Expanding settlements

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Israel is going ahead with its ethnic cleansing exercise in the West Bank, with over 2,100 new houses set to be built on illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory. The approval is a direct assault on international law that would shame several world leaders into resigning, but is worn as a badge of honour by members of Israel's ruling coalition of racists, bigots and war criminals.

The Israeli government's unrelenting support for illegal settlements and recent legislation criminalising Palestinian efforts to defend themselves from settler violence are clear efforts to permanently bury any Palestinian hope for statehood. Politicians like the far-right, pro-settlement finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, are openly admitting that such moves are strengthening Israel's grip on land that the international community recognises as belonging to the Palestinians. Meanwhile, armed settlers have been systematically terrorising Palestinian shepherds and farmers in the Jordan Valley, destroying crops, stealing livestock and assaulting residents as part of what the UN Human Rights Office described as a "concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer" that raises "concerns of ethnic cleansing".

Yet, despite this escalating campaign of terror, most Western nations are still disgracefully complicit. The EU has imposed minimal sanctions on a handful of settlers with a patchwork of wrist-slaps for extremist political leaders, while the US continues to actively defend Israel to the detriment of Americans. In fact, some congressmen have tried to gather support for a bill that would grant US citizens who previously served in the Israeli military the same rights as retired members of the US armed forces, which is an insult to American soldiers. Instead of putting the genocidal regime on pedestals, they need to be in courtrooms, facing consequences for their actions. Every architect of the genocide and ethnic cleansing campaigns must be targeted by the world community.