A History of Settlements

Summary

Throughline: A History of Settlements

Hosted by Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei

Release Date: October 31, 2024

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Introduction

In the episode titled "A History of Settlements," NPR's Throughline delves into the intricate and often contentious history of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Hosted by Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei, the episode examines how these settlements transformed from a small religious mission into a central pillar of Israeli policy, deeply affecting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Through expert interviews, historical analysis, and firsthand accounts, the podcast provides a comprehensive overview of the settlement movement's origins, expansion, and enduring impact on the region.

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Historical Background

The Six-Day War and Aftermath

The episode begins by contextualizing the 1967 Six-Day War, a pivotal moment that reshaped the Middle East. Following escalating tensions and minor skirmishes, Israel launched a surprise attack on Egypt's air force bases, swiftly defeating the Arab militaries of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria within six days (11:15). This victory led to Israel's control over the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights (12:55). Historian Khaled Elgindi emphasizes the profound impact of this war, noting the "total humiliation of the Arab militaries" and the "euphoria" felt by Israelis (11:23).

Emergence of the Settlement Movement

Post-war, Israel faced the complex issue of the newly acquired territories. The International Court of Justice declared Israel's presence in Palestinian territories illegal, advocating for withdrawal (03:02). Despite international condemnation, Israeli figures like Yigal Alon proposed the Alon Plan, aiming to create "defensible borders" through the establishment of settlements across the West Bank and Jordan Valley (14:52). Although never officially adopted, the Alon Plan significantly influenced Israeli settlement policies (14:52).

The first major settlement, Giriat Arba, was established near Hebron by religious pioneers led by Rabbi Moshe Levinger (09:10). Anthropologist Gideon Aran recounts observing the settlement's growth and the settlers' belief in Judea and Samaria as the Jewish birthright (07:02). Sarah Yael Hirshhorn, a University of Haifa professor, identifies most modern settlers as economic suburbanists seeking better living standards rather than solely religious zealots (05:05).

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Ariel Sharon and the Expansion of Settlements

Military Influence and Political Ascendancy

A central figure in the settlement narrative is Ariel Sharon. Initially a military officer, Sharon's actions during the 1967 war—and later during the 1973 Yom Kippur War—cemented his reputation as a formidable leader (17:24). Historian Avi Schlaim highlights Sharon's pivotal role in establishing Unit 101, which conducted retaliatory raids against Palestinian villages, marking Sharon's first involvement in controversial military actions (24:46).

Following the Yom Kippur War, Sharon transitioned into politics, aligning with Menachem Begin's Likud Party—a right-wing faction committed to expanding settlements (18:44). As Minister of Agriculture, and later as Minister of Defense, Sharon aggressively pursued settlement expansion, seeing it as both a security measure and a fulfillment of ideological aspirations (19:54).

Settlement Infrastructure and Impact

Under Sharon's leadership, settlements grew rapidly, from 10,000 in the early 1970s to over 100,000 by the early 1980s (27:51). This expansion involved the construction of infrastructure that often directly hindered Palestinian communities, including water, electricity, and roads (34:12). The creation of the security barrier, initiated by Sharon during his second term as Prime Minister, further entrenched settlement presence by encircling major settlement blocks deep within the West Bank (45:33).

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International and Diplomatic Context

Oslo Accords and Continued Settlement Growth

In the 1990s, the Oslo Accords marked a significant yet ambiguous step towards peace, with mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) established (32:10). However, as Khaled Elgindi points out, the lack of a settlement freeze undermined the peace process, complicating negotiations over land (33:23). Despite international calls to deem settlements illegal and obstacles to peace, settlement activity surged, particularly in the West Bank's suburban areas, attracting settlers with better living conditions and government incentives (33:31; 34:00).

US Involvement and Support

The United States plays a dual role in the settlement issue. On one hand, American Evangelical Christians and various non-profit organizations provide substantial financial and moral support to the settlement movement (35:15). This external backing, coupled with a significant settler diaspora in the US, hampers American administrations' ability to effectively challenge settlement expansions (35:25).

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Settlement Expansion and Its Effects

Social and Political Implications

The growth of settlements has profound implications for both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements in the West Bank often resemble American suburbs, complete with paved roads, good schools, and shopping centers, contrasting sharply with the fragmented and economically strained Palestinian communities (04:48). This "securitized suburbanization," as described by Sarah Yael Hirshhorn, has led to a stark imbalance in quality of life and resource allocation (33:31; 34:07).

Impact on Palestinian Communities

Palestinians face daily hardships due to the settlement expansion. The construction of the security barrier, military checkpoints, and physical barriers severely restrict Palestinian movement, access to resources, and economic opportunities (46:20). Diana Butu, a Palestinian Canadian lawyer, vividly describes the dehumanizing treatment Palestinians endure, being constantly surveilled and subjected to violence at checkpoints (46:53).

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Violence and Extremism

Settler Violence and Massacres

The settlement movement has been marred by violence and extremist actions. One of the most infamous incidents was the 1994 massacre at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, perpetrated by Baruch Goldstein, a settler from Kiryat Arba (36:38). This atrocity, which resulted in 29 Palestinian deaths, underscored the severe tensions and the capacity for extreme violence within the settlement communities (37:55).

Second Intifada

The early 2000s saw the eruption of the Second Intifada, a period of intensified Israeli-Palestinian violence. Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the Temple Mount in 2000 acted as the catalyst, igniting widespread protests and violent confrontations (42:36). Ramtin Arablouei narrates how these tensions led to the rise of radical groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, further destabilizing the region (31:06).

Rise of Hilltop Youth

During Sharon's tenure, the Hilltop Youth emerged as a radical settler faction. These young militants established unauthorized outposts and engaged in violent acts against Palestinians, reinforcing fears and perpetuating the cycle of violence (47:44). Diana Butu highlights the omnipresent fear Palestinians live under due to these aggressive settler actions (48:09).

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Political Shifts and Ongoing Issues

Sharon's Legacy and Continued Settlement Policies

Ariel Sharon's policies left an indelible mark on the settlement landscape. His push for the security barrier and continuous settlement expansion aimed to solidify Israeli control over the West Bank, often at the expense of Palestinian rights and land (45:50). Historian Avi Schlaim argues that these actions were not merely security measures but strategic land grabs to cement Greater Israel's borders (45:40).

Current State of Settlements

As of the episode's release, over 130 settlements are officially recognized by the Israeli government, with numerous unofficial outposts established by extremist groups (51:30). The majority of settlers cite improved quality of life as their motivation, while a vocal minority pursue ideological goals of ethnic cleansing and eternal Israeli sovereignty (51:55; 35:09).

International and Domestic Opposition

Despite international condemnation and legal challenges, the settlement movement continues to thrive, heavily supported by right-wing political parties like Likud, now led by extremist figures such as Itamar Ben-Gvir (52:36). This political dominance ensures that settlement expansion remains a central Israeli policy, often leading to increased settler violence and further marginalization of Palestinians (52:16; 52:54).

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Perspectives and Conclusions

Voices from Both Sides

Throughout the episode, various experts and individuals provide insight into the settlement issue. Khaled Elgindi underscores the marginalization of Palestinians within the West Bank, highlighting how settlement infrastructure perpetuates inequality (03:32; 52:16). Sarah Yael Hirshhorn discusses the "securitized suburbanization" of settlements, illustrating how government policies favor settlers while disadvantaging Palestinians (33:31; 34:07).

Diana Butu offers a poignant perspective on the human cost of settlements, describing the daily struggles and violence Palestinians endure as a direct consequence of settlement expansion (37:55; 46:53). Avi Schlaim provides a critical historical analysis, arguing that settlement growth undermines Israel's security and the prospects for a fair peace agreement (25:15; 31:43).

Future Outlook

Throughline concludes by emphasizing the entrenched nature of the settlement movement and its profound implications for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The episode suggests that without significant policy changes and genuine efforts towards equitable solutions, the cycle of violence and displacement is likely to continue, hindering any meaningful progress towards peace.

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Notable Quotes

• Khaled Elgindi (03:02): "For Palestinians, the exact opposite [of Israeli seamless contiguity] is true. To have that kind of seamless contiguity, you have to disrupt Palestinian society."

• Sarah Yael Hirshhorn (05:05): "Today, Israeli settlers are primarily economic settlers. They're essentially suburbanites that I believe if they had been offered the same standard of living at prices that they could afford in other parts of territorial Israel, would have no real reason to be living in the West Bank."

• Ariel Sharon (26:04): "I received permission to establish three settlements a month. Then I really started to push."

• Diana Butu (37:44): "We were no longer the people who were the owners of the land. We were now turned into effectively the thieves and the interlopers, the people who shouldn't belong, and we were treated as such."

• Avi Schlaim (45:40): "But I would argue the real purpose or one of the purposes of the security barrier was land grabbing."

• Diana Butu (48:31): "It's terrifying to be there. The Israeli army has been going into, particularly in the northern part of the West Bank and destroying the cities and killing people as they choose. Who do I turn to for that safety and security? There is no rule of law. It's rule of power. It's the law of power."

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Conclusion

"A History of Settlements" offers a nuanced exploration of the Israeli settlement movement, tracing its historical roots, political dynamics, and lasting effects on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By weaving together expert analysis, historical events, and personal testimonies, Throughline provides listeners with a deep understanding of why settlements remain a contentious and central issue in the quest for peace in the Middle East.

Transcript

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[Ramtin Arablouei]

Hey everyone, it's Ramtin and Rund real quick before the show.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

It's been a wild, exciting, exhausting election season.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

If you want to follow what's going on now and make sure you don't miss any new developments, there are three things on NPR that you can listen to every day.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

NPR's Morning News podcast Up first is recorded before dawn and out by 7am each weekday. It's the only morning podcast anywhere that captures the news overnight. Up first 7am and later in the.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Day you can find a new episode of the NPR Politics Podcast with context and analysis on all the the big stories whenever they happen. So like, you get an alert big breaking news. You don't know what to think? Look for the NPR Politics Podcast a few hours later.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And finally, consider this is the podcast where NPR covers one big story in depth every weekday evening. They will be all over this election and its aftermath too.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

So it's like an around the clock election news survival kit from NPR Podcasts.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Okay, thanks for listening. Now onto the show.

[Khaled Elgindi]

There's a highway that runs from Tel Aviv to the northern suburbs, I guess, of Jerusalem.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

It's called Highway 443. Much of it runs through the west bank, and along some parts of it.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Are walls with painted murals on them.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Concrete and brick walls 20ft high, barriers and fencing with razor wire on top that separate the highway from the occupied Palestinian territory surrounding it.

[Khaled Elgindi]

It probably has some security justification.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The highway makes the trip between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem faster for Israeli citizens, including settlers who live in enclaves in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian residents of the west bank who are given different colored license plates are not able to drive on most of the highway. To access one part of it, they have to cross a military checkpoint and have a special permit. Most do not.

[Khaled Elgindi]

So there is a kind of out of sight, out of mind mentality that we can superimpose this Israeli reality on this territory with minimal contact or even thinking about Palestinians. For Palestinians, it's the exact opposite. In order to have that kind of seamless contiguity, you have to disrupt Palestinian society.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The International Court of Justice says Israel's presence in Palestinian occupied territories is illegal and should end.

[Khaled Elgindi]

I think now the international consensus among international human rights groups is that this is a reality of apartheid.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

This is Khaled Elgindi. He's a senior Fellow at the Middle east institute in Washington, D.C. where he directs the program on Palestine and Palestinian Israeli affairs.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Even though we're talking about 700,000 or so settlers compared to 3.1 million Palestinians, they are the marginal community in the west bank because everything has been set up to serve the settler minority.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Since the Hamas led attack on October 7, 2023 and Israel's invasion of Gaza, there's also been escalating violence in the occupied west bank, the bigger of the two Palestinian territories Israel occupies. It's sandwiched between Israel and Jordan and includes East Jerusalem.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

A Palestinian man was shot dead after a group of armed settlers stormed the village of Jeet, setting homes af. At the center of the violence is the issue of settlements. You might be picturing a few tents on a dusty plain and there are some like that. But many of the settlements resemble an American suburb with paved roads, nice houses, good schools and playgrounds. If you look at a map of the occupied west bank today, Israeli settlement infrastructure runs throughout the territory and Palestinian lands look kind of like Swiss cheese. Small islands disconnected from one another.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

Today, Israeli settlers are primarily economic settlers. They're essentially suburbanites that I believe if they were, had been offered the same standard of living at prices that they could afford in other parts of territorial Israel, would have no real reason to be living in the West Bank.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

This is Sarah Yael Hirshhorn. She teaches at the University of Haifa and wrote the book City on a Hilltop. American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

So this leaves maybe 30% of the Israeli settler enterprise today that identify as.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Religious Zionists, some of whom believe all the land in the west bank was given to the Jewish people by God and should be part of Israel at any cost.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

I'm saying this very clearly. We will never uproot settlements in the land of Israel.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The current Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been a vocal supporter of the settlements, and some of the most prominent positions in his administration are held by extremist settlers, including the Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben gvir.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

As Israeli police battled Arab stone throwers.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Right wing extremist politician Itamar Ben GVIR.

[Diana Butu]

Showed up and drew his pistol.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

He tweeted that Jewish blood matters and that police should not be constrained by the government from shooting Arab terrorists. In this episode, going to explore how the settlement movement grew from a small religious mission to one of the central tenets of the current Israeli government. It's a story that intersects with other topics we've covered in our series relating to this conflict. The history of Hamas, the rise of the Israeli right wing Hezbollah and Zionism.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Coming up, the birth of a city on a hill.

[Khaled Elgindi]

This is Dr. Robin Neinfeld from Alaska, and you are listening to throughline with npr.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Part one on the seventh day.

[Gideon Aran]

Imagine if you were observing a group of people several hundred years ago who boarded a ship called Mayflower, crossing the ocean and landing on the eastern shores of North America. At that time, you were not aware of the fact that actually you are watching history.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

What did it look like when you first got there?

[Gideon Aran]

Only bare mountaintops, no settlements.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is Gideon Aran. He was an anthropology and sociology professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for many years. And back in the mid-1970s, he spent several years doing research, closely observing one of the first settlements built in the occupied West Bank, Giriat Arba.

[Gideon Aran]

When they have political meetings, when they prayed, when they played with their kids at home, when they were guarding their settlement, I was there all the time, 24 hours, seven days a week.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Giriyat Arba is located just a mile outside the city of Hebron, or Khalil in Arabic. Hebron is considered a holy site by Muslims, Christians and Jews, where Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, is buried. Gideon learned that this new movement was hoping to settle further and further into what they call the land of Judea and Samaria, which they believed was the birthright of the Jewish people, land that was already inhabited by Palestinians.

[Gideon Aran]

The idea of pushing the frontier, it is inherently violent.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

They called their movement Gush Amunim, Gush Amonim, the Block of the Faithful. Their spiritual leader, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, tied settlements to a religious mission.

[Gideon Aran]

We were walking in the canyons leading from Jerusalem to Jericho, late night, all dark, and he looked to me and pointed to a certain hill and said, here there will be a yeshiva, and here there will be a school, and here there will be some industry. I said to myself, oh, this person is cuckoo, is dreaming while awake.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Rabbi Levinger and some of his followers had arrived in the city of Hebron with that vision for the future. A few years earlier, posing a Swiss tourist, they checked into a hotel to spend Passover there. And then they sent a telegram to.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

The head of the military command saying, you know, we had a lovely Passover holiday and we've decided to stay here.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

We've decided to stay here indefinitely in a hotel in the middle of a Palestinian city. If the government did say that you had to leave, would you fight the government.

[Avi Schlaim]

We won't leave.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Under any circumstances.

[Avi Schlaim]

Under any circumstances.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

For the followers of Gush Amunim, this was the logical next step in God's plan. In the aftermath of what some saw as an act of divine intervention.

[Avi Schlaim]

For the third time since its birth as an independent state, Israel is embroiled in a war with the Arab nations that surround her.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

On June 5, 1967, following an increase in tensions in the region and a series of minor skirmishes, Israel launched a surprise attack against all of Egypt's air force bases.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

That was the real superpower in the region was air power.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

War erupted between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. With the shock of the surprise attack and help from Western weapons, Israel swiftly took command of the war and the.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Total humiliation of the Arab militaries across the board. In a. In a sweeping way, the Arab states.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Concede defeat just six days later.

[Khaled Elgindi]

I think it's impossible to overstate the elation euphoria that Israelis felt after the war. I mean, many of them looked at it as a miracle to defeat their enemies in six days.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

It was known as the Six Day War.

[Gideon Aran]

And from day seven, the question arose, what is to be done with the territories?

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Before 1967, the West bank and the Gaza Strip were separated from Israel by something called the Green Line. Very simply, the Green Line was an actual line drawn in actual green pen on a map. In 1949, at the end of a bloody war, when borders for the new State of Israel were being solidified, on one side was the new state of Israel, and on the other side, no Palestinian state was created. Instead, Jordan was given control of the west bank, including East Jerusalem, and Egypt was given control of the Gaza Strip.

[Khaled Elgindi]

After Israel's creation, none of the Arab states recognized Israel's existence, particularly since Israel had been created at the expense of the local population. So about 75% of Palestine's Arab population were expelled or forced to flee and were never allowed to return.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The 1967 war disrupted all of that. Israel seized control of the territories over.

[Khaled Elgindi]

That Green Line, the West bank, including.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

East Jerusalem, plus the Gaza Strip.

[Khaled Elgindi]

And Israel also captured Egyptian territory, all of the Sinai Peninsula, and Syrian territory in the Golan Heights.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

The summer of 1967 was spent in the Knesset debating and dithering over what should be the future of these territories.

[Gideon Aran]

Should they return them immediately, could they.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

Be exchanged for some kind of peace? You know, the land for peace idea that, you know, Arab pride was tied in art to the future of these pieces of land. So Israel understood that There was value to this as a diplomatic tool of.

[Gideon Aran]

The Arab world, and some said by no means never.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This wasn't just a discussion about land. There were people living on that land, people who had grown frustrated with Israel and the Arab states controlling their Fates.

[Khaled Elgindi]

It's after 1967 that the Palestinians kind of politically come into their own.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The Palestine Liberation Organization, the plo, emerged as an autonomous political and military entity representing Palestinians.

[Avi Schlaim]

At the moment, after we be, we are sure that nobody would do anything for us unless we do something for ourselves. We choose our own way to liberate our own land.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

There was one part of the west bank that Israel decided to immediately annex, incorporating it into the State of Israel, East Jerusalem.

[Khaled Elgindi]

It's not recognized by any country, but it was annexed.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The UN Security Council issued a resolution stating that this action was illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

As for the rest of the west bank, the Minister of labor at the time, Yigal Alon, drafted a plan for what to do with it. Named after himself, the Alon plan was.

[Khaled Elgindi]

About creating bands of settlements across Jerusalem into the Jordan Valley and then along the north south axis of the Jordan Valley to ensure that Israel had these, quote, defensible borders.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

In other words, it would create a buffer between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

[Khaled Elgindi]

So initially, the settlement logic was security.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Based, and he proposed that the settlements.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Should be established in isolated areas to.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Minimize interaction with the local Palestinian population.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Because that would create problems.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The Alon plan was never formally adopted, but it would shape Israeli policy for years to come. And amid all of this, the government received word that a few dozen Israelis were refusing to leave a hotel in Hebron.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Eventually, the Israeli government decided to build them a settlement atop a hill a mile outside Hebron, Giriat Arba. And slowly more settlers began to move there. Kiriyat Arba would become a model for future Israeli settlements.

[Gideon Aran]

No doubt, the Arab people of Hebron view the Jewish settlement as an act of revenge.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Palestinians, both local communities and political leaders, recognized instantly the threat that the settlements posed. Because your parents and grandparents remembered the stories of, you know, one day a thriving Palestinian city, and then it's a shell of its former self, completely overtaken. In October 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The surprise attacks came early this morning.

[Avi Schlaim]

In the air and on the ground.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in the hopes of reclaiming the territory they lost in the 1967 Six Day War, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.

[Avi Schlaim]

Israel was taken by complete surprise.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is Avi Schlaim. He's an Israeli British historian and author of the book the Iron Israel and the Arab World.

[Avi Schlaim]

Israel was in a terrible state.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

The 1973 war was a real chill to the system. Israel had to get off this kind of, you know, pedestal of euphoria and maybe even hubris.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

After the 1967 war, in the face of almost certain defeat, a general in the Israeli army named Ariel Sharon came up with an idea that would change the course of the war. He crossed the Suez Canal and disrupted one of the supply routes for the Egyptian army. A ceasefire was negotiated soon after.

[Avi Schlaim]

Alright, Sharon emerges as the savior, as the really brave, ingenious soldier who managed to turn the tables on the Egyptians.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

A picture of Sharon became iconic. He's standing in front of an Israeli tank head, wrapped in white gauze, blood still visible on his face. And that newfound fame gave Sharon a pathway to enter politics and push the country further to the right.

[Avi Schlaim]

The Israeli right were divided into different parties and Ariel Sharon was the strategist who united all these right wing groups.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Together, Sharon struck a deal with Menachem Begin, the leader of a major right wing group, and together they created a.

[Avi Schlaim]

New party called the Likud.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

In 1977, the Likud Party ran in national elections. This is how its platform began.

[Khaled Elgindi]

The right of the Jewish people to.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The land of Israel is eternal and.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Indisputable and is linked with the right to security and peace. Therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Between the sea and the Jordan, there.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Will only be Israeli sovereignty.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Last night, the conservative Likud party headed by Menachem Begin, swept to victory.

[Khaled Elgindi]

You now have a Likud right wing government ideologically committed to settling all of the land.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And a quick note. The Likud is Benjamin Netanyahu's party which currently runs the Israeli government.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Begin adamantly opposes the return of the occupied west bank to Arab control.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Menachem Begin was named Prime Minister and he appointed Ariel Sharon Minister of Agriculture. In that role, Sharon will be responsible for the planning and development of settlements in the occupied territories, which he vocally supported, regardless of international sentiment.

[Avi Schlaim]

Are you saying that you think the United States has no business telling you what to do about the settlements here? The United States has nothing to say about Israeli right to exist. Or when it comes to our security, that's entirely our problem.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Coming up, Ariel Sharon takes the settlement movement to new heights.

[Avi Schlaim]

Hi, this is Joshua Rooney. I'm calling from Essex Junction, Vermont, and.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

You'Re listening to Throughline from npr.

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[Rund Abdelfatah]

2 the Godfather.

[Avi Schlaim]

There can be no.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Voluntary agreement between ourselves and the Palestine Arabs. Not now, nor in the prospective future.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

In 1920, three years before the foundation of the State of Israel, a man named Zev Jabotinsky published an article called on the Iron we and the Arabs. Jabotinsky is considered by many to be the spiritual father of the Israeli rite, and historian Avi Schlaim's book the Iron Wall is a reference to his article.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

My readers have a general idea of.

[Avi Schlaim]

The history of colonization in other countries, jabotinsky says. No nation in history has ever willingly made room for another people to come and create a state on its land.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

There is no such precedent.

[Avi Schlaim]

So Palestinian resistance to the Zionist project of an independent Jewish state in Palestine is inevitable and inescapable. The only way to realize the Zionist project is behind an iron wall, behind an iron wall of Jewish military strength.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Which the native population cannot breach.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

In the early 1920s, Zev Japotinsky helped found a paramilitary group called the Haganah, which defended the community of Jewish immigrants who had recently settled what was then still called Palestine.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

At the age of 14, I was initiated in the mid-1940s, a new recruit named Ariel Sharon was initiated into the Haganah. He describes the experience in his autobiography, Warrior. In an orange grove outside Moshav, a group of us lined up, then went one at a time into a small shed where we stood in front of a Bible and a pistol and took an oath of allegiance. Not long after, in 1948, Sharon and his counterparts in the Haganah took up arms in what Israelis call a war for independence, what Palestinians call the nakba, or catastrophe. The fighting forced around 700,000 Palestinians to flee their homes, some seeking refuge in neighboring countries like Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, others in the west bank and Gaza Strip.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

In the Battle of Latroun, near Jerusalem, Sharon was shot in the abdomen. Days earlier, he'd heard that Israel had officially become a nation. Over the radio, the new Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, addressed the new nation. This is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations in their own sovereign state.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And one of the first things Ben Gurion did after taking office was transform the Haganah into the national military of the new state of Israel, rebranding it the Israel Defense Forces, or idf.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

For the next few decades, Sharon would serve in the IDF, including as the commander of Unit 101, where he cultivated his military chops. Unit 101 carried out reprisal raids on Palestinian villages in retaliation for attacks from Palestinian and Arab guerrilla fighters in Israel. Many of these reprisal raids were done in secret, outside official military protocol. On one of these raids, Ariel Sharon.

[Avi Schlaim]

Went with his commander unit at night and he massacred 69 civilians. This was his first war crime, but it wasn't his last.

[Gideon Aran]

The west bank is part of Israel.

[Avi Schlaim]

And we must keep this part as.

[Gideon Aran]

Part of Israel because of the vital.

[Avi Schlaim]

Importance of this part of security of Israel.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Sharon eventually turned his attention from the battlefield to settlements. In his autobiography, he says the presence of Gush Amunim, the group of religious zealots who settled in Giriat Arba, was the spark needed to set the wheels in motion. He called them young Pioneers.

[Avi Schlaim]

He was the main representative in the government on the side of the settlers. He gave them every possible support.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Sharon began greenlighting more settlements, mainly in the west bank, but also in Gaza, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula, all the territories Israel came to occupy after 1967. But then the word came first this.

[Avi Schlaim]

Morning from the Egyptian Middle East News Agency. It reported that Egypt and Israel had agreed on a final draft for a peace talk.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

In 1978, just a year into the Menachem Begin Likud administration, Israel began peace talks with Egypt. The talks were facilitated by the U.S. and held at Camp David outside Washington, D.C. egypt would recognize Israel as a state. Israel would gain access to the Suez Canal and give back the Sinai Peninsula where some settlements had already been set up.

[Avi Schlaim]

Sharon was opposed to the peace treaty, but begging overruled him.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

While negotiations with Egypt were underway, Sharon doubled down on settlement building in the West Bank. As he recounted in his autobiography, I received permission to establish three settlements a month. Then I really started to push. Sharon also believed that if Israelis could only see the settlements for themselves, they'd be less inclined to give them up. That was how Sharon Tours was born. Sharon Torres buses with trained guides drove Voters up into the mountains where they could actually look down on their homes.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And envision for themselves the strategic consequences of giving up the line of Western.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Settlements I had built. By the time the campaign was over, more than 300,000 people had made the trip. From the early 70s to the early 80s, the settlements boomed from around 10,000 people to over 100,000. All of these settlements were considered illegal under international law. And it's important to note that there was some opposition within Israel to the settlements from the start.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But for Ariel Sharon and the Likud government, this was a massive success and he was promoted to Minister of Defense.

[Avi Schlaim]

It was then that he became the architect of the ill conceived and ill fated invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The situation in Beirut is edgy. Many here feel that a full scale Israeli attack on Palestinian positions throughout Lebanon will soon be launched.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

To make a very long story short, Lebanon, which had been embroiled in a civil war for years by 1982 had a large Palestinian refugee population and the PLO, which in the 1970s had carried out violent attacks on civilians inside and outside of Israel.

[Khaled Elgindi]

The PLO was then headquartered in Beirut.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Sharon's goal was to clear the PLO from the border area.

[Avi Schlaim]

But he had a much bigger plan in his mind.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Weaken the PLO to the point that.

[Avi Schlaim]

The Palestinians on the west bank would be disillusioned. This would facilitate the absorption of the west bank into Greater Israel.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Judaizing the West bank bank through settlement and depalestinianizing it politically went hand in hand.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But Sharon's actions in Lebanon were seen by many around the world as a step too far.

[Avi Schlaim]

Today, in the camps of Sabra and Shetiya, a large plot of unmarked graves bears witness to those who died in the massacre.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

At two Palestinian refugee camps called Sabra and Shatila, as many as 3,000 Palestinians were killed in three days by members of a Lebanese Maronite Christian militia who had been let into the camps by the Israeli army.

[Avi Schlaim]

A Commissioner of inquiry found that he was indirectly responsible for this massacre.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The Commission's words are that he ignored or dismissed from his mind the danger of acts of revenge and bloodshed.

[Avi Schlaim]

And as a result, Ariya Shawan was forced to resign as Minister of defense.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Throughout the 1980s, the events in Lebanon and then the outbreak of the first intifada or uprising, a grassroots Palestinian movement against the occupation that involved mass protests and violence in the occupied territories and Israel, contributed to the rise of more extreme groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, backed by Iran. We don't have time to get into all the reasons that that happened. But if you want to hear more about the rise of both groups, check out our episode archives.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Around the same time, the PLO began rebranding itself as more of a diplomatic group. They tacitly recognized Israel's right to exist and accepted the Green Line as the border for a future Palestinian state, which, remember, was drawn in 1949 to separate Israel from what became the occupied territories of the west bank and Gaza. This is all important to the story of settlements because now there was a potential framework for a two state solution. But the settlements were on the wrong side of the Green Line and still expanding.

[Avi Schlaim]

Further settlement activity is in no way necessary for the security of Israel and only diminishes the confidence of the Arabs that a final outcome can be freely and fairly negotiated.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

American presidents since 1967 have called the settlements everything from illegal, the Israeli settlements on occupied territory are illegal, to an obstacle to peace. Nothing should be done that might interfere with this prospect.

[Gideon Aran]

Welcome to this great occasion of history.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

But when Bill Clinton took office in the early 1990s, he pushed forward with a peace process between Israelis and Palestinians anyway. Standing at a podium with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to his right and Chairman of the plo, Yasser Arafat to his left, Clinton announced the beginning of the Oslo Accords.

[Avi Schlaim]

Today, the leadership of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization will sign a Declaration.

[Gideon Aran]

Of Principles on Interim Palestinian Self Government.

[Avi Schlaim]

It charts a course toward reconciliation.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Clinton didn't mention settlements in the speech. The Oslo Accords focused on two establishing mutual recognition between Israel and the plo. That is, both sides recognized the other's right to exist and establishing Palestinian governance over certain parts of the west bank and Gaza. Thornier issues like the status of Jerusalem, refugees and settlements were set aside for future negotiations.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Khalid Elgindi says many Palestinians were wary of proceeding without a settlement freeze because.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Settlements disrupt the whole land for peace formula, right? How are we going to negotiate over the fate of this land while you keep gobbling it up?

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

During the period of the Oslo Peace Accords, the settlement population soars. West bank in particular is really taking off. And suburban settlements there are growing in this kind of what I've called the securitized suburbanization of the Israeli settler movement.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Securitized suburbanization, Housing developments with easy commutes to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with paved roads, groomed lawns, shopping centers, better schools.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

Playgrounds, quality of life that Israelis were attracted to. And the government was subsidizing tax breaks.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Cheaper housing, and the person in the government creating those subsidized opportunities.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Ariel Sharon. After resigning from his post as Minister of Defense, he spent several years working as Minister of Industry and Trade, then housing and Construction and then national infrastructure. Often the resources that were needed to shore up these suburbanized settlements, water, electricity, roads, agricultural land, directly impacted the availability of those same resources for Palestinians in neighboring communities.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

Settlers, where are the imbalance? For sure. Does that mean that they want to see Palestinian state and come into existence? I think that's a, that's a separate question.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Sarah Hirshhorn says while some settlers said they were willing to leave if a Palestinian state was formed, there was a vocal extremist group.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

So actually want to see the ethnic cleansing of the west bank and you know, full Israeli sovereignty until the end of time.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And some of those extreme voices didn't come from within Israel.

[Khaled Elgindi]

The US is almost ground zero for outside support for settlements in the occupied territories.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

At the same time that American officials were negotiating a potential two state solution.

[Khaled Elgindi]

The settler movement has an elaborate infrastructure of non profits and charitable organizations, tax exempt groups in the United States that raise money for and funnel resources into the settlements. There is also a strong constituency of non Jews who are supporting the settlements, namely Evangelical Christians. And so it's very hard in this political environment for US administrations to take actions against settlements.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Some American settlers were drawn to Kiryat Arba, the place where Rabbi Levinger and the followers of Gush Amonim first settled.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

Kiryat Arba begins to be a settlement that has a growing reputation for radicalism. A few small fringe but very important terrorist groups within the Gush Elmim community and more largely were known as the Mach Tirade or the Jewish underground carried out some very severe and significant attacks.

[Avi Schlaim]

God willing we should establish the state of Judea here and we will know.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

How to take care of them ourselves. Members of the Jewish underground were eventually arrested, but attacks continued. One of the most severe happened in 1994, less than a year after the first Oslo accord was signed. An American born physician named Baruch Goldstein, who had settled in Kiriat Arba went to the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron, also holy to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs. During morning prayer, it was the 15th day of Ramadan. Then he opened fire, gunning down 29.

[Diana Butu]

Palestinians as they were praying in the aftermath. Isaac Rabin, remember the person who signed Oslo. This was the Labour government, so called left wing. He faced two choices. Choice number one, which was to take the settlers out of Hebron or number two, double down, keep the settlers there and militarize the Ibrahimi mosque against Palestinians.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is Deanna Butu. She's a Palestinian Canadian lawyer who now lives between Haifa in Israel and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

[Diana Butu]

He chose the latter.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Israel sent extra troops into the occupied territories, placed a curfew on Hebron, and closed off the Gaza Strip.

[Diana Butu]

Palestinians were no longer the people who were the owners of the land. We were now turned into effectively the thieves and the interlopers, the people who shouldn't belong, and we were treated as such.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The very young chant the word Palestine, an act of faith. So far, they have escaped the despair. But for most Palestinians, faith in a future democracy has declined.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

By the late 1990s, the lack of progress in the Oslo peace process and escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians was leading to more disillusionment and extremism.

[Avi Schlaim]

The bombing occurred at an outdoor marketplace, injuring at least 21 others. The Islamic militant group Hamas has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Palestinians grew frustrated with the plague, which was increasingly seen as corrupt and willing to compromise on the fundamentals of Palestinian statehood. And in Israel, the man who had launched the Oslo era alongside Clinton and Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated by a Jewish religious extremist.

[Khaled Elgindi]

There was this fear that Oslo was moving inevitably and irreversibly toward giving up the west bank in Gaza and possibly even East Jerusalem.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Seizing on this fear, a now elderly Ariel Sharon took over as leader of the increasingly hardline Likud party. On Israeli state radio, he'd recently said, quote, everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements, because everything we take now will stay ours. Everything we don't grab will go to them.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Coming up, Ariel Sharon makes an unlikely comeback.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Hi, this is Grace from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and you're listening to Throughline from mtr.

[Mattress Firm]

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[Rund Abdelfatah]

In the early morning hours of September 28, 2000, Ariel Sharon arrived in the Old City of Jerusalem atop what Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al Sharif. Both consider it one of the holiest places on the planet. Thousands of Palestinians were there that day. The Likud Party is here today with a message of peace.

[Avi Schlaim]

He said he was carrying a peace message, but he was surrounded with a thousand security people, so he was being deliberately provocative.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Behind the scenes, negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials had stalled.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Jerusalem had become so central because now the parties were talking about Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem and dividing Jerusalem. And that was just totally unacceptable for Sharon and others in his ideological family.

[Avi Schlaim]

So the situation was like a barrel of gunpowder and Sharon threw a match to the gunpowder.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Clashes break out Just after he left.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The platform, a crowd of some £200 Palestinians began hurling stones at police.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Protesters are shot dead.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Today's violence in Jerusalem quickly spread to Ramallah on the West Bank.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Before you know it, Palestinian students chanted.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

We'Re ready for a revolution.

[Avi Schlaim]

The second Intifada was unleashed.

[Diana Butu]

I arrived on the first day of the second uprising.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

I had no idea Diana Bhutu had come to the west bank to be part of the Palestinian negotiations team that was working towards a two state solution. She would also serve as a spokesperson for the PLO during this time.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The Palestinian uprising is now in its second month with no sign of abating. More than 135 people have been killed so far, all but eight Palestinians. Palestinian leaders basically say their aim is to play both. They want to use the violence to fight the Israeli occupation with their overall goal of return to the peace talks. Israel says this is impossible to do both at the same time.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

With elections around the corner and the second Intifada continuing, the sitting Prime Minister Ehud Barak faced an unlikely challenger, Ariel Sharon.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Even though Sharon isn't that popular among Israelis, to many Israelis, the right wing looks very prescient now for saying for so long the Palestinians didn't want peace.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

In February 2001, Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister and doubled down on settlements.

[Avi Schlaim]

The government of Israel will act to restore the security and stability we need.

[Diana Butu]

For me, it was terrifying. This was a man who, in the aftermath of the massacre of Sabran Shatila, was declared to not be fit to be Minister of Defense. But it's okay for him to be prime minister. I knew that his rise to power was not only going to lead to a rise in settlements. He laid the groundwork for some of the most horrendous things to be done against Palestinians.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Not long into his term, Sharon announced plans to erect a security barrier. Some call it a separation wall, all along the border between the west bank and Israel, but not along the old Green line border. Almost 90% of the barrier is built on the Palestinian side, snaking deep into the west bank to surround the main Jewish settlement blocks built on occupied territory. He said it was in response to a wave of suicide bombings and attacks in Israel carried out by Palestinians during the second Intifada.

[Avi Schlaim]

But I would argue the real purpose or one of the purposes of the security barrier was land grabbing.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Avi Shlaim says the west bank security barrier was Sharon's way of preserving a version of the dream of Greater Israel. Amid the negotiations, the wall marked what.

[Avi Schlaim]

He hoped would be the final borders of the State of Israel.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Throughout his time in office, Sharon implemented more physical barriers between settler and Palestinian communities. Concrete walls, chain link fences, patrolled roads, military checkpoints.

[Diana Butu]

And that means that every time I exit Ramallah or enter Ramallah, I need to go through an Israeli military checkpoint. It means that I'm always confronting an Israeli soldier. It means that my car is always being searched, my papers are being searched. There is almost daily violence at these checkpoints because their whole point is to ensure free movement of the Israeli settlers, but not free movement of Palestinians.

[Khaled Elgindi]

I can remember being shocked by how little consideration there was for how things like settlement infrastructure affected people on the ground.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

While Sharon was in office, Khalid Elgindi was hired as an advisor to the Palestinian leadership on negotiations with Israel.

[Khaled Elgindi]

I was based in Ramallah and I was in charge of the settlements file. And I spent five and a half years kind of up close and personal with that issue.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

He visited Palestinian communities all across the West Bank.

[Khaled Elgindi]

We went to visit people whose homes, one portion of their home was now off limits because the wall came right through it.

[Diana Butu]

We as Palestinians, we're invisible to them.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

A group known as the Hilltop Youth emerged around this time, galvanized by Sharon's message to grab as many hilltops as they could.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Every hill is territory of the land of Israel.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Every hill must be conquered. They established New unofficial outposts, sometimes in defiance of state authorities. And Diana Butu says some of them.

[Diana Butu]

Are known for using their weapons, pointing a weapon at your car and forcing you to stop. If you don't stop, they shoot at you. It's a daily form of being afraid that they're going to attack you.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And then in 2005, Sharon came up with an idea that seemed to contradict his decades long commitment to the settlement project.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

He essentially floats this idea that it was time for a disengagement from the Gaza Strip and that would involve evacuating all the civilian settlements there, as well as any military infrastructure and economic development.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

All 8,000 settlers in Gaza had to leave. Some refused and were forcibly removed.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

You know, historians ponder, was this the prelude to a large scale disengagement for the west bank or was this actually a way to shore up the west bank settlement project? That it was necessarily almost sacrifice Gaza to ensure that the west bank settlements could, you know, continue to thrive forever.

[Avi Schlaim]

In the following year, he introduced 12,000 new settlers to the West Bank. It was a prelude to consolidating Israel's grit and control over the West Bank. The west bank was much more important than Gaza. The west bank was Judea and Samaria. The west bank was an integral part of the historic homeland. Gaza wasn't.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Even so, the decision to withdraw from Gaza was deeply controversial within Israel and it remains controversial to this day. A couple of Years later, in 2007, Hamas seized power in Gaza after a brief conflict with the Palestinian Authority.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

You know, for many Israelis there's a direct line between that and October 7th.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

In a dramatic twist of fate, shortly.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

After this all took place, Ariel Sharon.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Suffers this catastrophic stroke which leaves him in a coma for eight years and never regains consciousness.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

President Obama is among the world leaders.

[Diana Butu]

Remembering Sharon as a leader who dedicated.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

His life to Israel President Shimon Peres.

[Diana Butu]

When he died, the way that people eulogized him totally ignored the harmony that he caused. Not just directly, but setting into place this path of just dealing with Palestinians with endless force, no limits, and the world never stopping him.

[Gideon Aran]

As I met Rabbi Levinger at the very beginning, he told me that his success would be defined in terms of people inhabit the west bank who have nothing to do with the original ideas of Gushemunim. People of the middle class who want to better their life.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Today there are more than 130 settlements that are officially recognized by the Israeli government. And then there are a number of unofficial outposts, the kind the hilltop youth have established with estimates ranging between 100 and 191. Only around a third of settlers today settle in the west bank for religious reasons. The majority say they do it for a better quality of life.

[Diana Butu]

But the quality of life is at the expense of whom, for whom is it quality of life? The decades of violence that these settlements are built on maintained on the violence that they continue to cause to Palestinians each and every day. And the fact that they can't see the violence is itself very violent.

[Avi Schlaim]

In recent years, we have seen the escalation of settler violence against the residents of the west bank with the active support of the government. And today the settlers are a major political force in the country.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Israel's Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gavir, is actually a settler in Kiriyat Arba today. There's a memorial to Baruch Goldstein there. And some within the settler movement are now calling for a resettlement of Gaza.

[Khaled Elgindi]

Now the settler reality is the dominant reality, and the Palestinian presence is the marginal presence. The settlements and The army control 61% of the West Bank. So the settler reality has completely flipped since Oslo, ironically since the start of the peace process.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

Today I just feel like the Oslo rubric is no longer, you know, no longer in effect, everybody's in their own one state paradigm seems to me like well beyond the question of the Israeli settler movement post 1967. We're back in a 1948 paradigm and a 1948 existential conflict about why did a state of Israel come into existence and the state of Palestine did not, and how is that going to be historically redressed?

[Diana Butu]

You asked me, when does it begin? For me, it begins with that ideology that there are some people who are deserving of rights and other people who are not. And I think that's the part that Israel has to understand. They can't live their lives just somehow assuming that all of the violence that they put out is not going to have a boomerang effect.

[Sarah Yael Hirshhorn]

Many Israelis fear that, you know, what happened in Gaza could happen in the West Bank.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

An IDF spokesperson says attacks on Israeli targets in the region have increased significantly since the war started. The spokesperson said IDF soldiers handle attacks on Israeli citizens, while Israeli police handle violations by Israeli citizens, including violent incidents directed at Palestinians, with support as needed from IDF soldiers in the West Bank.

[Diana Butu]

It's terrifying to be there. The Israeli army has been going into, particularly in the northern part of the west bank and destroying the cities and killing people as they choose. Who do I turn to for that safety and security? There is no rule of law. It's rule of power. It's the law of power.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Foreign that's it for this week's show. I'm Rund Abdelfatah.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

I'm Ramtin Arablouei and you've been listening to Throughline from npr.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This episode was produced by me and.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Me and Lawrence Wu, Julie Kane, Anya.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Steinberg, Casey Minor, Christina Kim, Devin Kadayama, Sarah Wyman, Leena Muhammad, Irene Noguchi.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Thanks to Tony Cavan, James Hyder, Daniel Estrin, Greta Pittinger, Johannes Dergi, Puneet Matiwala, Nina Puchalski, Edith Chapin and Colin Campbell.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Voiceover work in this episode was done by Devin Schwartz, Casey Morell and Nick Neves.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Back checking for this episode was done by Kevin Voelkel. This episode was mixed by Gilly Moon.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band Drop Electric, which.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Includes Anya Mizani, Naveed, Marvy, Sho Fujiwara. And finally, if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show, write [e-mail] thanks for listening.

[Mattress Firm]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Shopify, the global commerce platform that helps you sell and show up exactly the way you want to customize your online store to your style. Sign up for a $1 per month trial [e-mail] NPR support for NPR and the following message come from GiveWell. Over 100,000 donors have used GiveWell to donate more than $1 billion. Find out more or make a [e-mail] select how you heard about GiveWell by choosing podcast and enter NPR at checkout.

[Joshua Rooney]

This message comes From NPR Sponsor 1Password Creating a password that's too strong to guess it and impossible to forget can sound impossible unless you have one password. Don't let security slow your business down. For a free two week trial, go to1Password.com NPR.