This Is Palestine

In its new report, The Elimination Project: Israel’s Systematic Dismantling of Palestinian Collective Life in the West Bank, B’Tselem examines what it describes as a system of interconnected policies shaping Palestinian life across the West Bank. The report identifies five mechanisms: violence and intimidation, restrictions on movement, economic strangulation, political and social destruction, and ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover. In this episode of This Is Palestine, Diana Buttu speaks with Yuli Novak, executive director of B’Tselem, about the report, the changes documented across the West Bank, and how these different mechanisms work together to affect Palestinian individuals, families, communities, and collective life.

Palestine is heading to the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games baseball tournament this September. In this episode, Nader Ihmoud shares the story of a Palestinian baseball team built across borders, from Gaza to Chicago, including the players who brought the team together, those it has lost, and its hopes for the future of Palestinian baseball.

Illegal Israeli settlers have been besieging three Palestinian homes in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, for almost a month. Loui Ridi, one of the homeowners, is a Palestinian American who came all the way from the United States to the West Bank to protect his home. Loui and three other families have been living under severe humanitarian conditions, as Israeli settlers have cut off their water and electricity and prevented them from receiving food supplies and medical assistance. In this episode of “This is Palestine", Louis explains why he knows that the moment he leaves, Israeli settlers—backed by the Israeli army and supported by the Israeli government—will be able to take control of the area surrounding the three homes, including the homes themselves. This would allow them to isolate the eastern part of Qusra from the rest of the town. This is a tactic Israeli settlers have used to forcibly displace Palestinian families. In the neighboring town of Jalud, for example, settlers were able to force another family from their home. Similar tactics have been used to depopulate and displace Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank.

For Palestinians in Gaza, the death toll tells only part of the story. Thousands more remain missing, buried beneath the rubble, among unidentified bodies, or potentially held in Israeli detention. For their families, the absence of an answer means being trapped in limbo: unable to confirm a death, unable to hold a funeral, and unable to stop searching. In this episode of This Is Palestine, journalist Mahmoud Mushtaha discusses his investigation into Gaza’s missing people and the enormous challenges of finding them. He shares stories of families still searching for their loved ones, including 15-year-old Hassan Al-Qattah, an autistic boy who disappeared while searching for food in Gaza. For these families, the search continues without answers.

Trapped in the West Bank for nearly three years, this is the story of Mariam, Um Mahmoud, a cancer patient from Gaza who was diagnosed with leukemia and came to the West Bank to continue treatment that was unavailable in Gaza. She arrived just days before the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Since then, she has been unable to return home. Amid a deepening financial crisis, severe shortages of essential medications, and a healthcare system under immense pressure, Mariam continues to navigate her cancer treatment while living with the uncertainty of not knowing when she will ever be able to return home.