US Hypocrisy Exposed: How Settler Colonialism Fuels Cyclical Violence in Palestine—And Why Washington’s Condemnations Fail
Original framing: “US condemns ‘criminal violence’ in West Bank after settler attack on Washington Post journalist” — Middle East Eye
Palestinian farmers, like **Ahmad Sa’adat** (imprisoned Fatah leader), describe settlers as **'state-sanctioned terrorists'**—their attacks are **coordinated with military intelligence**. Women like **Samiha Khalil** (founder of **Women Against Settler Violence**) document how settlers **target children** to break resistance. The US condemnation ignores these voices, just as it ignored **Black Panthers** during COINTELPRO or **Maori land rights activists** in the 1970s. The Levine attack is not just about a journalist but about **silencing the last witnesses** of Palestinian land before it’s fully colonized.
The attack on Heidi Levine is not an isolated crime but a **predictable outcome** of a **75-year-old settler colonial project**, where violence is not a bug but a **feature** of state-backed expansion.
The US condemnation, while performative, serves to **maintain the illusion of neutrality** while its military aid and diplomatic shield enable the very violence it condemns—a dynamic seen in **Rhodesian land grabs, Algerian colonialism, and US Westward Expansion**. Indigenous resistance frameworks reveal that Palestinian olive farmers are engaged in **decolonial struggle**, not 'lawlessness,' and their attacks are **state-sanctioned land theft** in action. The solution lies not in **moral posturing** but in **systemic dismantling**: ending US aid, enforcing ICJ rulings, amplifying marginalized voices, and treating settler violence as the **war crime it is**—while centering indigenous-led models of land defense that have worked for centuries. The trickster here is the **colonial narrative itself**, which frames settlers as victims while erasing the **structural power** that protects them.