West Bank settler violence: Do Palestinians have a right to self-defense – or only Israelis?

Grafitti sprayed by settlers calling for revenge on the people of Kafr Malik in the West Bank

Ahmad Tibi writes in Haaretz on 5 July 2025:

It happened again on June 25, a Wednesday. Dozens of settler terrorists invaded the Palestinian village of Kafr Malik near Ramallah, torched houses, trees and cars, attacked the people and terrorized families. An entire family was almost burned in their home.

They came, they vandalized, they torched, they left.

But the State of Israel only appeared when the Palestinian residents tried to defend themselves against the terrorists. The state arrived in the form of Israeli soldiers; they didn’t arrest the rioters but actually showed up to do in the people being attacked. The incident ended with the cold-blooded killing of three Palestinians by the soldiers. The reason: “stone-throwing.”

This was no tragic mistake or malfunction. Just last week, more than 10 assaults on Palestinians by settlers in the West Bank were documented. To the entire system – the Israeli army and the media, not just the settler assailants – this is a method where a Palestinian who tries to defend his home, his wife and his children is fair game. It’s a system where Palestinian lives are worth less, where a Palestinian must stay silent, and if he defends himself, he’s labeled a “terrorist.”

The defense establishment, and following its lead, most Israelis, expect one thing from the Palestinian: surrender. Voluntarily and quietly.  It’s expected that the Palestinian won’t defend himself, won’t resist, won’t fight the occupation imposed by Israel. If she dares defend herself, she will immediately become a target. If he appeals to the United Nations, he will be accused of “political terrorism.” This system is designed to see the Palestinian as the ultimate and immediate suspect, even when she’s the victim.

According to Israel, the army is allowed to bomb everything all the time in Gaza, even the civilians lining up for flour after long stretches of starvation. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers can torch villages, they can attack and embitter the lives of the Palestinian residents.

And the Palestinian? He is prohibited from defending himself, resisting or shouting. If she defends herself, she will be called a terrorist. And if they’re terrorists, they can be killed – “neutralized” in the sanitized Hebrew – and it will be said that they brought it on themselves. That was the case in which three Palestinians in Kafr Malik were killed/murdered.

According to this system, a Palestinian who picks up a stone is a terrorist, but a settler who burns down a village is “frustrated.” A Palestinian who defends his family is “eliminated,” but the soldier who shoots him gets a hug from the prime minister.

This isn’t security or self-defense. It’s apartheid, it’s ethnic supremacy, and it won’t last forever. This system is unsustainable. Force alone won’t create security. Long-term security is only achieved when all the parties feel protected, free and valued.

Israel claims that Palestinian resistance of any kind is violent and illegitimate, but the question is: What does legitimate resistance look like in a situation of ongoing occupation? Is the Israeli justification of self-defense an exclusive right, or does this right also belong to the Palestinians?

How would the world react if the Palestinians, for decades, did to the Jews what is being done to them? Bombing, demolishing homes, putting up checkpoints, arresting, torturing and expelling. How would the Jews react?  How long would it take for world leaders to call a summit to condemn the genocide? How quickly would sanctions be imposed to stop it? But when it happens to Palestinians, the reaction is silence, or in the best case, weak ridiculous explanations.

Israel boasts about its right to self-defense. Every American president repeats this again and again. But we’ve never heard a Western leader talk about the right of the Palestinian people to self-defense. In the eyes of the world, the Palestinian should simply die in silence.

But we, the Palestinians, will not be silent – neither will the people of the Israeli left, Jews who oppose the occupation. The struggle for freedom is human, not just political. The Palestinians aren’t demanding more than any other nation is entitled to – life and freedom.

The Palestinian deserves to live, for his or her child to have security and a full and safe life, just like any child. The Palestinian people have the right to defend and protect their children, families and property. To pray without being bombed. To build homes without them being demolished. To go to sleep without fear of being burned alive the next day.

Self-defense is critical. It’s not a privilege, it’s a basic right of every person and group. No group has a monopoly on the right to self-defense. It’s universal and independent of religion, nationality or race.

One day, the Palestinians will be free of the occupation, just as the Black people of South Africa achieved, and this will happen thanks to those who refuse to accept the reality where a Palestinian’s life is worth less.

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