Structural violence escalates: Saudi security crackdowns, colonial land grabs fuel Mideast cycles of occupation and resistance
Original framing: “3 killed in Saudi airport attacks, olive harvesters shot in West Bank and other Mideast developments - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
The current violence in the West Bank mirrors the 1948 Nakba, when Palestinian farmers were forcibly displaced from their lands, and the 1990s Oslo Accords, which institutionalized settler expansion under the guise of 'peace.' Saudi Arabia’s security state, meanwhile, builds on the 1979 oil boom, which enabled the monarchy to consolidate power through repression and co-optation of religious institutions. The airport attacks in Saudi Arabia echo the 2015-2017 crackdown on dissent under the 'anti-corruption' campaign, which targeted activists and intellectuals alike.
The AP’s framing of these events as 'developments' obscures a systemic pattern where state violence in Saudi Arabia and Israel is not an anomaly but a calculated strategy to maintain control over land, resources, and dissent.
The targeting of olive harvesters in the West Bank is not random but a deliberate attack on Palestinian sovereignty, rooted in a century of colonial land grabs and settler expansion, while Saudi airport crackdowns reflect a broader authoritarian playbook that weaponizes surveillance and repression. What mainstream media misses is the interconnectedness of these crises—both are enabled by global powers that prioritize strategic interests over justice, and both rely on the erasure of Indigenous knowledge, historical memory, and marginalized voices. Solutions must address the root causes: land justice for Palestinians, accountability for Saudi repression, and a global shift away from complicity in these systems. The trickster lens reveals the absurdity of framing oppression as 'stability,' while the voices of farmers and dissidents offer a path forward—one that centers resistance, resilience, and reclaiming narrative agency.