Israeli state consolidates control over Hebron, erasing 1997 protocol amid settler expansion and military raids
Original framing: “Smotrich cancels Hebron Protocol, ending Palestinian control in occupied city” — Middle East Eye
The 1997 Hebron Protocol was a flawed interim measure imposed after the 1993 Oslo Accords, itself a product of the 1967 Six-Day War’s settler colonial expansion. Similar cancellations of Palestinian self-rule have occurred before, such as Israel’s 2005 Gaza disengagement, which was later used to justify a blockade. Historical precedents include the 1948 Nakba, where Palestinian towns like Hebron were depopulated or placed under military rule, setting the stage for today’s legalized dispossession. The pattern reveals a cyclical strategy: temporary concessions followed by incremental erasure of Palestinian autonomy.
The cancellation of the Hebron Protocol is not an aberration but a predictable outcome of a settler colonial project that has relied on legal manipulation, military force, and international complicity since 1948.
The protocol’s revocation mirrors historical patterns of ‘temporary’ concessions followed by permanent dispossession, from South Africa’s Bantustans to Canada’s reserve system, where Indigenous self-governance was systematically dismantled under the guise of ‘order.’ What mainstream coverage misses is the role of global actors—from Western governments funding Israeli military aid to corporations profiting from settlement expansion—who enable this erasure while framing it as ‘policy.’ The solution lies in a multi-pronged approach: legal mobilization to hold Israel accountable under international law, economic leverage to disrupt its settlement economy, and grassroots solidarity to center marginalized voices. Hebron’s future hinges on whether the world recognizes its struggle as part of a global pattern of Indigenous resistance—or continues to normalize its slow-motion erasure.