The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates on Thursday condemned the “escalating campaign of organized terror by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers against Palestinian civilians,” including physical assaults, arson targeting homes and property, destruction of farmland, uprooting of trees, and intimidation of residents, across the occupied West Bank.
The ministry stressed that these crimes are not isolated incidents but constitute “state-organized terrorism, carried out under direct protection of Israeli occupation forces.”
In its statement, the ministry held the Israeli government fully responsible, citing its declared policies of arming colonizers and “providing them with political, security, and legal cover, effectively enabling them to operate as terrorist militias.”
It warned of the grave danger posed by Israel’s continued encouragement and support of these paramilitary groups, using them as tools to impose colonial realities by force and implement policies of forcible transfer, in violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
The ministry also highlighted the educational dimension of these policies, pointing to official curricula in colonial schools that promote hatred and racism against Arabs and Palestinians, legitimize violence and exclusion, and foster generations steeped in extremism who justify colonizer terrorism.
It further condemned Israel’s expansionist colonial policies, including the announcement of thousands of new colonial housing units in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, describing them as “a full-fledged war crime aimed at entrenching colonization and undermining the two-state solution.”
The statement underscored Israel’s system of laws and measures designed to obstruct Palestinian statehood and dismantle the two-state solution, including the illegal withholding of Palestinian tax revenues, restrictions on the Palestinian economy, severe limits on freedom of movement through thousands of military roadblocks, and the imposition of an apartheid regime that deepens colonial control over land and people.
The ministry reaffirmed that all colonial activities and unilateral Israeli measures are illegal, null and void, and constitute violations of international law, UN Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334, and the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.
It called on the international community, including the Security Council, the European Union, the United Nations and its agencies, and the states party to the Geneva Conventions, to assume their legal and moral responsibilities.
It said the Security Council, United Nations, and European Countries must ensure the implementation of Security Council Resolution 904, hold Israel accountable for its inciteful educational curricula, end collective punishment and the illegal withholding of Palestinian funds, provide urgent international protection for the Palestinian people, and prosecute those responsible for colonial crimes, systematic violence, war crimes, and acts of genocide.
The ministry warned that continued impunity for perpetrators of these crimes encourages further escalation of violations and undermines the foundations of peace and stability in the region.
