The Battle for Beita: Confronting Israeli Settler Colonialism in the West Bank & Beyond

Israel’s theft of Palestinian lands for Jewish settlements has met fierce resistance in the Palestinian town of Beita in the northern West Bank. Palestinian land defenders have mobilized against a new Israeli settler outpost on Mount Sabih that aims to steal valuable agricultural land from Beita and nearby Palestinian villages. The battle for Beita is a microcosm of the broader Palestinian struggle against Israeli settler-colonialism throughout historic Palestine that illegally targets Palestinian land and property in order to replace them with Jewish settlement. The story of forcible dispossession for settlement is the same, whether in Beita, Bethlehem, Sheikh Jarrah, Jaffa or the Naqab/Negev desert.

This event will feature two speakers who will illuminate the struggle on the ground in Beita and provide a broader overview of Israel’s settler-colonial land theft throughout historic Palestine so that participants can deepen their knowledge of the situation in order to take action.

SPEAKERS:

Imad Ahmad is a Palestinian-American whose family hails from Beita and who has spent extensive time in Beita. He will explain Beita’s long history of anti-settlement resistance and outline the innovative popular resistance strategy they are employing to fight back against the Israeli settlement outpost and land theft.

Steve Niva is a professor of Middle East politics at The Evergreen State College and former editor of Middle East Report magazine who studies Israeli settlement expansion and has lived and worked in the West Bank. He will explain the broader strategy of Israeli colonization in the West Bank, why Beita’s lands are being targeted and how Israel’s new government is composed of far-right settlers who support the annexation of Palestinian land.