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British Outlet Suggests Every Israeli in West Bank Is Unhinged Settler Baying for Blood
Illustrative: View of Ma’aleh Adumim in Judea and Samaria on Jan. 1, 2017. Photo: Yaniv Nadav / Flash90.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in the West Bank. Known in Israel by its historical name of Judea and Samaria, the area contains cities that are home to tens of thousands of people.
The urban center of Ariel, for example, has a university that was founded more than 40 years ago. The area is bustling with houses, schools, shops, and parks. Ariel is home to the young and old — to teachers, taxi drivers, business owners, and students.
In short, places like Ariel are filled with ordinary people.
Why, then, did British news and opinion site UnHerd suggest in a recent piece by foreign correspondent David Patrikarako, that everyone living in the West Bank is a marauding zealot out for Palestinian bloods?
Patrikarakos reports:
Beyond the trauma of the war in Gaza, there is another trauma in the West Bank: Israeli settlers. There are more than 450,000 Israeli settlers (and more than 100 Israeli illegal outposts) in the West Bank, with an additional 220,000 living in East Jerusalem. Since October 7, their thieving and violence has gone into overdrive. The UN humanitarian office has recorded more than 250 settler attacks, which resulted in the murder of eight Palestinians, including a child, and injuries to more than 70 others. Since late October, more than 1,000 Palestinian residents have fled several West Bank villages, claiming that Israeli settler violence and threats had driven them out.”
Patrikarakos’ journey through the West Bank, with his theatrical descriptions and selective encounters, reads more like a scene from an apocalyptic novel than a piece of objective reporting.
The portrayal of anyone and everyone could not be less subtle: they are religious fanatics who are hellbent on driving out every last non-Israeli man, woman and child — by violent means if necessary.
This is a gross generalization that ignores the myriad reasons people choose to live in the West Bank, including historical and legal justifications, while reducing their motivations to divine real estate deals.
The article charges hundreds of thousands of peaceful, law-abiding Israelis with being responsible for a handful of isolated incidents of violence toward Palestinians.
The depiction of all Israelis living in the territory as extremists sharply contrasts with that of the Palestinians, who are simultaneously portrayed as defeated victims and successful resisters:
I later meet Mustafa Barghouti, who leads the Palestinian opposition party, Palestinian National Initiative. We gather in a boardroom in his office nearby (most things are nearby in Ramallah) where a large photo of the Dome of the Rock stretches across a wall. ‘Please record me. I like to be recorded,’ he says, in a joking reference to the mass surveillance Israel subjects Palestinian leaders to […]
‘We are already in an intifada,’ he says. “What does it mean? Self-organisation, self-reliance, and defying Israel measures. The IDF cannot enter any town or city without being confronted by young people who try to resist in non-violent ways.’ But these confrontations can easily slip into violence, which in this region easily expands.
That Patrikarakos fails to challenge Barghouti’s characterization of the Palestinian intifadas as “non-violent” is simply astounding, and ignores the reality of these dark periods that were characterized by horrific violence meted out against Israelis and Jews, including suicide bombings, stabbings, and Molotov cocktail attacks.
In the next paragraph, Patrikarakos is forced to acknowledge Barghouti’s cognitive dissonance, noting that while he “appears sincerely to want peace,” in a later interview with CNN, Barghouti claimed “no Israeli civilians were killed on October 7.”
It takes considerable mental gymnastics and boundless determination to cast Barghouti as a moderate and peace-seeking Palestinian, while also accepting that he has denied the biggest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
The role of Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in fomenting violence in the West Bank is also glossed over throughout the piece, with the implicit suggestion instead being that Israeli counterterrorism raids exist in a vacuum.
In the last paragraph of his article, Patrikarakos laments the likelihood of further violence. He contends this violence will result from young Palestinian men having “no hope of finding a job,” leading them to “drift toward organised violence and extremism” — a perspective that omits any consideration of the antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement that is pervasive in Palestinian society.
And this core message of the piece: Palestinians lack agency and are entirely at the mercy of a much stronger and inflexible Israel.
The post British Outlet Suggests Every Israeli in West Bank Is Unhinged Settler Baying for Blood first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.