If you prick them, do Palestinians not bleed?

Infographic: TBS

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale assault on Ukraine. The United States and its allies were quick to condemn Moscow and vowed to make them pay for this act of aggression. On top of declaring economic sanctions on Russia and important Russian individuals almost immediately, they have provided Ukraine with constant financial and military support. One year into the conflict, we are still getting hourly updates on the war. 

But while the world media is busy reporting on the energy crisis in Europe and the global recession, they, as well as the world leaders, are conspicuously silent about another atrocity happening elsewhere in the world; the suffering of Palestinians, it seems, does not deserve airtime.

In William Shakespeare's seminal work 'The Merchant of Venice,' Shylock, a Jewish moneylender puts forth the question, "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" when asserting the equality between Jews and all other races of human beings on earth. But it seems the descendants of this once persecuted race, along with the rest of the world, have forgotten this simple truth.

As of this writing, at least five Palestinians have been killed by settlers in 2023, while at least 68 have been killed by Israeli forces. During this same period, there have been 13 Israeli deaths and one female Ukrainian victim of a seemingly random attack.

Most of the recent attacks on Palestinians have happened in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel has been occupying since 1967. Last year, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 167 Palestinians in the West Bank. Since January of this year, they have killed at least 73 — more than one person every day. 

The Palestinian Health Ministry says that this is the bloodiest start to a year since 2000.

Attacks on Israelis by Palestinians have also gone up. At least 30 Israelis were killed by Palestinians in 2022, the most since 2008. And 13 more have been killed since January.  

In their latest show of aggression on Tuesday, Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians and injured 11 others in a raid in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. Among the injured, at least two suffered life-threatening wounds, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.

People in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank gathered along a road in anticipation of an Israeli army raid. Palestinian health officials reported that Israeli troops had killed one Palestinian and injured several others in a raid. Several eyewitnesses in the refugee camp stated that they heard "intense gunfire" coming from the direction of a house that was surrounded by Israeli forces.

Israeli forces reportedly besieged a house and fired rockets at it, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to AFP. Images of a column of military vehicles entering the city from above were captured by helicopters and shared on social media. Officials in Israel have claimed that one of the Palestinian men they killed was responsible for the shooting deaths of two brothers last week near the Palestinian village of Huwara.

According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, Israeli forces "eliminated" the gunman responsible for the deaths of two Israeli settlers in the West Bank last month.

Sara Khairat of Al Jazeera reported from Ramallah that Israeli forces raided another refugee camp to the south of Nablus on Tuesday night. In the Askar refugee camp, the Israel Defense Forces stormed a building and arrested three men, including the sons of a man who had been killed in Jenin the previous day.

A general strike is being observed across the occupied West Bank one day after Israeli forces killed six Palestinians and wounded dozens of others. Businesses in cities including Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah shut their doors on Wednesday morning in response to the killings.

The use of rockets in Jenin on Tuesday was described as an act of "all-out war" by Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. For "this dangerous escalation which threatens to inflame the situation and destroy all efforts aimed at restoring stability," Abu Rudeineh blamed the Israeli government.

Yet the global community is oddly silent; no bold proclamation of bringing justice to the oppressed from any quarter. 

The expansion of Israeli settlements is also increasing. In violation of international law, nearly 700,000 settlers reside in more than 250 settlements and outposts across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem warn that Al-Aqsa Mosque faces unprecedented efforts by Israeli settler groups and legislators to undermine its status as an Islamic site.

In the past decade, the number of settlers who entered the mosque's courtyards during near-daily incursions has nearly multiplied by seven. As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover festival approach, there have been no sign of a decrease in violence.

Israeli settlers went on a violent rampage overnight on Monday against Palestinians in the village of Huwara, where two Israelis were shot while sitting in their car the previous week.

The Israeli military claimed that they had to disperse crowds of "a number of violent rioters" in Huwara, and they did so with the help of the border police and the Israeli army. Videos posted online showed a mob of young men in black attacking a car driven by a Palestinian man, who was able to escape.

On the Jewish holiday of Purim, other footage appeared to show Israeli soldiers dancing with Jewish settlers in the town. A voice can be heard saying in Hebrew, "Huwara has been conquered, gentlemen!"

Reuters requested comment from the Israeli military, but in its response, the organisation made no mention of the footage showing Israeli soldiers dancing with settlers.

Yet, no global leader has yet condemned this rather egregious behaviour. 

After two brothers were shot by a Palestinian gunman while sitting in their car at a nearby checkpoint last week, settlers in Huwara set fire to dozens of vehicles and homes.

A senior Israeli commander called the attack a "pogrom [a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews]", and ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is responsible for aspects of the West Bank administration, said Huwara should be "erased," leading to widespread international outrage and condemnation. 

In a follow-up post, Smotrich did some backpedalling.

Senior political analyst for Al Jazeera, Marwan Bishara, has stated that violent repression by Israel will do little to quell Palestinian resistance. Over the course of decades, it has become clear that the belief that more violence is all that is needed to keep Jenin under control is mistaken. It is no coincidence that the refugee camps and cities that Israel has attacked and killed the most people in have become the most prominent symbols of Palestinian resistance, as Bishara puts it.

There will be more Israeli raids and more Palestinian resistance because places like Hebron, Gaza, and Jenin have proven to be the most resistant and steadfast. 

A political resolution appears further away than ever as Israel expands settlements and solidifies its occupation.

Israel has conducted more than five bombing campaigns in Gaza since the Second Intifada petered out in 2005; a wave of Palestinian fatal stabbing attacks surged in 2014 and 2015; and widespread conflict engulfed both Israel and Palestine in May 2021.

But as violence flares up once again, Palestinians, it seems, don't expect much external support.

As Palestinian academic and writer Yara Harari puts it, "Palestinians are not naive. We know that we are not Ukraine. We know that we will not receive the same outpouring of support as Ukrainians. No one will defend our right to resist an occupying force. 

"The international media will not post images glorifying our martyrs. Pop stars, Hollywood actors, and prime ministers will not come and visit families amidst the rubble in Gaza," Harari states. 

Nasif Tanjim. Illustration: TBS