On Wednesday June 21st afternoon, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the village of Turmusaya, north of Ramallah, setting homes, vehicles, and fields ablaze, injuring residents, and killing one Palestinian man. According to the mayor of Turmusaya, settlers storming in from the illegal Shilo settlement bordering the town, burned 30 houses and 60 cars while destroying large swaths of crops. The settlers carried arms and fuel canisters and were accompanied by the Israeli occupation army which stood by as the attackers fired live ammunition and prevented ambulances and fire engines from arriving.
The pogrom in Turmusaya marks the second concurrent day of settler riots on Palestinian villages in the West Bank where Jewish settlers attacked Palestinians and obstructed their movement. From settlements surrounding Ramallah to Nablus, settlers launched attacks after a shooting on Monday at a gas station in the settlement of Eli, in which Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis. The shooting came in response to Israel’s assault on Jenin camp that killed seven Palestinians, including two minors. In one of the state’s largest raids on Jenin in years, Israel utilized military helicopters to carry out airstrikes in the West Bank for the first time in nearly two decades, putting civilians at risk.
Beyond conducting its own deadly incursions into the West Bank, Israel arms settlers and encourages them to attack Palestinians using inciteful language. Case in point, following the shooting in Eli, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on settlers to arm themselves.
Alongside asserting its authority over the West Bank through physical intimidation and violence, the Israeli government took a major step this week towards cementing the annexation of the West Bank in law. In addition to announcing plans to advance the construction of more than 4,560 settlement units and allowing settlers to return to previously evacuated outposts, the Israeli cabinet transferred authority to approve settlement building plans from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to ultra-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionism party—a settler himself who openly advocates the illegal annexation of the West Bank and has denied the existence of Palestinians.
Traditionally, power over settlements rested with the Israeli Occupation Forces. Thus, shifting responsibility onto a civilian ministry signals the annexation of the West Bank is now de jure, meaning annexation “in law,” whereas previously Israel’s control over settlements amounted to de facto annexation—annexation “in fact.”
The Israeli government’s announcements regarding settlement expansion follow other troubling policy proposals that also seek to secure Israel’s dominance over the territory. In early June, an Israeli policymaker drafted a bill to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque granting Muslims about 30 percent of the compound’s southern section while leaving the rest, including the Dome of the Rock, for Jews. The plan also seeks to change access procedures for Jews visiting Al-Aqsa, demanding Jews be allowed to enter the complex through all gates, rather than only through the southwestern Moroccan Gate.
Internationally, Al-Aqsa is agreed to be a Muslim holy site with non-Muslim prayer at the site banned, as it has been for decades. However, over the past three decades, Israel has exerted greater control over the complex, controlling who enters and exits, restricting Palestinian access, and conducting violent incursions inside.
Palestinians reject the proposed plan to divide and share Al-Aqsa Mosque—a proposal that also pointedly violates international law. While Israeli forces gradually seek to empty the holy site of its Muslim worshippers, Palestinian leaders warn enacting such a bill will ignite widespread anger given the mosque’s historical and religious value within Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim identities.
The settler-led riots in Turmusaya and across the West Bank progress naturally from the Israeli government’s increasingly bold annexation and policy initiatives—all of which the international community deems illegal. As the Palestinian death toll rises each day, Israel’s military, government, and settlers remain equally complicit in the burgeoning violence.
As we continue to witness escalating violence and uncertainty in Palestine at the hands of the Israeli government and settlers, The Jerusalem Fund is dedicated to showing its solidarity and support for the Palestinian people that are in need of financial support to sustain their educational, health, and cultural institutions, rebuild their homes, and secure necessities for survival in Gaza and the West Bank. To this end, The Jerusalem Fund has relaunched its emergency aid and relief campaign. Your donations will be directly sent to Palestinians in need, and all donations are tax-deductible.
