Israeli Military Rule and Settler Militias Are Continuing the Palestinian Nakba
Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 02:02PM by Hanin Majadli 1 February 2026 Haaretz
Palestinians attempting to return to their village after being expelled by settlers, November. Credit: Itai Ron
Lately, I have been reading Ghassan Kanafani's "The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine" about the Arab Revolt that was crushed by the British about almost 90 years ago. It recounts how the immigration of Jews to the land of Israel adversely affected small and medium fellahs and the working class. This happened because the British Mandate made it easy for Jewish capital to take over the infrastructure of Arab economy, leading to its almost total collapse, in addition to growing Jewish ownership of arable land.
In 1931, some 20,000 fellah families were expelled from their lands because of heavy taxes levied by mandate authorities, while Jews got tax exemptions intended to encourage Jewish industry. This transformed the area from an Arab agricultural economy to a Jewish industrial economy.
This was also the unraveling of fellah society, layer by layer. The Arab farmer was not displaced in one fell swoop, but gradually: a hostile regime, stifling taxes, restrictive laws, expropriations that shrink living spaces, violence that causes emigration and a political leadership that had betrayed its people. There is no call for forceful expulsion when you can make life unbearable. This was a lengthy attrition that ended with the land being given up.
The further along I get in my reading, the more I get the impression that this book, written in the 1960s, published in 1972 and concerned with the past's past, also reflects the bitter present and – if things go on as they do – the future, too.
When you put down Kanafani's book, you can look at the West Bank – at Masafer Yatta, Ras Ein al-Auja, the Tulkarm and Jenin refugee camps, Umm al-Hiran and Tarabin. Thousands of Palestinian shepherds, fellahs and Bedouins have been leaving, whether quietly or in an uproar. They say they have left because their patience had run out, because their spirit has been broken and because they have nobody to protect them.
Instead of the British Mandate, which used to help the Zionist movement, there is now Israeli military rule, and instead of early Zionist groups, there are settler militias. Instead of emergency regulations, there are Areas B and C and demolition orders and closed military zones and Palestinian cantons and continuous Jewish settlement.
Settler attack on Palestinians in the West Bank, last year. . Credit: Itai Ron
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If the rough 1920s and 1930s resulted in the outbreak of the Arab Revolt, in 2026 there is no such revolt on the horizon, not even one that will eventually fail. And, assuming that Benjamin Netanyahu remains in office or is replaced by Naftali Bennett, all I am left to think about is that the outburst that does not happen with Palestinians will happen with Jews. Either way, Palestinians are looking at many more years of suffering, expulsion and death.
The settlers are an arm of the IDF and an arm of the state; the reality is the ongoing systematic dismantling of the Palestinians' very existence. The Nakba has not had a comeback; it had never stopped. This pure evil is happening to ensure privilege for 7.5 million Jews, purely on the basis of race. And in the end, this sick place will implode into the terrible hole it had dug for itself.
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