Palestinian children walk past a building hit by Israeli army fire during an a military operation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Surda, near Ramallah, on Sept. 19, 2025.(Credit: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP)
With a cigarette between his fingers and a thermos in hand, Ghassan Bazour flips through a document that weighs heavily on the future of his town. The mayor of Raba, a village with 5,000 inhabitants, speaks with a tone of grim finality. Israeli settlers have already seized 13 hectares of Raba — and it’s not over: “This is the inventory of new lands that the Israelis have decided to take over,” he says. “They pass this information to the Palestinian Authority, which then forwards it to us.” But this document is particularly personal. The latest land expropriations include a plot where his own house stands.His office is a relic of the 1990s, a portrait of Yasser Arafat leaning at an angle that makes it look about to fall — a symbol of a territory paralyzed by Israeli expansionist plans. “I hope that the recognition of the State of...
With a cigarette between his fingers and a thermos in hand, Ghassan Bazour flips through a document that weighs heavily on the future of his town. The mayor of Raba, a village with 5,000 inhabitants, speaks with a tone of grim finality. Israeli settlers have already seized 13 hectares of Raba — and it’s not over: “This is the inventory of new lands that the Israelis have decided to take over,” he says. “They pass this information to the Palestinian Authority, which then forwards it to us.” But this document is particularly personal. The latest land expropriations include a plot where his own house stands.His office is a relic of the 1990s, a portrait of Yasser Arafat leaning at an angle that makes it look about to fall — a symbol of a territory paralyzed by Israeli expansionist plans. “I hope that the recognition of...
