Read Their Lips: Israeli Leaders’ Plans for the Palestinians

History in the Holy Land seems stuck in a loop. In 2000, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, at the time leader of the opposition, visited the al-Aqsa compound in a deliberate provocation that triggered the second Intifada. Israel launched operation “Defensive Shield” to crush the protests and eliminate the Palestinian resistance. As a result, more than 3,000 Palestinians and almost 1,000 Israelis lost their lives between 2000 and 2004, and the peace process was forever derailed.1

Fast forward to 2015: The peace process is now dead and what hope Palestinians had during the early Oslo years has turned into bitter disappointment and despair. Jewish colonies, illegal under international law, have expanded on Palestinian land throughout the years of negotiations and now fully surround Palestinian communities. Palestinians, still living under occupation, are denied basic human rights and harassed by the Israeli military and the armed extremist settlers on a daily basis. To take just one example, Defence for Children International–Palestine reports that Israeli soldiers and settlers killed 1,951 children since 2000.

Within this climate, Israel’s minister of agriculture Uri Ariel’s visit to the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, along with a group of right wing Jewish extremists protected by armed Israeli forces, can only be seen as a deliberate provocation – one that is possibly designed to give Israeli extremists and hardliners in the government the opportunity to finish the job Sharon started. A reading of the Israeli government’s Hebrew language statements reinforces this theory.

At a recent press conference Netanyahu spoke in Hebrew about how there was a huge settlement drive during his years of leadership. At the same conference, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon assured reporters that there had not been a settlement freeze for one minute. When asked if a new operation Defensive Shield might be necessary, Yaalon told reporters that Israel has been on the offensive since Defensive Shield. He explained that before 2000, Israel could not get into Area A, an area that was handed over to the Palestinians in the first phase of the Oslo agreement. Now, he said Israel conducts operations in any area within the West Bank (with, he might have added, the support of the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces.)

At the conference, Yaalon called on Israeli Forces to be vigilant against Palestinian stabbing attacks, and to eliminate the terrorist stabber, the stone thrower and the like immediately on the spot. But the rhetoric wasn’t only aimed at security forces, Yaalon was also quoted in the Jerusalem Post calling on civilians to carry firearms, as has Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat. So-called centrists like Yair Lapid also support the shoot to kill policy.

Israel is clearly implementing these plans. Human rights groups have protested: Amnesty International said that some recorded incidents amounted to extrajudicial killings while Human Rights Watch expressed concern regarding Israel’s deliberate use of fire against Palestinian demonstrators. There is harrowing footage of Israeli Jewish mobs attacking and killing unarmed Palestinians; the death of Fadi Alloun is just one example. And contrary to Israel’s claim of incitement by the PA as being the leading factor in causing the uprising, the reality on the ground tells a different story.

To begin with, the protestors are not limited to Palestinians under military siege and occupation in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). They include high profile Palestinians who carry Israeli citizenship. Ayman Odeh, a member of the Knesset and leader of the Joint List is one of them. He accuses the government of Israel of acting “in the service of the settlers in what looks like a conscious attempt to incite and inflame the entire region to religious war.”

Ayman Odeh’s words must not be taken lightly. By framing the conflict as a religious war, Israel can cloak its effort to achieve complete control over all of historic Palestine with the understanding nod of the international community and neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan.

It is important not to ignore the repercussions Israel’s actions are having on both sides of the Green Line which divides Israel from the OPT. In recent days there have been large protests and demonstrations in a number of Palestinian towns within Israel. In one incident, protestors threw stones and firecrackers at Israeli police. A generation of Palestinians who were born under the Israeli flag, speak fluent Hebrew and carry Israeli citizenship led these protests. For decades they have lived as second-class citizens, denied an array of rights that are only offered to Jewish Israelis. They are frustrated with the systematic discrimination against them, and are standing united with Palestinians on the other side of the Green Line.

Palestinians in the grip of Israel’s military occupation have given up on any hope of a sovereign state. Palestinian youth are sending a clear message both to their occupiers and to their leaders. They are taking matters into their own hands and demanding their full human rights at any cost.

Even in places where confrontation with Israeli soldiers could mean instant death, as is the case in Gaza, young people protest the attacks on their fellow Palestinians and their holy sites. It is widely recognized that Israel has turned Gaza into a prison camp, as even British Prime Minister David Cameron said – and that was five years ago. Gaza youth approaching the borders and throwing rocks at the soldiers dream of breaking free of this prison or die trying: By mid-October, nine Palestinian youths in Gaza were killed in this desperate endeavor.

Palestinian leaders have not intervened. Israel has made it clear they expect the Palestinian security forces to work with the Israeli military to crush the protests, and so far Mahmoud Abbas’ PA has mostly complied.

The de-facto Hamas government in Gaza has also made it clear that it prefers not to be drawn into the rebellion. Its political bureau deputy chief, Musa Abu Marzouk, spoke firmly against firing rockets into Israel as this would “transfer the campaign to a different front, and will snuff out the popular intifada.” Other militia groups in Gaza nevertheless fired a few rockets into Israel, causing no injuries. Israel’s response: an airstrike that killed a pregnant woman and her 3-year-old daughter. Footage of the father weeping over his dead daughter, begging her to wake up, has gone viral, prompting more calls for rebellion against Israel’s oppression and brutality.

Desperate Palestinian youth who have lived under occupation and siege their entire lives, with no hope of a future, risk their lives in their fight for freedom. But what are the Israelis fighting for? Having destroyed all chances of Palestinian statehood, Israel is fighting to maintain its occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people, creating an apartheid state throughout the lands where its rule holds sway.

  1. Al-Shabaka publishes all its content in both English and Arabic (see Arabic text here.) To read this piece in French, please click here. Al-Shabaka is grateful for the efforts by human rights advocates to translate its pieces into French, but is not responsible for any change in meaning.
Samah Sabawi is a political commentator, author and playwright. She is a member of the board of directors for the National Council on Canada Arab...
(2015, October 15)

Latest Analysis

 Politics
The erasure of Indigenous populations lies at the core of settler-colonial narratives. These narratives aim to deny existing geographies, communities, and histories to justify the displacement and replacement of one people by another. The Zionist project is no exception. Among Zionism’s founding myths is the claim that it “made the desert bloom” and that Tel Aviv, its crown jewel, arose from barren sand dunes—an uninhabitable void transformed by pioneering settlers. This framing obscures the fact that the colonial regime initially built Tel Aviv on the outskirts of Yaffa (Jaffa), a thriving Palestinian city with a rich cultural life and a booming orange trade. The “dunes” description projects emptiness and conceals the vibrant agricultural and social life that flourished in the area. By casting the land as uninhabitable until redeemed by settlers, this narrative helped justify dispossession and colonial expansion. This process intensified after 1948, when Tel Aviv absorbed the lands of ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages, including al-Sumayil, Salame, Shaykh Muwannis, and Abu Kabir, and ultimately extended into the city of Yaffa. This same settler-colonial discourse drives the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, where destruction is reframed through the narrative of “uninhabitability.” Gaza is increasingly depicted as a lifeless ruin—a framing that is far from neutral. This commentary contends that “uninhabitable” is a politically charged term that masks culpability, reproduces colonial erasure, and shapes policy and public perception in ways that profoundly affect Palestinian lives and futures. It examines the origins, function, and implications of this discourse within the logic of settler colonialism, calling for a radical shift in language from narratives that obscure violence to those affirming Palestinian presence, history, and sovereignty.
Abdalrahman Kittana· Aug 27, 2025
 Politics
Since October 2023, Israel’s assault on Gaza has produced one of the most catastrophic humanitarian crises in recent history—an unfolding genocide enabled by world powers and continuing unabated despite the sweeping global solidarity it has sparked. Alongside relentless bombardment and mass displacement, the Israeli regime is waging a deliberate campaign of starvation. In response to this Israeli-manufactured catastrophe, several European states have begun recognizing or signaling their intent to recognize the State of Palestine. Most recently, France announced its intention to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September. The UK has stated it will follow suit unless Israel abides by a ceasefire and recommits to a two-state solution. The recent wave of symbolic recognitions that began in 2024 now appears to be the only step many European powers are willing to take in the face of genocide, following nearly two years of moral, material, and diplomatic support for the Israeli regime as well as near-total impunity. This roundtable conversation with Al Shabaka policy analysts Diana Buttu, Inès Abdel Razek, and Al Shabaka’s co-director, Yara Hawari, asks: Why now? What political or strategic interests are driving this wave of recognition? And what does it mean to recognize a Palestinian state, on paper, while leaving intact the structures of occupation, apartheid, and the genocidal regime that sustains them?
 Politics
In March, Israel shattered the ceasefire in Gaza by resuming its bombing campaign at full force and enforcing a total blockade on humanitarian aid—ushering in a new phase of the ongoing genocide. In response to mounting international criticism, the Israeli regime introduced a tightly controlled aid scheme designed not to alleviate suffering, but to obscure its use of starvation as a weapon of collective punishment. Through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), Israel has transformed humanitarian aid into a tool of control, coercion, and forced displacement. Israeli forces have additionally blocked UN and other aid agencies from accessing over 400 distribution points they once operated throughout Gaza. They consequently forced two million Palestinians to rely on just four GHF sites, most near its southern border in what appears to be a deliberate effort to push mass displacement toward Egypt. Investigations have also revealed how US-based private contractors are actively profiting from the GHF’s deadly operations. In this policy lab, Yara Asi and Alex Feagans join host Tariq Kenney-Shawa to discuss how the GHF fits into Israel’s genocidal strategy—and to expose the network of individuals and companies profiting from what has been a death trap masquerading as humanitarian assistance.
Skip to content