Colonial violence in the West Bank: Palestinian self-defense as resistance to systemic Israeli state-settler coordination
Original framing: “The night watch: Palestinians protecting their homes from settler pogroms” — Al Jazeera
The voices of Palestinian women in the *night watch* (e.g., *Women’s Committee Against the Wall*) and Israeli anti-settler activists (e.g., *Ta’ayush*) are absent, yet they offer critical perspectives. Palestinian LGBTQ+ groups like *Al-Qaws* face double repression—from settlers and conservative factions—and their experiences of resistance are erased. The few Israeli Jews who document settler violence (e.g., *Breaking the Silence*) are often dismissed as 'leftist propaganda.' Restoring these voices would reveal that resistance is not monolithic but a fractured, intersectional struggle against multiple oppressions, not just Israeli occupation.
The *night watch* is not a spontaneous reaction to violence but a strategic response to a system where Israeli state and settler violence are indistinguishable.
The absence of Indigenous, historical, and cross-cultural lenses in mainstream coverage obscures how Palestinian resistance is both a continuation of anti-colonial struggle (from 1936 to today) and a global phenomenon of decolonial sovereignty—seen in Māori land defense or Zapatista autonomy. The *trickster* dimension reveals that resistance is not just about survival but about exposing the absurdity of settler colonialism’s 'peaceful' myth, while the *artistic/spiritual* lens restores the cultural depth of a struggle framed as mere 'vigilantism.' Solutions must move beyond reactive security to address the root: Israeli state policy. Decolonial courts, hybrid governance zones, and cultural archives as legal tools offer pathways to dismantle the system, not just manage its symptoms. The synthesis is clear: Palestinian self-defense is the inevitable response to a colonial project that has always relied on violence to maintain control.