Thameen Dawabsheh is not the last

In the far south of Nablus Governorate lies the village of Madma, which has recently been the scene of new assaults carried out by settler gangs, resulting in the death this time of Thameen Khalil Rida Dawabsheh, 35, after settlers shot him directly. Several other citizens were also injured and transported to hospitals for treatment. What happened brings to mind the repeated and escalating assaults in the eastern countryside of Ramallah and al-Bireh, the Jordan Valley, and the extent of Bedouin gatherings reaching as far south as Masafer Yatta. The martyr Al-Hawajli was also a victim of settler violence just days ago, along with the martyrs from Mazraa al-Sharqiya, Kafr Malik, al-Mughayir, and dozens of villages continually violated daily amid settler terrorism in the occupied Palestinian territories. According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee, 10 martyrs have fallen since the beginning of the year due to settler gunfire, and the number has risen to 30 martyrs since October 2023. The number of martyrs in the West Bank during this period reached 1014, with over 7000 injured and 18500 cases of detention. This is just a reminder, but what is significant here is that it reflects the scale, nature, and spread of what the settler gangs are executing in the West Bank through organized, composite, and systematic campaigns, as they commit acts of construction and land leveling, prevent farmers from accessing their fields and crops, establish settlement and pastoral outposts, and a long series of road closures and attacks on villages and houses near bypass roads among many other practices. All of these affirm the accurate description that these extremist gangs are fueled by an ideology that seeks to ethnically cleanse the land from its owners, and they have transformed over the years, especially after the rise of Netanyahu's government to power in Israel, into a formidable (institutionalized) arm that possesses full powers, influence, and structures. They have organized strength directly leading them openly and provide them with arms and money, and the political cover of the War Government. In fact, the ones leading it are the extreme racists, who are the most important pillar within it. They can collapse it and determine its fate as they possess a majority in the Knesset and enact laws and regulations under clear plans to entrench the status quo in Jerusalem, along with the increasing talk of building the alleged Temple there or establishing a kingdom in (Judea and Samaria) and ending the Palestinian presence.

Martyr Dawabsheh is one of the victims of the occupation and its settlers in Douma, a small village located to the north of al-Mughayir and the villages of Ramallah, alongside Jaloud and Qusra to the west. The village occupies a high position in the targeting rates alongside its peers from dozens of villages, but it possesses unique characteristics due to what happened there about 10 years ago with the Dawabsheh family and the burning of their house in a notorious brutal assault that claimed the lives of Riham Dawabsheh and her infant Ali. This crime shocked public opinion locally and globally at the time and indicated the inherent danger of the assaults carried out by settlers in the Palestinian territories, reaching lines that could pose a threat to Palestinian existence, while human rights organizations warned at that time of the potential repetition of it on a wider scale, considering it merely a "rehearsal" or a prelude to campaigns of more widespread and ferocious assaults. Indeed, attacks continued to record terrifying numbers that have become repeated almost daily in most governorates, and hardly a day passes without an attack, or a line of racist slogans, or the burning of citizens' property in the West Bank. Martyr Thameen today in Douma is another victim of ongoing settler violence, but unfortunately, he will not be the last before plans are made and worked on to force citizens to leave, under the ongoing effort for mass forced displacement being adopted by the occupying government, as we mentioned earlier. It is at the heart of its program aimed at liquidating the entire national cause and undermining the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, which are guaranteed by international legitimacy resolutions.

What is required today is a deep reevaluation of what is happening before it is too late regarding forms of protection and popular action, providing the necessary resources for villages and towns within a comprehensive national plan to strengthen steadfastness in villages and rural areas and defend them with all available momentum, and not to wait until they implement their insidious plans, re-enacting the 1948 scenario. The danger today is a real and looming threat that we see before our eyes, and it cannot continue to be overlooked or denied, nor can its risks be minimized. Today, the entire national community is in the circle of direct targeting for forced displacement and striking against Palestinian existence on the ground. A broad political movement is required and concrete international actions should be taken in light of the upcoming UN meeting scheduled for next month and the anticipated speech of the president at the United Nations. Why not directly request the issuance of a decision to classify settlers as terrorists and announce them as rogue groups outside international law, and prepare lists for their arrest based on these in countries around the world? And why not prepare a comprehensive governmental plan to equip villages and towns with all resources to confront resettlement projects despite the limited resources and the financial crisis that the Authority is experiencing? And why not work on a clear popular strategy to galvanize the factors necessary for the defense of the villages? Without serious and effective action, unfortunately, not only will these assaults continue, but they will be more ferocious and extensive against the entire national community. Full responsibility lies with us regarding what is happening so that we do not remain in a cycle of angry reactions and statements condemning and defining the situation. Working to build the elements of existence is not an intellectual luxury for theorizing and media talk, but it now requires a different plan, different tools, and higher collective participation, along with a clearer and more coherent level of coordination. Working to restore the value of popular will and initiatives is crucial, and a comprehensive system of action for confrontation should not be limited to responses from targeted villages or the governorate witnessing assaults. There should be a move to transform villages and towns and rural areas into lines of confrontation, reviving the collective sense among people based on the principle that displacement will not occur and that a people who have made all these sacrifices cannot be uprooted by a plan of decisive action or annexation or formats desired by the occupation.

Martyr Dawabsheh today, who will be tomorrow!! This is the question we must avoid falling into so that there is not a next time. Through vigilance and alertness, and the work of popular protection committees, we must all ensure that we do not overlook a moment in defending our villages, our honor, and our land so that there is not a coming assault in another village. We must move to initiative and excel at utilizing creative popular initiatives. Our people are rich with extensive and established experiences ingrained in their minds over many long years. Only then can the world and the international community, which still remains oblivious to the genocide in Gaza and has not moved to protect its people, start to act. We must thwart the model of settler gangs, and if they want to pour oil on the fire, why don't we become the fire itself.