Defending Palestine’s land, lives, and dignity

We are approaching two years of the most brutal genocide of our time — a live-streamed holocaust unfolding in Gaza. Yet, what is often overshadowed is Israel’s simultaneous escalation of settler-colonial violence in the West Bank, where land theft and dispossession have intensified as part of the same campaign to erase the Palestinian people from their homeland.

As many as 700,000 Zionist settlers are living illegally in the occupied West Bank. While global attention has focused on Israel’s brutal bombing of Gaza, Zionist settlers escalated their violence across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Backed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), mobs of extremist settlers have raided Palestinian villages, torching olive groves, executing men in front of their families, and driving thousands from their homes in fear.

Highly planned dispossession campaign

Between October 2023 and January 2025, at least 1,860 attacks on Palestinians were recorded, with countless more likely unreported. [1]

This surge in violence has laid the groundwork for unprecedented land grabs. In 2024 alone, Israel illegally seized 23.7 square kilometres (9.15 square miles) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank — more than the total amount confiscated over the previous two decades combined. [2]

This bleak reality reveals a hard truth: our charitable efforts, however well-intentioned, are incapable of disrupting the entrenched systems of oppression fuelling this existential injustice.

The Palestinian people, standing defiantly on the front lines against the scourge of Zionism, are not asking for our sympathy — they are calling for our solidarity, our action, and our sacrifice — now.

Allah says,

وَإِنِ ٱسْتَنصَرُوكُمْ فِى ٱلدِّينِ فَعَلَيْكُمُ ٱلنَّصْرُ

But if they seek your help against persecution, it is your obligation to assist them.” [3]

Furthermore, the imperative to repel evil and oppression is affirmed by the Prophet ﷺ when he said,

Whoever among you sees evil, let him change it with his hand. If he cannot do so, then with his tongue. If he cannot do so, then with his heart, which is the weakest level of faith.” [4]

Legal avenues must be pursued

As Muslims, we have a moral duty to stand against the genocidal Zionist entity and actively support the struggle for Palestinian liberation.

One of our most powerful ways is by supporting existing groups making real, tangible impact on the ground. One such group is PAL Commission — a Palestinian-led group that criminally prosecute individuals involved in the theft of Palestinian land, actively halting illegal land sales, and defending Palestinian life and territory from Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial violence.

Upcoming event next Saturday

Human Aid & Advocacy is partnering with PAL Commission to host a special evening on 26 July; a night dedicated to showcasing their groundbreaking work and raising vital funds to sustain and expand it.

The event will feature the Director and Founder of PAL Commission, alongside Dr. Asim Qureshi, Research Director at CAGE, and a very special guest — a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, bringing firsthand insight from the frontline of the genocide.

In this critical moment, as history is being written in blood and silence, our response will be remembered in the court of Allah. This event is a chance to align our actions with our principles, to say with clarity that we did not stand by while our brothers and sisters were dispossessed and slaughtered.

The Palestinian people are demanding more than words, so attending this evening is a necessary act of solidarity, a refusal to be complicit through inaction.

Seats are limited — book your ticket now and stand on the right side of history.