Settler Violence in the Occupied West Bank
They are settlers—100% Israeli settlers. I like to call them Israeli thugs. They were trying to burn me alive and burn the house while my husband and I were inside it. Across the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are burning Palestinians out of their homes, with more than 1,200 attacks documented just this year. That's an average of six a day. More than 20 Palestinians have been killed so far.
Security Measures and Escalating Attacks
In the village of Deir Dibwan, Palestinian-American citizen Maysoon Ali has added layer after layer of security to her home, but it hasn't stopped the attacks. They've happened multiple times. This time they came prepared—they cut through barriers and went up sneakily. I installed bulletproof shutters so they couldn't break through. If they had broken it, the house would have been gone. He was pouring fluid everywhere. You're right there, and I was here. So I shut the door, went inside and tried to put the shutter down.
Military Control and Lack of Protection
The village of Deir Dibwan sits in Area C, which means it's under full Israeli military control. It also means that no Palestinian police, fire department or authority can access it at all. And if the Israeli military does arrive, it's the settler arsonists that they protect, not the Palestinians being attacked. These Israeli thugs are illegal—they're illegal settlements by international law and by Israeli law as well. The harassment is intensively accelerating. Every time they do something worse, and nobody's stopping them. I cannot defend them and defend myself. If anything happens to this thug, I'll be in prison while he's coming to kill me in my house.
Military Arming of Settlers and US Weapons
Since October 2023, Israel's military has been arming settlers directly, recruiting them into reserve units and issuing them weapons, drones and vehicles to patrol their own communities. Many of these weapons are supplied and funded by the US. They have it in their head that they are above the law and nobody's going to stop them. They plan things. One of them did a video on the fence behind my house, pointing to my house and saying, "Look at them. They're scared. They have fences. This is a sign that they will be gone and this land will be for us."
Threats and Intimidation
After the incident happened, somebody had a pistol in his hand and he was waving it at us because, you know, we were able to put the fire out. And he was not happy that it happened the way it did. The way he was acting and the way he was waving his pistol—it was like he was saying, "We'll be back. We'll be back." He was right there, doing this to me. Take my picture, I don't care.