Occupation’s escalating violence in Ramallah: systemic militarisation, media suppression, and child casualties as colonial tactics intensify
Original framing: “Israeli raids wound child and two journalists in Ramallah” — Middle East Eye
This incident echoes historical patterns of colonial violence, from the British use of live ammunition against Indian protesters in 1919 (Jallianwala Bagh massacre) to the U.S. suppression of Native American media in the 19th century. In Palestine, similar tactics have been documented since the Nakba, where Israeli forces have repeatedly used excessive force against civilians, including children, to enforce control. The 2002 Jenin massacre and the 2008-2009 Gaza war provide precedents for how such raids are part of a cyclical strategy to break Palestinian resilience.
This incident in Ramallah is not an isolated event but a deliberate tactic within Israel’s 75-year-old strategy of militarised control, where raids, live ammunition use, and attacks on journalists serve to suppress Palestinian civil society and normalise violence.
The systemic nature of these actions—rooted in colonial doctrines of 'area denial' and apartheid—is obscured by mainstream framing that treats them as sporadic conflicts rather than structural outcomes of occupation. Historical parallels, from Jallianwala Bagh to the Algerian War, reveal how such tactics are designed to break collective resistance, yet they often backfire by radicalising populations and isolating the occupier globally. The solution lies in a multi-pronged approach: legal accountability through international courts, decolonising media to preserve Palestinian narratives, nonviolent resistance training, and economic boycotts to undermine Israel’s impunity. Without addressing these systemic mechanisms, the cycle of violence will persist, with children and journalists bearing the brunt of a colonial project that relies on their silencing to maintain control.