Hollow Outrage: France and US Issue Empty Condemnations as IOF Shields Settler Terror in Qusra
While Western capitals offer political theatre, Israeli occupation forces actively protect Zionist militias besieging Palestinian families in the West Bank.
The sheer hypocrisy of Western imperialist powers was on full display this week as France and the United States issued toothless condemnations over a brutal Zionist settler siege in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) actively shielded the terrorists carrying it out.
In the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, violent Zionist settlers have occupied Palestinian homes, blocked access roads, and cut off water and electricity, trapping approximately 15 Palestinians—including young children—inside their homes for days.
The Theatre of Western “Condemnation”
In response to the siege, the French Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the violence in the “strongest possible terms,” calling on the occupation regime to arrest and prosecute those responsible. The US, meanwhile, only raised its voice after discovering a Palestinian-American home was among those targeted by the militias.
US Ambassador to the Zionist entity, Mike Huckabee—a staunch, unapologetic supporter of illegal settlements—was forced to publicly label the perpetrators “Israeli terrorists,” calling their actions “disgusting.” Yet, these words mean absolutely nothing. For Paris and Washington, condemning settler violence is mere political theatre designed to mask their complicity. They will issue press releases, but they will never cut off the billions in military aid that fund the very apartheid system enabling this ethnic cleansing.
The IOF: Accomplices to Ethnic Cleansing
The Israeli military claimed it deployed forces to Qusra to “remove a tent” erected by the settlers and supposedly “protect local residents.” However, footage quickly exposed this propaganda, showing IOF soldiers in full uniform joining the settler terrorists in morning prayers at the very outpost they were supposedly dismantling.
The IOF’s presence is never to protect Palestinians. History and reality prove that the military’s role in these scenarios is strictly to provide armed cover for land theft and to violently suppress any attempt by the indigenous population to defend their own homes. The IOF and the settler militias are not separate entities; they are two arms of the same genocidal regime.
State-Sponsored Land Theft
The siege of Qusra is not an isolated incident of rogue “extremists.” It is a state-sponsored project of erasure. Zionist settlers are actively seizing properties around Qusra and the neighbouring village of Jalud in a calculated effort to create a contiguous corridor of illegal outposts. By connecting these settlements, the occupation entity is physically severing Palestinian communities from one another, rendering a future Palestinian state geographically impossible.
As Aysha Hassan, a Palestinian woman trapped in one of the besieged homes, told Reuters: “We are very afraid... It’s been like this for six days... the settlers are still here.”
The condemnations from Paris and Washington will not save Qusra. As long as the US and Europe continue to arm, fund, and diplomatically shield the Zionist entity, the IOF and its settler militias will continue their unchecked campaign of terror and land theft in the West Bank.
Reference: Al-Mayadeen