Covid-19 was initially dubbed as the great equaliser - a virus knowing no colour, creed or class. Rather quickly, however, we learned that this was not to be the case.

People already living precarious and insecure lives were and continue to be more vulnerable to infection. Prevailing systems of inequality, oppression and other forms of domination exasperated the situation and, in many cases, rendered them systems of co-morbidity.

In Palestine, the lockdowns, curfews and inability to travel were not new. The pandemic simply added another layer of precarity to the lives of Palestinians under Israel's military occupation.

But Covid-19 was not the only thing that happened this year in Palestine. Rather, it became the backdrop for Israel's accelerated territorial expansion and the political normalisation of its settler colonial project.

The year started with the Trump administration's 'Deal of the Century', or officially "Vision for Peace, Prosperity and a Brighter Future for Israel and the Palestinian People".

The 'peace plan' effectively proposed encasing Palestinians in the West Bank in a series of Bantustans (excluding Area C – 60 percent of the land) with Israel holding on to its illegal settlements. Gaza, meanwhile, would be maintained as a besieged enclave while the rights of Palestinians in exile, including those of refugees, would be forsaken.

In exchange they would be granted some economic incentives to "boost" the Palestinian economy. The Palestinian leadership outright refused it, with President Mahmoud Abbas declaring "a thousand times no". Other reactions were rather muted, including many EU states who simply declared their commitment to the two-state solution, whilst the UK considered it a "serious proposal".

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