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Original article: Embajadora del Estado Palestino denuncia escalada colonial en Cisjordania: “terrorismo de colonos al amparo de la guerra regional”
Palestinian State Denounces Settler Terrorism Supported by Israel in the West Bank on the International Stage
The Palestinian Ambassador, Vera Baboun, warns that Israel has intensified its colonial escalation in the West Bank, using the regional war with Iran as a smokescreen. In an analysis published this Saturday, the diplomat outlines how the Israeli government is accelerating the expansion of settlements, imposing annexationist legislation, and establishing de facto control over Palestinian territory, blurring the lines of temporary occupation to undermine the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian representative details that the so-called «settler terrorism» functions as an organized armed branch, enjoying state protection and impunity, manifesting in physical assaults, property attacks, agricultural sabotage, and even desecration of Christian sacred sites. Baboun emphasizes that since early 2026, over 1,500 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the West Bank, and notes that these actions are not isolated incidents, but rather a systematic policy aimed at making a sovereign Palestinian state unviable.
We invite you to read the full column below:
Colonial Escalation in the West Bank: Settler Terrorism Under the Guise of Regional Warfare
By: Vera Baboun
Ambassador of the State of Palestine
Israel is exploiting the war with Iran as a means to divert geopolitical attention while intensifying its crimes at an unprecedented pace throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In this context, both Gaza and the West Bank are increasingly being pushed to the margins of international attention.
In the West Bank, Israel is accelerating the expansion of settlements through the approval of new housing units for settlers, allocating more land, adopting planning measures, and imposing new illegal legislative and administrative provisions. These actions deepen the colonial settlement project, solidify de facto annexation, and seek to normalize permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Moreover, these policies aim to blur the dividing line between temporary occupation and effective sovereignty, shifting the issue from the legal framework of occupation rights to what appears to be a bilateral dispute over land and property. In doing so, the legal prohibition against annexation is obscured, and the protection afforded to the Palestinian population is weakened. These are policies that directly undermine the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, fragmenting the territory, weakening governance structures, and destroying the territorial integrity necessary for the existence of a viable Palestinian state.
Among the most significant instruments of this policy are the settlements and the terrorism of the settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Settler terrorism is not limited to direct physical assaults but manifests in a wide array of attacks, including property damage via attacks against homes and vehicles, sabotage of surveillance systems, as well as systematic vandalism and arson; physical assaults, such as killings, beatings, use of pepper spray, and stone-throwing; attacks on the agricultural sector through theft of water tanks and farming equipment, destruction and uprooting of trees, grazing livestock on cultivated land, damage to trees and agricultural facilities, along with stealing and slaughtering livestock; attacks on water resources, including theft of tanks and aggression against water infrastructure, covering also water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities; and incitement through racist graffiti, spitting on Christian clergy, and desecration of sacred sites.
These aggressions are not limited to individuals or private property but also extend to churches, Christian sites, and ecclesiastical property in the occupied West Bank. In the town of Taybeh, the only wholly Christian Palestinian village remaining in the West Bank, church leaders accused settlers of igniting fires near the village cemetery and alongside a historic church dating back to the fifth century, as well as intimidating the population and attacking their lands and properties. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III and Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa condemned these attacks, noting that they threaten not only the Palestinian Christian population but also the religious heritage and historical Christian presence in the Holy Land.
During the first ten days of the war, the organization Yesh Din reported, on March 12, 109 attacks in 62 population centers, averaging 11 attacks per day. During this period, five Palestinians were killed, three of whom died at the hands of assailants in military uniforms, compared to eight cases of Palestinians killed by settlers throughout the year 2025, with none of the perpetrators being detained. The actions of the settlers cannot simply be described as a form of “violence”; they constitute, rather, organized and state-supported terrorism, perpetrated by militias of settlers and armed groups illegally residing in the West Bank. Settler terrorism acts as an operational arm on the ground for the occupying authorities, driving Israeli annexation policies in the West Bank and representing a direct extension of the ethnic cleansing process in that territory. Since early 2026, over 1,500 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, with 180 displaced due to settler attacks in the West Bank. Additionally, settlers are armed with clubs, sticks, and slings, all orchestrated with a clear goal: to intimidate Palestinians, seize their lands, and force them to abandon them.
These acts cannot be seen as isolated incidents or mere “violence” between civilians. They are an organized practice operating in an environment of protection, tolerance, and impunity, fulfilling the role of an executor of Israeli annexation and expansion policies in the West Bank. Consequently, what is commonly labeled “settler violence” should not be reduced to a limited penal description, but rather understood as organized terrorism, exercised by armed groups of settlers illegally residing in the occupied West Bank who play a clearly defined political and operational role: to intimidate the Palestinian population, confiscate their lands, and force their displacement.
What is occurring in Gaza and the West Bank is not an isolated event or a circumstantial excess, but part of a systematic policy aimed at consolidating permanent control over Palestinian land, undermining the basis of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, and making the existence of a sovereign Palestinian state unviable.
March 21, 2026
La entrada Palestinian Ambassador Highlights Escalating Colonialism in West Bank: «Settler Terrorism Under the Guise of Regional Warfare» se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.
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