Flickr/Palestine Solidarity Project. Some rights reserved.On 24th November 2015 the US secretary of state John Kerry expressed his solidarity with his Israeli hosts when he remarked, “Clearly, no people anywhere should live with daily violence, with attacks on the streets, with knives, with scissors, cars.” It is just a pity that he did not add that so long as Israel continues its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories Israelis will continue to face differing forms of Palestinian resistance.
Since mid-September 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces and settlers, whilst 22 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed in Palestinian attacks. Most of these attacks have been carried out by young Palestinians acting on their own in a relatively unplanned manner. Israeli security forces have called such acts 'lone-wolf attacks', and some Israeli security personnel blame their incidence on the increase in Jewish extremist violence against Palestinians.
The return of direct violence to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be a matter of concern to all who dream of sustainable peace in the region, but it can come as no surprise: it is a direct result of the Israeli government’s determination to normalise Israel’s occupation, now nearly 50 years old.
