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Israeli forces and settlers have intensified violence across the occupied West Bank this year, with the UN flagging October 2025 was the worst month for West Bank settler violence since it started recording incidents in 2006. All this against the backdrop of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, as attacks persist even during the ceasefire. Palestinians in both territories continue to endure death, displacement and a deepening humanitarian crisis. On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Younes Arar, Director of Public, International Relations and Media of the Colonization & Wall Resistance Commission, which is an official body under the Palestinian Authority.
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00:00Hello and good evening. I'm Melissa Idris. Welcome to Consider This. This is the show
00:15where we want you to consider and then reconsider what you know of the news of the day. Israeli
00:20forces and settlers have intensified violence across the occupied West Bank this year, with
00:26the UN flagging October 2025 as the worst month for West Bank settler violence since the UN started
00:34recording in 2006. Now, all this is happening against the backdrop of the continuing Israeli
00:44genocide in the Gaza Strip as attacks there persist even during this ceasefire. So, Palestinians in
00:52both territories continue to endure death, displacement and deepening humanitarian crises.
00:59So, joining me on the show to tell me more about the realities on the ground, the situation in the
01:05occupied Palestinian territories is Yunus Arar, who is the Director of Public, International Relations
01:12and Media of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, which is an official body under the
01:19Palestinian Authority. He joins us today from Ramallah. Yunus, thank you so much for being on the show
01:24with me today. I'd like to begin our conversation with getting a sense of the current situation on the
01:32ground in the occupied West Bank at this very time. Good morning and thanks for having me. Yes,
01:41speaking from Ramallah. The situation on the ground is unbelievable. It cannot be comprehended. They are
01:54making life literally impossible for Palestinians to push them to leave their land. So, let me put it like
02:03this. Day and night, there are non-stop attacks by terrorists and occupation colonizers on Palestinian
02:12communities everywhere. And they mean to target people's lives and people's properties. That's, they are
02:20always escorted and covered by the Israeli occupation forces and with full impunity and protection by the
02:30government. Very well fund, very well organized. It's not the spontaneous attacks here and there. And
02:37every one of them is known to their occupation, Mossad and Shabak. And yet, they are not held accountable
02:45for any of their attacks. And when I see attacks, when I see attacks, they are very organized. Hundreds are
02:55attacking attacking a certain Palestinian community. They torch whatever comes in front of them, cars,
03:04homes, whatever properties. And they mean to cause lethal attack, to cause deaths. They mean that. They
03:15want that. And they are trying to do that. Yesterday, there was a Palestinian killed by a Zionist occupation
03:24colonizer. This is what I mean by Zionist colonizer. Terrorist colonizer, if you like. And of course,
03:34I have to add that all Palestinian roads are blocked. We cannot use our own roads.
03:42There are above 1,000 military gates and checkpoints at each and every Palestinian community.
03:55For example, it takes me, my office, I have an office in Bethlehem as well, to reach my office in Bethlehem from
04:02my town. Instead of taking 10 minutes, it takes one hour and a half. So you will have to imagine what kind of roads
04:15I have to take in order to reach my office in Bethlehem. That's 10 minutes only far from my house.
04:24That's all. And the same applies for all Palestinian communities, cities, villages, refugee camps. So number
04:34one, they have disconnected Palestinian communities from each other and turned us literally into separate
04:42islands. They have unleashed their terrorists, the occupation colonizers,
04:49borders to attack Palestinian properties, to attack Palestinian people physically.
04:58And they are always, always escorted by Zionist occupation forces. So they are not working separately.
05:08They are working together to achieve their ultimate goal. Their ultimate goal is to steal Palestinian land,
05:16is to separate Palestinian communities from their own land.
05:21Okay. So what you're saying is because this is systematic violence that Israeli forces are present when
05:34this, when settler violence occurs, you're saying that this is state-sanctioned settlements. Is that right?
05:41No, no, no, no. I won't say state-sanctioned. I would say state-terrorism, state-organized terrorism.
05:51Because these terrorist groups, they are, they were found by ministers in the Zionist occupation cabinet.
06:01All right.
06:02And they are led by them, for example, Bingvir and Smotrich, as an example. And Bingvir and Smotrich,
06:10they are not working separately from Netanyahu. They are instructed by Netanyahu.
06:16So it's a state-terrorism against Palestinian whole being, against Palestinians whole being.
06:24Because they have devastated, we have no freedom of movement, not for people, not for goods.
06:31They are, they have already devastated Palestinian economy.
06:38They are applying starvation in all occupied Palestine by not making it possible for having whatever source of income.
06:49Right. Younes, what protections do Palestinians have, if any? What can Palestinians do in the face of settler violence? Can the Palestinian authority respond to this state terrorism?
07:08No. It can respond diplomatically within, within the international forums. But on the ground, no, because we have no military power.
07:21The only military that exists on the ground is with the Zionist occupation entity, so-called Israel. And it's unleashed terrorist colonizers groups. We have no protection of whatsoever.
07:39They have free hand. They have free hand. They can storm our houses. They can storm our villages. They can do whatever they want with no, and they are not absolutely
07:56be responsible, be responsible, or hold responsibility for whatever atrocities they cause to the Palestinian community.
08:09So it's, and what's happening, what's happening is very well recorded. It's very well documented. The whole world is seeing what's happening in Palestine, second by second.
08:23And the weird thing, and the weird thing, that cannot be comprehended by Palestinian citizens. How come the international community is not taking any action?
08:36So all we are seeing is either regimes supporting what's happening in Palestine, supporting the genocide, and here I'm referring to the West.
08:47The whole West. The whole West is supporting what's happening in Palestine. That's why they are not taking any real action, except some empty condemnations that means nothing to us, and the rest of the world's regime, that they are either complicit or silent.
09:09And this is unprecedented in the history of mankind. We are all alone. This is what I'm trying to say. We are all alone. Yes, I know people, they are supporting us.
09:26But if regimes do not take any action, nothing will change on the ground. We have been seeing hundreds of millions of people throughout the globe protesting for Palestine.
09:41But it did not reflect on the political decisions of the regimes. Therefore, it might mean for the Zaya occupation entity as a green light to carry on with the extermination, to carry on with the genocide, to carry on with the ethnic cleansing.
10:07All right. Eunice, we read constantly in the headlines that there is more and more land theft happening in pockets of the West Bank.
10:21Can you talk to me about the current reality of what's happening in the West Bank with the settler occupation and whether the idea or the discussion around a two-state solution is one that is still happening or even desirable?
10:45The two-state solution, in my opinion, is nothing more than a slogan that the international community keeps using all the time without guaranteeing that it's going to happen.
10:59On the ground, the Palestinian land, according to Oslo Accord, is divided into three sections. Area A, that's 18% of the total land of the Palestinian land occupied in 1967. Area B, 22.
11:20And the rest of the land is area C, that's around 62%, or 63%, to be precise. 63% is 100% under the security control of the Zaya occupation entity.
11:38Now, out of this 63%, they now control more than 85%, more than 85%, and now they are trying to take the rest.
11:57Okay. So, practically, they control 63% of the Palestinian land occupied in 1967. And this is supposed to be the Palestinian state. So, deduct the total area of this land is about approximately 6,000 square kilometers.
12:26Okay. So, deduct 63% of this area. So, deduct 63% of this area. So, all that is left are Palestinian pockets, disconnected, dismembered, here and there. As I said, separate islands, here and there.
12:44They are not geographically connected. They are not controlled by Palestinians. You cannot enter any of these pockets because all of them have military gates or military checkpoints and the entrances and the exits.
13:09And this is the reality.
13:11And this is the reality. Now, as I'm talking. For example, I'll give you an example.
13:19Now, today I'm in Ramallah. I have come from my house in North Hebron.
13:25So, to go out from my house, I drive the car, and there is four gates surrounding my town from all directions.
13:41And these are the only entrances and exits for the town. There is no other.
13:46So, I have to use an arable, difficult road, very difficult, very remote, to reach to the first stage, to reach any close high road.
13:58To reach that high road, it takes me approximately 40 minutes in a very difficult arable road.
14:08So, when I reach that road, then I'll have to face a major military checkpoint that disconnects south from north.
14:23It's called the container. It's east of Bethlehem.
14:26And usually, I have to stay there, standing, until I'm allowed to cross, at least one hour.
14:39Then I move to Al-Izariya, that's 10 minutes far.
14:43And there's another gate.
14:45And I'll have to wait another one hour or more, maybe.
14:48Or two hours or three hours.
14:49Then, after that, I keep going towards Ramallah.
14:55There's another military checkpoint at the entrance.
15:00It's called Jabba area.
15:02It's in the east, to the east, northeast Jerusalem.
15:09And there, I have spent, actually, today, about 50 minutes.
15:14So, I left my house at 6 a.m.
15:21I reached Ramallah at 10.
15:25That's four hours.
15:26And regular times, it takes me approximately 70 minutes.
15:34Eunice, thank you for telling us the lived reality of what's happening in the West Bank.
15:40Are you in touch, or are you aware of the situation in the Gaza Strip at the moment?
15:48That's a, how connected, do you have people there?
15:53Do you have family there?
15:54Are you concerned about what's happening?
15:56Even though there is a ceasefire in place, there seems to be still reports of Palestinians being killed and injured.
16:03There's no, yes, yes, of course, we are very well connected.
16:06We are, they are our people.
16:07So, yeah, and there's no such thing called ceasefire.
16:11The genocide has not stopped, not for a second.
16:15The starvation is there.
16:16The lack of aid is there.
16:19People are sleeping.
16:21And today, and we are in winter now, it's very cold.
16:25It's extremely cold.
16:27No tents, and tents, even tents cannot shelter the people because of the wind and the water.
16:37And Gaza is a flat area, and it's near to the sea.
16:42So, the whole area, people are drowning in water inside their own tents.
16:46So, can you comprehend that?
16:48Can you imagine people will have, how would they be able to sleep?
16:54Their children, they are dying of cold.
16:57They are dying of cold.
17:00There are huge lack of food.
17:05There's a huge lack of medical supplies.
17:08There are, caravans are not allowed to enter.
17:11Tents are, there are tens of thousands of tents in the Egyptian side are not allowed by Israeli occupation forces to come in.
17:21A part of the day-to-day attacks, military attacks on our people in Gaza.
17:28The genocide is still ongoing.
17:32The starvation is still ongoing.
17:35People are dying in a very slow motion.
17:38They are dying of cold.
17:39They are dying of lack of food.
17:41They are dying of lack of medicine.
17:44They are dying of, under the pumps.
17:48They are, the life in Gaza is unimaginable.
17:53It has never happened in the history of mankind that a whole population is being exterminated live, live.
18:04The international community is not taking any real action.
18:09And when I'm saying any real action is to impose the international law, is to impose the UN and Security Council resolutions.
18:17They are not doing anything.
18:19They are not imposing sanctions.
18:20They are not doing anything at all that could ease the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
18:30The Zion occupation terrorism is non-stop.
18:33It's happening every second of our lives.
18:36And it's happening live.
18:39It's happening live.
18:41Everyone in the whole world, anyone can see what's happening and yet choose to ignore.
18:47Can I ask you, Eunice, just in the past few months, because the ceasefire was announced to such fanfare around the world,
19:03everyone thought that the supplies would be let in, that this would be the end of the genocide.
19:09And attention moved away very quickly from Gaza once the ceasefire officially began.
19:18What do you think is missing from international headlines, from international attention right now about this so-called ceasefire?
19:29Which part of the international, are you talking about people, are you talking about regimes?
19:37We have now to, you know, to be more specific.
19:44If the targeted group that we are trying to reach out to are the regimes, they know already what's happening on the ground.
19:54And they receive documented reports from their commission in Palestine, a part of the reports sent by the international NGOs working in Palestine.
20:06So what's happening in Palestine is very clear to the regimes.
20:10As for the people, you go to social media, it's flooded with info and documents coming out from Palestine minute by minute, from the West Bank or Gaza.
20:23So it's already there.
20:24Now, the mainstream media, if I want to talk about the mainstream media in the West, it's 100% biased.
20:33It's trying to block what's happening in the West Bank, in occupied Palestine generally.
20:38And they are trying to mislead their audience.
20:42But there's the alternative, the social media.
20:46Now, who are we trying to attract?
20:49Muslim and Arab nations?
20:50They know.
20:52Muslim and Arab regimes?
20:54They know.
20:56It's only condemnations and trying to reflect their empathy and, okay, fine.
21:06Then what?
21:08Your empathy will not feed the people.
21:09Your empathy will not lift this blockade imposed on all occupied Palestine.
21:19Your empathy will not help Palestinians reach to their rights.
21:26Empathy is not enough.
21:28Condemnations are not enough.
21:30Yes, thank you for that.
21:32But that will not fill the empty stomachs in Gaza.
21:37And will not stop the colonizers from torching another Palestinian house.
21:42We have outreached.
21:44We have shown the people what's happening in Palestine.
21:47We have explained our cause one trillion times over and over again.
21:52But what's happening?
21:54But what's happening?
21:55What's changing on the ground?
21:57Nothing.
21:57It's getting worse minute by minute.
22:02Not day by day.
22:03Minute by minute.
22:04We just survive another day.
22:08That's the truth.
22:09That's the reality on the ground.
22:10If you no longer believe in the international community to help, you believe that they have abandoned the Palestinian people, how do you keep going?
22:29Is there, how do you keep the hope for a free and liberated Palestine continuing?
22:35We basically believe in our people.
22:40That's all we have.
22:42Us.
22:43Being on the ground.
22:46Steadfast.
22:48Keep attached to our land, our homes, our lives.
22:53Keep attached with our homeland.
22:55And that is something that we will never give up, even if we have to die for it.
23:01That's the main thing.
23:02What gives us the hope is us, our people.
23:07This legendary steadfastness under the most vile occupation ever existed on this planet.
23:20It's only our people that gives us the fuel to continue and try to overcome and try to heal and try to...
23:30And of course, I cannot deny also that the people all around the world, normal people like me, like yourself, those who are still doing the maximum they can to help our people in every possible way they can, such as, you know, outreaching, donations, whatever.
23:56So, and so we still think that people, normal people all around the world will be able one day to force their regimes to abide by the law, to abide by consciousness, to abide by justice, to abide by human rights, not only interests.
24:23Can I ask if you have a message for this audience, the audience in Malaysia, who care but feel very helpless?
24:34I know how much people in Malaysia are doing.
24:41I'm very aware of that.
24:42I've been seeing people outreaching, I've been seeing people protesting, I've been seeing people donating and trying to do whatever, the maximum they can to show their solidarity and support to our people.
24:58So, first, I say thank you for everything you are doing for our people, but I'm asking you for more.
25:05I'm asking you to not stop your outreach, do not stop your support, do not stop your protests and keep up the good work, keep up the good spirit.
25:22And Palestinians, we need everyone, even who speaks on our favor, we need these words, and I know you are doing that, keep it up, and keep talking about Palestine.
25:38The genocide did not stop. It's taking another form. The genocide in the West Bank is outraging. So, yeah.
25:53Yunus, thank you so much for spending time with us and giving us true insight as to what's happening there in the West Bank. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
26:04Thanks a lot for having me. Thank you.
26:06That was Yunus Arar from the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission there, wrapping up this episode of Consider This.
26:13I'm Melissa Idris, signing off for the evening. Thank you so much for watching, and good night.
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