u/Humble-Boss2296

So there’s this clip circulating of Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks saying Israeli settlers are raping Palestinian girls coming out of public bathrooms. I’ve had two different people send it to me telling me to be careful. I’m a Palestinian woman living in a small town near Ramallah in the West Bank.
If we're talking about settlers doing this kind of dirt, it’s the Hilltop Youth. I truly fucking hate them. They’ve made life in my town unbearable. I’m stuck in a position where I have to be fair to them, because this whole "bathroom rapist" claim is absolute bullshit.
Two minutes of critical thinking exposes this. Gaza doesn’t have settlers. The West Bank doesn’t have public bathrooms. I’ve been to every square inch of this place. If there’s a public restroom hiding somewhere, maybe it’s in the dead center of Nablus or Hebron—which are Area A, meaning a settler stepping foot there has an immediate death wish. Area C is empty farmland and Bedouins in tents. I know there are no bathrooms there because there is nothing there. The edges of our Area B villages touch Area C, and the people there are deeply traditional, conservative farmers. If anything remotely like this happened, it would be plastered all over local Telegram channels and the news instantly. It has never happened. Not once a decade. Never.
The Hilltop Youth’s brand of evil is land-centric. They aren't roaming around looking for opportunistic sexual crimes; their explicit goal is to terrorize us into leaving Area C so they can steal the land. They burn our olive groves, vandalize solar panels, smash water tanks, throw rocks, and sometimes they hurt and kill people.
When they venture into Area B towns like mine, they don't loiter around nonexistent restrooms. They do high-speed, masked hit-and-run raids on ATVs and dirt bikes, doing maximum damage and leave before things get too hot. If settlers attack a Palestinian farmer during the olive harvest, a caravan of trucks packed with local Palestinian guys will instantly flood the zone until the military is forced to break it up.
The Israeli military knows it’s a sensitive issue. Their own rules say only female officers can arrest Palestinian girls. It’s not because of chivalry it’s because they know that putting hands on a conservative girl in public is a cultural landmine that will instantly start a riot.
Sexual humiliation and systemic abuse are rampant inside Israeli military prisons. But this specific viral rumor is completely made up. That’s exactly why these absurd stories sabotage the Palestinian cause. When a high-profile lie gets thoroughly debunked, it hands a victory to our critics. They will take that one fake story and use it to cast doubt on the mountain of verified documented human rights abuses that are actually happening. Life under occupation is already a nightmare. We don't need to fake the horror when the undeniable truth is damning enough.

I am a teacher at a private school in Ramallah. Recently, a relative of mine who owns a store in Ramallah had to close down his business.

It’s Eid season, which is usually one of the busiest times of the year. But since October 7, business has been difficult for a lot of people. The last time I walked into my relative’s store was during the summer of 2023. It was packed. Just like all of Ramallah was packed. The streets were full, businesses were thriving, and there was a sense of energy and optimism in the air. I don’t think people realize how incredible the summer of 2023 was in Palestine.

Around that time, Israel began allowing Palestinian Americans to enter through Israel as part of the arrangements connected to its entry into some visa program with the U.S. For Palestinian Americans including those on the Palestinian Authority population registry who hold Palestinian IDs (هوية) it was a game changer. For the first time they could fly directly into Ben Gurion Airport instead of making the usual journey through Jordan. I believe they got a tourist visa valid for 90 days.

Before that, getting to Palestine was miserable. You would fly to Jordan, spend the night, drive two hours to the border the next day, wait for hours on the Jordanian side, then wait for more hours on the Israeli side. After finally crossing, you still had to drive from Jericho to wherever you were going in the West Bank. It was hot, crowded, exhausting, and chaotic. Children crying everywhere. It effectively added two extra travel days.

Then people were allowed to fly directly to Ben Gurion. It saved enormous amounts of time, money, and stress. Palestinian Americans still faced more questioning and scrutiny, but it was infinitely easier than the Jordan route.

The summer of 2023 was amazing. Palestinian Americans visited in huge numbers. My town literally had more visitors than permanent residents. Businesses were thriving, restaurants were full, and the economy was booming.

It was also the first time a lot of people including my own family members visited Tel Aviv. They couldn’t believe how quick and easy the trip was. I heard conversations like, “Tel Aviv is beautiful,” or “I met an Israeli for the first time today.”

That may not sound significant to outsiders, but it felt significant to me. I thought the exposure of meeting people and seeing new places felt like the kind of thing that could slowly make this conflict better rather than worse.

I remember standing in Ramallah and feeling genuine optimism. For the first time in a long time, I thought things might actually be moving in a positive direction.

By the end of that summer, everyone who had a good experience was telling their relatives and friends. There was momentum and It felt like 2024 was going to be an even better year. I was excited about the future.

Then October 7 happened, and everything changed. When the dumb idiots from Hamas did what they did and ruined everything for everyone.
Since then, life in the West Bank has become a lot harder.

If I tried to write down every way life has gotten harder since October 7, I’d be here for hours. Here are just a few examples: Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers who depended on jobs inside Israel lost their livelihoods overnight. Tax revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority were withheld, leaving much of the public sector unpaid. The PA responded by raising taxes even though people were already struggling financially. Poverty has shot up. Checkpoints are everywhere. Commutes that used to take 15 minutes can now take hours. The Israeli military installed a gate at the entrance to my village and can lock us in whenever it wants. Settler violence has gotten much worse. More Palestinian land has been taken over or become inaccessible. Military raids happen far more often than they used to. New settlement outposts seem to pop up constantly. Large numbers of Palestinians have been detained, including thousands being held under administrative detention without trial. And that’s just scratching the surface.

The atmosphere today is completely different from what it was in 2023. It’s sad how all that hope and positive energy just faded away.

Everyone I know complains about Hamas and the consequences of October 7. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone I interact with on a daily basis. This is not some fringe opinion.

There should be no shame in saying that out loud.
I sometimes think people abroad and especially Palestinians in the diaspora are not vocal enough about criticizing Hamas. I don’t know exactly why. Maybe it is guilt over what is happening in Gaza. Maybe it is group solidarity. Maybe it is because people living thousands of miles away do not experience the consequences in the same way we do.

To be clear, ordinary Palestinians did not deserve what happened afterward. The people of Gaza did not deserve what happened to them. The people of the West Bank did not deserve what happened to them. Does change the fact that what Hamas did made life miserable for Palestinians living in Palestine.

I passionately hate Hamas, the PA, and Israel.

In honor of Pride Month just wanted to shine a light on Israel’s longstanding disturbing practice of blackmailing queer Palestinians into becoming informants against their own people and the terrible consequences that can follow.

A few years ago, blackmail became so common that it felt like everyone knew someone being targeted. Most cases involved affairs. Schools and mosques even started warning people about what to do if they were contacted or threatened. Palestine is a deeply conservative society so leaked photos or videos can destroy lives especially for women.

There was a guy from a nearby town who was being blackmailed over an affair, and I love how he responded. He posted this to facebook:

“ بدي أخبركم الجميع انه الاحتلال بحاول يبتز فيا بفيديو و أنا مع بنت . بفضل تحكو عني صايع ولا تحكو عني عميل فبدّي انشر الفيديو بحالي”

Which almost translates to: “I want to tell everyone that the occupation is trying to blackmail me with a video of me with a girl. I’d rather people call me immoral/a player than call me a collaborator, so I’m sharing the video myself.”

It felt like people were given permission to publicly acknowledge something taboo and still say screw you to Israel’s attempts at coercion.

Unfortunately, we are no where near that point when it comes to being queer. People would never publicly admit it, which means queer Palestinians are especially vulnerable targets so when Israeli intelligence finds a queer Palestinian it’s like they hit a goldmine.

23-year-old Zuhair Ghalith from Nablus was blackmailed using footage showing him in a relationship with another Palestinian man. He was pressured into helping Israel track members of the Lions’ Den including the founder Adham Mabrouka, who was later killed by Israeli forces in Nablus in 2022 alongside two others.

Afterward, Zuhair was accused of collaboration. He was kidnapped, tortured, and killed in the center of Nablus in broad daylight. His body was denied a proper burial and discarded in a dirt pit. The whole thing was so scary.

At the time I tried telling my family and friends, how about we not act like barbarians even collaborators deserve a fair trial. I basically got yelled at by everyone.

Now Israel is promoting a music festival near the Dead Sea called “Pride Land.” It’s especially grotesque to present that it presents itself as a beacon of LGBTQ rights while queer Palestinians are still vulnerable to blackmail and coercion under military occupation.

I’m going to say things in this post that I’ll regret later because I’m angry and emotional right now.

First, I want to say that I am Palestinian, and I love living in Palestine. I love my small town no matter how hard life here gets. I also love the people around the world who support Palestine. Reading the support we receive online means more to me than I can explain. People are so passionate in standing up for us, and no matter how hard Israelis try to dismiss Palestine supporters as “antisemites,” it never works on me because I know our supporters see our suffering and genuinely care about it. As someone who actually lives here, I know how much we suffer. I know our supporters across the world understand that suffering too. Sometimes your support is the only thing that keeps me going during such desperate times.

That’s why I’m begging every Palestine supporter around the world, just as you fiercely speak out against the genocide, the occupation, the settlers, Ben Gvir, please speak up about this issue too.

The Fatah Central Committee “elections” were held last week. The first-place spot went to the crowd favorite, Marwan al-Barghouti. Second place went to Majed Faraj. Third place went to Jibril Rajoub.

I’m not surprised Barghouti won. Everyone here loves him, and many people saw it coming. I personally have serious issues with number two and number three, but that’s not even the main problem.

The real problem is that the Palestinian Authority is acting as if Yasser Abbas — the son of the deeply unpopular President Mahmoud Abbas — is already the chosen successor. He’s being paraded around town as if he’s preparing to inherit power when the time comes. If that’s true, then what was the point of the elections? Yasser Abbas wasn’t even on the ballot.

We have been stuck with Mahmoud Abbas for decades. He is corrupt, authoritarian, and completely disconnected from ordinary people. His government has been accused of arresting activists, suppressing protests, intimidating journalists, and cracking down on political opponents. The PA operates one prison nicknamed the “Jericho Slaughterhouse” because it’s known for torture and abuse. He also canceled the 2021 elections that many Palestinians were excited and hopeful about. He does not represent us.

Everyone in the West Bank has been complaining about Abbas for years. I’m sorry but if we end up with his son, then we are a joke of a people. No wonder we’ve been occupied for decades because we’re just so dumb. We can’t even get rid of Abbas and his idiot son no wonder we can’t get rid of the Israeli occupation.

I already wrote in this subreddit about the absolute lawlessness in the West Bank, and a lot of it has to do with settlers wreaking havoc all over the place. But I don’t think people talk enough about how much IDF soldiers contribute to that lawlessness too.

The IDF is basically totally unrestrained. There are a lot of horrible things that we have to deal with from the soldiers like random military raids, checkpoints at every corner, casual beatings for no reason, arbitrary detentions followed by humiliation and abuse, and soldiers siding with violent settlers when settlers attack Palestinians. But if there’s one thing I hear people complain about over and over again more than anything I just listed it’s the theft of money by soldiers.

It’s widespread. It happens everyday. And there’s basically nothing people can do to stop it.

People here are already struggling financially for a thousand different reasons. Im going to sound like a broken record because I keep talking about it but here I go again. The Laborers who worked in Israel lost their jobs. The PA’s tax revenues are being withheld, so the PA itself is barely functioning. Public sector workers aren’t getting paid. Aid money has dropped. Agriculture has taken a massive hit because of settler attacks and land restrictions. Since the war started, the economy has been in shambles.

So the fact that soldiers are stealing money from people who have no money makes the situation worse.

I personally know more than ten people this has happened to. Here are two recent examples:

A group of soldiers raided a house down the street from me. The officer told the woman living there that she should “be careful” because some soldiers might steal her money, and that she should give the cash to him for safekeeping. She complied. He stole 4,000 shekels from her.

Another older man from the area was driving to Ramallah when soldiers stopped him and asked how much money he had on him. After he answered, they robbed him of 900 shekels. This is actually one of the most common ways it happens.

I could share ten more stories like this.

This is probably a long shot, but maybe someone reading this who has any influence over the situation might help put an end to it. More realistically this Reddit post will do nothing except let me vent for a minute.

The “Emirates Solution” basically means breaking Palestinians in the West Bank down into clans that run their own cities. If that sounds oddly familiar, it’s because it’s been tried before.

Israel attempted something similar in the 1980s with the “Village Leagues” which was local leaders meant to sideline the PLO and operate under Israeli oversight. It ended with First Intifada which wasn’t just an uprising against the occupation it was also a revolt against the CLANS.

A little context on clans in Palestine:

For about two decades after the Six-Day War, clans were at one of their weakest points. Young Palestinians started working inside Israel and become more independent. At the same time, Israeli military rule ignored traditional clan leadership, which weakened them even further. But in the 1980s the occupation began working through clans again. Then came the First Intifada, which dealt the biggest blow to clans. Palestinians weren’t just rebelling against Israeli rule they were also pushing back against the old families, who were seen as corrupt, out of touch, and too close to the occupation.Then came the Oslo Accords and a government was forming, institutions were being built, and the clans basically faded into the background. But that didn’t last. By the time the Second Intifada hit, the idea of centralized authority had collapsed. Institutions weakened, and clans came back stronger than ever.

Today clans are strongest in Hebron and basically run the show and clans are weakest In Ramallah. (it’s why when Cory from the ask project went to Ramallah and asked if they would marry someone from Hebron they all said no)

I’m not even saying it couldn’t work under different conditions. Just that historically, the Bantustans model that buys our silence for economic incentives hasn’t worked very well in the past.

Quick background on me: I’m Palestinian, from a town halfway between Ramallah and Nablus. It’s not close to either and kind of in the middle of nowhere which has made us vulnerable to settler attacks. We experience a level of violence that many other parts of the West Bank don’t. My friends in the major cities for have never even encountered settlers. In my town, settlers are running wild. They’ve physically assaulted and killed people from my town. They burn homes, cars, and olive trees. They take over Palestinian land and houses and occupy them indefinitely and put up israeli flags everywhere. And there’s absolutely nothing we can do to stop it.

My town is also different in that It has a large population of American citizens and green card holders. When things started getting bad, many of them left and as the situation has continued to deteriorate they haven’t come back. The town is wealthier than most Palestinian towns, filled with large homes and mansions. But now, most of those mansions sit empty. We’ve gone from a population of around 12,000 to barely 2,000 in less than a decade.

It’s sad because it feels like this is exactly what the settlers want which is to push people out and in my town, it’s working. In much of the West Bank, it’s not working (so if you’re a settler reading this don’t get too excited ) because people simply don’t have the option to leave. I feel for those who are stuck and can’t escape the violence, but I also hate when people leave and it makes me sad to watch my town turn into a ghost town.