"Israel's oldest daily, Haaretz," which was was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024
Nov. 13 Podcast: How a "Perfect Storm" of IDF-backed Attacks and Israel's Extremist Government Is Terrorizing the West Bank
Olive harvest season has become a flashpoint in the West Bank in recent years as extremist Israeli settlers regularly threaten and physically harm Palestinian harvesters, but this year, "the situation on the ground is out of control," Anton Goodman of Rabbis for Human Rights said on the Haaretz Podcast.
"We have never seen anything like this," Goodman emphasized, noting that in the past, "We've seen settler attacks, and we've seen unnecessary army aggression and restrictions, but we've never seen such a peak moment of violence affecting so many communities."
Goodman described the situation as a "perfect storm" with "extremists at the heart of the Israeli government, who have sent clear policy recommendations to the police" to refrain from arresting violent settlers so that "the rule of law is totally diminished."
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXIX: "olive harvest in the West Bank"
the sun glints
on a settler's M-16 ...
olive harvest
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXVI: "military watch"
burning olive groves ...
the weight of thick gray and black
blanketing
over the West Bank families
under military watch
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXX: "reality check"
family
house and olive-lined village
all lost in fireballs ...
even in dreams can she find
an escape route from West Bank
Nov. 14, Analysis: Jewish Terrorism in the West Bank Has a Clear Plan
The IDF officers on the ground [in the West Bank] don't suffer from political naivety. They realize that this Jewish terrorism [by settlers against Palestinians] is operating as it is because the perpetrators believe that the messianic right in the governing coalition has its back. The three years of this government, especially the two years of the war, have been the best ever for the settlement project in the West Bank. The takeover there by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also has a brief at the Defense Ministry, has been total.
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCV: "the entire town encaged"
the West Bank town
encaged with barbed wire ...
the red glow
of a soldier's Marlboro
against the borderless night sky
It’s peaceful now
M-16 rifles are blooming, 2000-pound bombs singing, and Merkava tanks sweeping the streets.
Gaza is cleaner than ever, clean of blood-covered children. Yet, somewhere among the rubble the only moving thing is a boy’s eyes that look up to Heaven.
a mural
on the separation wall
of the West Bank:
in midair a girl grasps
a bunch of rainbow balloons
Contemporary Haibun Anthology 20
And according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), since October 7, 2023, Israeli settlers have killed 33 Palestinians in the West Bank and wounded more than 1,400 others. October 2025 saw over 260 attacks, an average of eight per day — the highest monthly tally since OCHA began documenting such incidents in 2006... +972 Magazine, Nov. 11 2025
To conclude today's "Special Feature" post, I would like to share with you the latest entry of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLVIII: "a Mina plush doll, blood-stained and headless"
West Bank on mute
a Mina plush doll blood-stained
and headless
And the following remarks on silence:
There comes a time when silence is betrayal.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
-- Martin Luther King Jr.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLIX: "patchworked tents"
rain pitter-pattering
on rows of patchworked tents ...
a Gazan child
stares out at the puddle
with rippling gray skies
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCL: "a Palestinian doll"
twisted rebar heap
a Palestinian doll's eyes
jammed open
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLI: "Sde Teiman"
crimson twilight
at the edge of Sde Teiman
a scream snaps in two
FYI: +972 Magazine, Independent Journalism from Israel-Palestine, NewsLetter, Nov. 18, 2025:
Torture, neglect, and starvation: new data reveals 98 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody
Read the full report on +972 Magazine.
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