I was text interviewed for an Italian outlet. I received an email, responded, was asked two additional questions of clarification and here I am: (via ChatGPT)
Israeli settler: “The violent ones? Three hundred young men”
Journalist Medad even denies the Palestinian question: “We have the right to live here”
Rome, August 17, 2026 — First he uses international law as his argument. Then, when it is pointed out to him that the League of Nations has not existed for quite some time, he moves onto the terrain of history. Yisrael Medad, an Israeli journalist, settler from Shiloh and a historian who supports the settlements in the West Bank, has one virtue: clarity. He finds surprising analogies between the Holy Land and our own country. And, according to him, the solution to the Palestinian question is “Italian” as well.
Medad, on what basis does an Israeli claim the right to live and build in the West Bank, which much of the international community considers occupied Palestinian territory?
“The fact that the international community considers Judea and Samaria occupied territories does not mean that they are. In 1922, fifty-five countries of the League of Nations recognized the right of the Jews to reestablish their historic national homeland.”
But the UN Security Council subsequently stated that settlements in territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity, and in 2024 the International Court of Justice ruled that the settlement policy is contrary to international law.
“I do not base the rights of the Jews on the League of Nations or on the UN Security Council. The right exists and is applicable even without recognition. It is based on three thousand years of Jewish presence in the land of kings, priests and prophets, psalms and revolts, olive trees and vineyards.”
If this right applies to Israelis, what equivalent right do you recognize for Palestinians who have lived there for generations?
“Arabs, like Druze and anyone else, can live there. But they do not have the right to carry out terrorist acts against Jews, which they have been doing since 1920.”
Terrorism: the same term used to describe the siege of Qusra by the American ambassador to Israel. Do you think the definition should change if the aggressor is Israeli?
“It should not change. Anyone who attacks civilians is a terrorist. Huckabee, however, is wrong in how he characterizes certain incidents; one has to have a sense of proportion. I checked, for example, the statistics on sexual violence in Italy: would it be justified to call Lombards ‘sexual terrorists’ because many cases are reported in Lombardy? No.”
But Palestinians repeatedly report assaults, arson and attacks on villages.
“All violence is wrong. But there is much more violence perpetrated by Arabs against Jews, and it is also more lethal. I am surprised that the world's attention is so one-sided.”
When Palestinian villages are attacked, don't you think that the settler movement bears political responsibility?
“No. That violence is the result of the failure of the education provided by parents and religious authority. I must, however, emphasize that Arab violence is tolerated and even praised, especially in Europe, by ‘progressive’ forces. This makes it difficult to explain here to these 300 young men that violence does not work.”
You speak of Judea and Samaria as part of the Land of Israel. Does that mean that, in your view, there should not be a Palestinian state in the West Bank?
“Exactly. I am convinced that the real objective of the Palestinians is not to have their own state, which they could have had in 1937, 1947 and 1967, but to deny the Jews a state.”
But if you reject the two-state solution outright, what is the concrete alternative for millions of Palestinians?
“We could try autonomy and see what happens.”
Can Israelis and Palestinians really coexist in the same territory without having the same rights?
“If there were no terrorism and incitement to violence, there would be no restrictions. In Italy, for example, millions of foreigners live without Italian citizenship.”
What is the political objective of the settler movement?
“To guarantee the continuity of the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.”
The problem is how. Imagine that your political vision were fully realized: twenty years from now, who would govern the territory between the Jordan and the Mediterranean?
“Israel will be the sovereign power. An Arab could be an Israeli citizen, or a resident without citizenship, or could once again become a Jordanian citizen. Or perhaps we could learn something from South Tyrol.”
“If he says so.” [Se lo dice lui — the journalist's closing, slightly ironic, comment.]
And here are a couple of nuances in the Italian (added by ChatGPT)
There are a few places where the Italian framing is somewhat sharper than your actual answers:
- “nega persino la questione palestinese” literally means “even denies the Palestinian question.” That is the journalist's characterization; your answer itself does not deny that Palestinians exist or that they have rights to live there.
- “I violenti? Trecento ragazzi” is a headline, roughly “The violent ones? Three hundred young men.” It refers to your statement that it is difficult to explain to “these 300 young men” that violence does not work.
- “colono” means “settler.” It is not necessarily derogatory in Italian, but colono israeliano is the terminology the newspaper chose.
- Your South Tyrol/Alto Adige analogy is particularly interesting because it invokes a model of territorial autonomy within a sovereign state rather than partition into two sovereign states.
Also, the headline “abbiamo diritto a vivere qui” (“we have the right to live here”) is not actually a verbatim quotation appearing in your answers as reproduced below it; it is the newspaper's headline characterization of your position.
P.S. My final line to him was:
"Of course, I have kept my replies short and concise but the issue is quite complicated."
I do not think I convinced him of the practicality that a democratic, binational society in which Jews and Arabs live together without ethnic domination cannot exist.
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I found there this interview too: (translation via ChatGPT)
West Bank, No Other Land activist: “An ethnic-cleansing campaign is underway”
Huraini, Palestinian reporter: “There is no everyday life there; Israeli settlers continue with complete impunity.”
Rome, August 17, 2026 —
“On the 19th of last month, late at night, more than 40 masked Israeli settlers broke into At-Tuwani. I was with my cousins when we heard desperate screams coming from my house: they were my sisters. They were sleeping when the settlers began smashing the windows in order to throw gasoline inside. They wanted to burn my family members alive.
For the first time in my life I felt completely helpless: I was alone against forty of them, and the only ‘weapon’ I had in my hand was my camera. My neighbor lost the baby she was carrying because of the terror of those scenes.”
It is through his own story that Mohammad Hesham Huraini, a Palestinian reporter and activist from Masafer Yatta, describes the West Bank today. Huraini collaborated on No Other Land, the Oscar-winning documentary.
“A huge campaign of ethnic cleansing is being carried out by Israeli settlers with complete impunity.”
What is everyday life like there?
“There is no everyday life. We wake up in the morning to demolitions and in the evening we witness pogroms. We cannot even move from one village to another because of army and police roadblocks and the continuous attacks by settlers. Going to the doctor or buying food is an ordeal.”
How do the people who live there make a living?
“Securing an income is complicated. Since October 7, 2023, most of the people who worked inside ‘48”—in Palestinian terminology, the Israeli territory within the Green Line—“have lost their jobs and no one has been able to return there.”
Are you more afraid of violence, or of gradually being forced to abandon those lands?
“The greatest fear is facing the daily threat of death.”
U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee has called those responsible for the siege “Israeli terrorists.” Can words like these really make a difference?
“They are important, but they are not enough. Real pressure is needed from the European governments and the United States.”
Israel will go to the polls again on October 27. Do you hope the election can change anything?
“For the Palestinians, little or nothing will change. The settlers are taking advantage of the election period: they know that the government needs their votes, so they attack knowing that they will never be stopped.”
Do you still believe that Israelis and Palestinians can live together?
“Every time a solution has been proposed, Israel has destroyed it because it does not believe in peace, but only in the displacement of Palestinians. We are human beings, not numbers.”
After the Oscar, it seemed that the world had become aware of No Other Land. Do the people who live there feel that anyone is still watching?
“Precisely after that recognition, the filmmakers became the principal targets of attacks, arrests and detentions. The 96 minutes of the documentary showed our past life; the reality we have been experiencing from October 7 until today is even more insane and brutal than what was shown in the film.”
You mentioned October 7. Beyond the horror, don't you think that massacre caused enormous political and moral damage to the Palestinian cause?
“I prefer not to answer this question because the issue is not about October 7: the occupation already existed beforehand, as did the attacks, pogroms and killings of Palestinians.”
And ChatGPT added
A couple of points worth noting
The Italian interviewer uses “pogrom” (pogrom) in the questions/description as well as Huraini using the term in his answer. I have retained it rather than softening it to “attacks.”
Also, “inside the ‘48” is Huraini's terminology for Israel within the Green Line. The Italian journalist actually inserts an explanatory parenthesis making this explicit.
One potentially important point for your purposes: the article is not an independent report of the alleged July 19 incident. It is an interview in which Huraini gives his own account and characterization of events. The article does not provide corroborating evidence for his claims about the settlers, nor does it present an Israeli response.
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