Democracy Now ! / July 27, 2026
Guest: Mariam Barghouti – Palestinian writer and journalist
Jewish settlers torched two mosques over the weekend in a new wave of violence targeting Palestinian towns and villages across the occupied West Bank. Meanwhile, Israeli military forces on Saturday detained over 70 Palestinians in raids across the occupied territory. This follows the killing of at least four Palestinians in the village of Tal on Friday, when Israeli settlers and soldiers opened fire on residents attempting to protect their homes; two Israelis were also killed.
Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti says the Israeli army and Israeli settlers “should not be seen as separate” as they carry out “a familiar pattern of collective punishment.” She also stresses that anti-Palestinian violence in the occupied West Bank cannot be divorced from Israeli repression in Jerusalem and its genocide in Gaza.
“This is a colonial regime that is engaging in crimes against humanity,” says Barghouti. “How those crimes look may differ, but in the end they serve the same purpose, and that is ethnically cleansing Palestinians in order to build this Greater Israel in the region.”
TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
We end today’s show in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers torched two mosques over the weekend in the latest wave of violent attacks on several Palestinian towns and villages.
AMAD ALBAIK: [translated] This is a religious crime. It is a moral crime and all. They are thieves, and you can call them with all the bad descriptions, because there is no human on the planet that torches a religious place.
AMY GOODMAN: This comes as Israeli military forces Saturday detained over 70 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank. The arrests and attack on the mosque followed the killing of at least four Palestinians in the town of Tal Friday, when Israeli settlers and soldiers opened fire on residents attempting to protect their homes; two Israeli soldiers were also killed. Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has condemned the intensifying Israeli settler attacks as, quote, “pogroms against defenseless civilians,” unquote.
We’re joined now by Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist based in Ramallah, joining us today, though, from Amman, Jordan. She recently addressed the United Nations Security Council on the crisis in the West Bank.
Thanks so much for joining us again, Mariam. If you can start off by describing what happened this weekend in the West Bank?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Thank you, Amy.
So, what we saw over the weekend was an intensified campaign against Palestinians by the Israeli army and Jewish settlers, which should not be seen as separate at this point. The excuse and the justification that the Israeli military and officials, such as Benjamin Netanyahu, are using was the killing of two settlers that were in the West Bank raiding a Palestinian village or town. Now, if you peruse through Hebrew media, you’ll think that they were Israelis that were simply hiking and were killed by Palestinians, when in fact they were settlers raiding the town of Tal, southeast of Nablus, north of the West Bank, and a Palestinian man was able to disarm one of the settlers and confront them. Now, the Israeli army responded by killing at least four Palestinians, and then expanded in what is a familiar pattern of collective punishment, targeting the entirety of the West Bank, targeting former detainees, in specific, torturing them, ensuring checkpoints are closed, meaning Palestinians don’t have access to lifesaving resources such as hospitals. And they’re targeting just daily infrastructure. So, we’re seeing what is happening is Palestinians are being imprisoned, essentially, in their own towns and villages, and then attacked by Israeli forces and armed settlers.
AMY GOODMAN: Eighty-six, at least, according to Al-Jazeera, Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the year, including 20 fatally shot by settlers. The United Nations notes hundreds more have been wounded. We have about a four-second delay with you responding, Mariam, but talk about your message to the U.N. Security Council.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Yes. So, what we’re seeing is that there is an escalation of killing Palestinians. This comes also in light of the impunity that Israel has received in Gaza. Now, in Gaza, you have the Israeli army, but settlers serve as an addendum to Israeli military practices. So, we’re not just seeing 86 Palestinians killed since the start of the year; we’ve seen more than a thousand killed in the last two years alone.
And this comes with an expansionist project. So, the issue right here is territory, and it is being enforced and taken over forcibly through these violent attacks that create a hostile environment for Palestinians, where simply their presence becomes unsustainable, because it means recalibrating just daily routine to calculate for Israeli violence.
AMY GOODMAN: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a major security operation in the West Bank following Friday’s attacks, reinforcing military units, cancelling leave for troops. He is also coming to meet with President Trump tomorrow in Washington, D.C. Can you talk about, as you peruse the media, from the Arabic-language media, Hebrew-language media, U.S. media, what people get most wrong about what’s happening in the West Bank right now? And talk about how it compares to Gaza.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: I think what is happening right now in the West Bank cannot be divorced to what is happening in Gaza, as well as places like Jerusalem. Now, what we are seeing is another form of genocide and ethnic cleansing. In Gaza, it is the complete obliteration of cities and towns and annihilation of families off the registry. And in the West Bank, it is taking different methods and forms, and that is through the use of the settler, military and judicial system.
Now, together, what they serve is, what Israel wants to do is the Greater Israel project. Now, it brings us back to the fact that this is a colonial regime that is engaging in crimes against humanity. How those crimes look may differ, but in the end they serve the same purpose, and that is ethnically cleansing Palestinians in order to build this Greater Israel in the region.
AMY GOODMAN: In your address to the U.N. Security Council, Mariam Barghouti, you talked about the dangers journalists like yourself face. If you can talk about the attacks on media workers? Of course, we know that over 250 journalists, media workers have been killed by Israel in the last years, since October 2023, in Gaza. And you also spoke about the targeted attacks on military personnel. We’ll end with this question.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Yes, so, the Israeli regime is targeting journalists, killing them in Gaza on the one end, likewise in Lebanon. And in the West Bank, what we’re seeing is targeting them through mass detention, as well as terrorizing campaigns, that is targeting their family members, invading their homes, violating their sources, as well as gathering information that should not be accessible to them.
So, they are targeting not just the personnel, but they are targeting the information. And this is one of the most dangerous aspects, because if we are unable to document, then the entire issue of testimony falls into debate. And this is where we are today, where someone [inaudible] welcomed to the [inaudible] that was presented for the crimes that were instigated by him and the entirety of the Israeli regime.
AMY GOODMAN: On Saturday, a group of Israel NGOs, including B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence, issued a joint statement saying, “We call the international community to act now. Immediate pressure on Israel is required to stop further attacks, prevent pogroms and further killings, and ensure the protection of Palestinians, in accordance with Israel’s obligations under international law.” We have 20 seconds, Mariam. If you can elaborate on this?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: I think this time is not just for action, but to ensure genuine obstruction of Israeli capacity to continue in its crimes. It is not normal nor OK that a country that has engaged [inaudible] is treated as a normal state. It is not normal to continue sustaining it with military aid. At a bare minimum, just obstruct its capacity to target human lives.
AMY GOODMAN: Mariam Barghouti, we want to thank you for being with us, Palestinian writer and journalist based in the West Bank, speaking to us from Amman, Jordan; she recently addressed the U.N. Security Council on the crisis in the West Bank.
