The West Bank Is Reaching Breaking Point

Hamza Abu Howidy returns for another Conflicted Conversation. Last time he appeared, he told us his personal story of growing up in Hamas-ruled Gaza, how he was imprisoned and tortured by Hamas for speaking out against their oppression, and how he entered into exile in Germany just before the 7 October attacks changed everything.

This time he switches from Gaza to the West Bank, telling Thomas all about the other side of Palestine — a side which goes overlooked, but which is increasingly becoming a zone of almost unbearable conflict.

Hamza and Thomas discuss:

Settler violence as settler terrorism

How Israeli settlements undermine the Oslo process

Settlement expansion as a strategy to prevent a Palestinian state

The shift from a two-state ideal to a one-state reality

The Hardal movement and Smotrich’s political world

The Hilltop Youth: origins, ideology and violence

The dual legal system in the West Bank

The Yehuda Shmuel Sherman incident and the revenge attacks that followed

E1 and the threat to a viable Palestinian state

The West Bank economy after 7 October

Palestinian municipal and national elections

Israeli elections and the lack of hope for political change

Israel’s post-7 October security doctrine

The Board of Peace and the problem of Hamas disarmament

Arab disillusionment with resistance ideology

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices