palestinians killed in 2025 including hundreds of children, and 29 communities completely uprooted - all this is being done by Israel with impunity and with little notice from the world. This, while Israel also sets new records for the expansion of illegal settlement homes.
Israel is betting that these crimes will not shock the world, not compared to the atrocities it is committing in Gaza. But the millions of Palestinian children and adults in the West Bank must not be abandoned by the world.
Our eyes see and our hearts are with the Palestinians of the West Bank too.
Speakers:
Carol Garwood, co-chair of UMKR's Steering Committee, has visited the region four times in the last year. She brings considerable firsthand experience to moderating this webinar, in a discussion with two on-the-ground expert witnesses.
Usama Nicola is an experienced Palestinian activist in the West Bank, where he serves as the Citizens Diplomacy Project Coordinator at Wi’am Conflict Transformation Center in Bethlehem.
Budour Hassan is Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa researcher, investigating and reporting human rights violations in Palestine/Israel. She co-authored Amnesty's landmark report “You feel like you are subhuman:” Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza."
Resources:
From Budour Hassan
Democracy Now “Amnesty International: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza with Full U.S. Support” with Budour Hassan https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/6/amnesty_genocide
Budour Hassan: Telling Jerusalem's Untold Stories https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/blog/budour-hassan-telling-jerusalems-untold-stories
Epigraph, by Budour Hassan https://www.madamasr.com/en/2020/08/30/opinion/u/epigraph/
Palestine’s uprising and the actuality of liberation by Budour Hassan https://www.madamasr.com/en/2021/05/24/opinion/u/palestines-uprising-and-the-actuality-of-liberation/
From Usama Nicola
Wi’am: the Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center https://www.alaslah.org/
Usama at Wi’am: The Music Will Never Leave our Hearts https://www.alaslah.org/the-music-will-never-leave-our-hearts/
Voices from Palestine, Part 1 Paradigm Shift podcast, Interview with Usama Nicola https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXJHWeDk5q4
What Does Easter Mean to Palestinian Christians? Pilgrims of Ibillin webinar, with Usama Nicola https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNkW0rRK6E
Palestinian Political Prisoners Voice of the Youth podcast, interview with Usama Nicola https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iek7lx1LDUc
ABOUT ETHNIC CLEANSING, SETTLER VIOLENCE, DEMOLITIONS ETC. IN THE WEST BANK
B'Tselem Gaza Doctrine: The West Bank is Under Fire https://www.btselem.org/gaza_doctrine_west_bank_under_fire
New York Times, July 2025 In an Attack at Sunset, Israelis Set a Palestinian Village Ablaze www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-palestinians-attack.html
Arab News, July 2025 Why Israeli settler violence against Palestinians is surging in the West Bank www.arabnews.jp/en/middle-east/article_151108/
Zeteo, March 2025 The Gazafication of the West Bank: ‘Is This Really Happening Again?' by Diana Buttu zeteo.com/p/the-gaza-ification-of-the-west-bank
Barrons, March 2025 UNRWA Warns Israel's West Bank Operation Aligns With Annexation 'Vision' www.barrons.com/news/unrwa-says-growing-concerns-annexation-behind-israeli-west-bank-operation-a188d452?
+972 Magazine, Dec 20204 The West Bank villages wiped off the map by Israeli settler violence www.972mag.com/west-bank-villages-israeli-settler-violence/
Haaretz, Sept. 2024 On the Road to Annexation, Israel Is Turning the West Bank Into Gaza https://archive.ph/kbDMl
Human Rights Watch, April 2024 West Bank: Israel Responsible for Rising Settler Violence www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/17/west-bank-israel-responsible-rising-settler-violence
B'Tselem, Oct 2023 Forcible transfer of isolated Palestinian communities and families in Area C under cover of Gaza fighting btselem.org/settler_violence/20231019_forcible_transfer_of_isolated_communities_and_families_in_area_c_under_the_cover_of_gaza_fighting
This Webinar was recorded on July 9, 2025
This Webinar was recorded on July 9, 2025