When I returned to the West Bank last year, after a lengthy term of detention and house arrest that followed my arrest at a demonstration in the village of Beita, the West Bank was very different from what I had previously known. Killing of civilians, attacks by settlers operating in tandem with the army, large-scale arrests. Fear and terror around every corner. And quiet, a chilling, grim quiet.
Even before my release, I began to realized that something fundamental had changed. A few days after October 7, 2023, Ibrahim al-Wadi, a friend of mine from the village of Qusra, was murdered by settlers, together with his son, Ahmed. They were shot while attending the funeral of four other Palestinians who had been shot to death a day earlier – three by settlers who raided the village, the fourth by soldiers who were accompanying them.
