On May 15, 2026, Palestinians will mark the 78th year since the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. From late 1947 to 1949, the majority of the native inhabitants of Palestine were forcibly displaced as Zionists established the Jewish State of Israel through force of arms. Some 800,000 Palestinians became refugees, others became internally displaced, and more than 500 Palestinian towns, villages, and localities were partially or completely destroyed. While this historical moment was perhaps the most consequential and significant in the longer history of the confrontation between Zionism and the native Palestinians, it is best understood as part of a larger process that was already underway and that continues today.
The process of imposing Zionist will to take the land of Palestine against the will of the land’s native inhabitants started long before the mass ethnic cleansing of the Nakba. Earlier Zionist policies implemented this process in different forms over the years. Initially, immigration, economic separation, and land acquisition took land out of Palestinian hands and denied Palestinian peasants access. Later, the process was increasingly spearheaded and enforced through state and communal violence—first through the brute repressive force of the British imperial military alongside Zionist paramilitary organizations and then through the state-backed violence of Israel that continues today.
While it has ebbed and flowed with high points of violence such as the Nakba and the Gaza genocide of the last few years, the Zionist process has been continuous and has targeted every segment of the Palestinian population across Palestine. Today’s iteration, driven by the most right-wing government in Israeli history, perhaps represents its most violent and widespread stage. Three distinct yet interconnected systems of state violence currently target the entire Palestinian population in Palestine, causing unprecedented strain on its people.
The Ongoing Genocide in Gaza
The number of killings is lower than at the height of the genocide, during which more than 70,000 Palestinians were killed by Israel in just two years, but Israeli fire continues to take life in Gaza almost every day. Some 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the October 2025 “ceasefire” was implemented. The surviving population is now under greater threat, with fewer resources needed to survive. Since October 2023, the Israeli military occupation has forcibly reduced the land on which the Palestinian population is living to less than 50 percent of the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian conditions remain desperate as people struggle to survive amid the rubble. No progress has been made in reconstruction beyond the limited efforts of local people, who lack the necessary supplies, funds, and heavy equipment. Disease, malnutrition, and unsanitary conditions are rife and pose severe threats to those who manage to survive Israeli military strikes. It is these conditions, undoubtedly calculated by Israel, that represent the key aspect of the continuing genocide. With daily conditions unsuitable for sustaining life and with no sign of change on the horizon, widespread death among the Palestinian population in Gaza is all but guaranteed.
Settler and Military Violence in the West Bank
In the West Bank, the situation looks different from Gaza, but the population is also being subjected to pressures that increasingly make life unlivable. In the first nine months of 2023, prior to Israel’s launching of the Gaza war that October, the United Nations recorded the largest military operation in the West Bank since 2005, as well as the deadliest period since 2005 for Palestinians living there. But military violence, one of the key factors in Gaza, is only a part of the story in the West Bank: Israeli settler violence is the additional dimension. Emboldened and supported by a government filled with representatives of the Israeli settler movement, violent Israeli settlers are running amok in the West Bank, attacking Palestinians, destroying property, and intimidating residents far and wide. Since the current Israeli government came to power in late 2022, there has been a significant uptick in Israeli settler violence. In spring 2026, there has been an even greater spike: one Israeli non-governmental organization recorded 378 attacks in just the first 40 days of the US-Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28, 2026. All this is happening with the clear consent, and often the direct support, of the Israeli military itself.
For the Zionist project, Palestinians in the West Bank represent two kinds of threat: active and passive. The “active threats”—those Palestinians who may be involved in resistance organizations or activities—are swiftly and brutally dealt with by the Israeli military. Other Palestinians are considered “passive threats” simply by virtue of the fact that they exist in the West Bank. These Palestinians are dealt with through state-sanctioned settler violence, which allows the state to pursue a policy of pressuring Palestinians to leave while maintaining plausible deniability. Even a cursory look into episodes of settler violence against Palestinians exposes the direct supporting role of the Israeli military. The violence and destruction wrought by Israeli military-backed settlers have forced Palestinians from their lands and villages in the most vulnerable parts of the West Bank. This process is aided by legal and legislative measures taken by the Israeli government toward annexation. As Alaa Mahajna argued in a recent Arab Center Washington analysis, these recent moves “constitute one of the most consequential shifts in Israel’s declared policies in the West Bank since the beginning of the occupation.”
“Criminal” Violence in Israel
For Palestinian citizens of Israel—those who managed to remain within what became Israel after the ethnic cleansing of the Nakba—numerous challenges have made it difficult to live as second-class citizens. Facing discrimination, economic disparities, and restrictions on rights and freedoms, Palestinian communities inside Israel have always had to resist multiple pressures. But perhaps few challenges afflict these communities today more than the spate of criminal violence that routinely includes murders, drive-by shootings, beatings, and violent intimidation. Whether spurred by organized crime, drug deals, or vengeance-fueled family disputes, this violent wave has steadily grown over recent years, tearing at the fabric of society, making community spaces unsafe, and adding pressure on those simply seeking a safe existence.
This criminal violence is also state-sanctioned It is quite clear that the State of Israel does little to nothing to prevent it, thereby effectively encouraging it. The arrest and conviction rates for those committing crimes in the Palestinian community in Israel are far lower than for those in the Jewish community. I discussed this problem in detail in a recent conversation with Haifa University’s Mohanad Mustafa. The double standard is even more apparent in light of the speed and ferocity with which the very capable Israeli security forces respond to violence against Jews in Israel. But when it comes to seeking justice for victims who are not Jewish, the Israeli police force seems to be missing in action.
As with settler violence in the West Bank, Israel can benefit from plausible deniability because those carrying out the acts of violence are not formal agents of the state. In some cases, however, Israeli security services are suspected of maintaining links with violent criminal elements, some of whom are believed to have easy access to weapons or even to serve, or have served, as their informants. State action and inaction are both choices. The result of the state’s choice of inaction is clear: the plague of criminal violence will destroy Palestinian communities.
Conclusion
These three dynamics—the Israeli military’s genocide in Gaza, the settler violence in the West Bank, and the criminal violence in Palestinian communities inside Israel—are all features of the current stage of the ongoing Nakba. State-sanctioned violence against Palestinians across the whole of Palestine threatens their very existence in their homeland.
The views expressed in this publication are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab Center Washington DC, its staff, or its Board of Directors.
Featured image credit: Anas Mohammed via Shutterstock
