In the latest example of moral bankruptcy, Zionist settlers set fire to the UNRWA headquarters  in Al Quds in the occupied West Bank. The bigoted arsonists threw flammable materials on parts of the outer square of the premises which is located in the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. This is the third time the UNRWA headquarters was attacked and prompted the agency’s Commissioner General, Phillippe Lazzarini to shut down the facility until the occupation forces guarantee their security. These settler attacks, however, reveal another dimension to "Israel’s" ongoing genocide, which is alarming, abhorrent, and warrants greater coverage. 

The dimension deals with Israeli settlers given a free hand by this far-right, racist, fascist and totalitarian government of Benjamin Netanyahu who is leveraging them to weaponize starvation for Palestinian elimination. Since October 7, the occupation regime has allowed settler violence against Palestinians and their sympathizers, with impunity. Settlers who were already notorious for ruthlessness and the illegal killings of a besieged population are now visibly more pronounced in their murderous tendencies and proclivities. Such tendencies were previously witnessed during the 2021 flare-up of Palestinians against the occupation which was the product of Arab residents in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah protesting against the impending decision of the Zionist regime’s Supreme Court on the planned eviction of six Arab families. The anticipated, impending, eviction was despite the apex court of "Israel" lacking jurisdiction on occupied territory. 

The Sheikh Jarrah agitation followed the visit of one of the staunchest advocates of Israeli settler expansion, current Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir. In 2022, Ben Gvir pulled out a gun against the protesting Palestinian residents and called for the radical reoccupation of Gaza and the West Bank by urging migration of Jewish settlers on Palestinian land. Since October 7, Gvir incited fatal attacks by approving 100,000-gun licenses to settlers which resulted in the fatal shooting of a Palestinian citizen in the West Bank in March 2024. 

Ben Gvir’s role in fomenting discord through enabling settlers’ sheds light on an important dynamic in this genocide.   

While true that settlers were always a menace, roadblock, and impediment to the just right of self-determination for Palestinians, the far-right Netanyahu government’s war machinery has allowed them to engage in enhanced activity, with a blanket approval of murderous proclivities. They are now an institutionalized and mainstream appearance in "Israel’s" genocide of 2023-2024 with government protection and active support. This explains why the outcry from "Israel’s" closet ally, the United States over settler attacks heading to Gaza was met with deafening silence from the Netanyahu regime. Also, the European Union’s political agreement to sanction Israeli settlers has been rebuffed by "Israel" in the absence of accountability. Recall too, that the lack of accountability of settlers attacking aid convoys and Palestinians, comes a few months after the International Court of Justice ordered Netanyahu to ensure unimpeded access to food in Gaza for a population facing imminent starvation. 

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Settlers though, are being allowed to attack aid convoys and decimate relief efforts with occupation police forces becoming silent bystanders watching as aid is looted in broad daylight.  Arrests have only taken place after significant coverage of the heinous crime in international media and by the HRW. The police too, have been given blanket approval from the Netanyahu government to not stop settlers and their nefarious designs which is eerily similar to how the state government of Gujarat under current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi allowed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other Hindutva groups to kill, maim, burn and uproot the local Muslim population during the state wide 2002 riots in which more than a thousand Muslims died. To date, many scholars consider the 2002 riots in India to be state-sponsored genocide.  

Even prior to October 7, Israeli settlers benefitted from government subsidies and reduced rates of land occupation in settlements such as Ariel and Beitar Illit.  They have also engaged in a controversial ‘price tag’ policy which involves attacking Palestinian Arabs, Christians and left-wing Jews to ‘exact a price’ in compensation for justified actions against their settlement enterprise. Settler youths indoctrinated by far-right-wing Zionists such as Dov Lior are also seen quoting Talmudic texts out of context with bizarre justifications to kill Arabs and Muslims in the name of Judaism. 

Zionist extremists will be delighted, however. In 2024, the Knesset proposed a budget of approximately $200.6 million in coalition funds by stripping off billions of dollars from Arab education and welfare, for dispensation to the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish population including those residing in settlements. Also, around $1 billion has been allocated for the development of roads on illegal settlements. By doing so, the fascist regime is enabling Israeli settlers to sustain themselves as a militant force capable of uprooting Palestinian lives. 

Hence, the decision by settlers to attack the UNRWA headquarters amid a border closure of the Rafah crossing by the occupation forces and the bombardment of the last bastion of Palestinian resistance is not at all surprising. 

Settlers have long vouched for the notion that Palestinians should be eliminated through any means possible, which includes stifling aid to a population under siege. Their dark history as bigots hailing from predominantly low-income, uneducated Israeli households, lured by government subsidies and far-right ideology now find themselves transformed into a government-sponsored movement for Palestinian elimination. 

There should hence, be little doubt that Israeli settler violence is a source of Palestinian destitution, denial, destruction, and elimination.