ONE week after the death of Ali Dawabsha as a result of the burning of his family house by settlers in the village of Douma near Nablus, his father also died due to burns. His mother is still in a critical condition, as is his four-year-old brother.

Israeli official policy in the last two decades has supported the most extreme settlers and encouraged them in their aggression.

Given the recent Israeli parliamentary election results, it can be seen that public opinion is moving increasingly to the right. The new Israeli government formed by Benjamin Netanyahu includes names such as Minister of Justice Ayelet Shacked, who considers all Palestinians to be “the enemy.” The new deputy defence minister has called Palestinians “animals.” It could be argued that it a fascist government par excellence.

Attacking and killing Palestinians is the main characteristic of the Israeli government’s behaviour. During the second intifada in 2000, Israel wrought devastation upon the West Bank and attacked and besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and eventually killed him. In the years 2008-14, Israel launched three wars against Gaza with thousands of Palestinians being killed as a result.

Ali Dawabsha is not the first Palestinian child to be burnt to death. Mohammed Abu Khdeir was tortured and burnt alive by a group of Jewish extremists in July 2014. In 2014, Israel, the occupying power, killed more than 2,280 Palestinians, including 573 children, 267 women and 104 elderly people. The majority of those killed in the past year have been due to Israeli aggression in Gaza, although there were also deaths in the West Bank.

About 12,300 citizens were wounded by the Israeli attacks, including 3,500 children, 2,100 women and 430 elderly people. A massive 81 per cent of the victims of aggression were civilians. Of the 10,870 citizens injured during the aggression, including 3,303 children, a third of them will suffer permanent disabilities.

The occupying power ratified the building of 16,704 new housing units in 33 settlement schemes, and issued 18 military orders including the confiscation of thousands of acres of Palestinian land. The settlers uprooted and burned about 7,000 trees, mostly olive trees, grapes and almonds.

Overall, 2014 saw a remarkable increase in the number of settlers’ violations. Attacks against Palestinians and their property totalled 764, mostly in the city of Jerusalem (290), followed by Hebron (132), then Nablus (115) and Bethlehem (107).

Israel made about 6,059 arrests over the past year. The Israeli escalation of arrests includes the targeting of children. Arrests have averaged 505 cases per month or approximately 17 cases per day.

Israeli “justice” however is taking no action against settlers. On the contrary, the official policy and the behaviour of the occupying forces, by opening fire and killing Palestinians, gives cover to the settlers encouraging them to act as they are acting.

The failure of the so-called political process after 20 years of negotiations, with the ongoing support of the US and the West for Israel, makes Israel almost the only state in the world above international law. Without Israel having to answer for its crimes, settler aggression and terror against Palestinians will most likely escalate in the future.

While there are divisions within the Palestinian Authority, primarily between the Islamist Hamas and the Fatah movement, these are not the primary cause of the problems of the Palestinian people. The PA represents a broad spectrum of political opinion within the independence movement and therefore inevitably embraces a range of political factions.

PA’s response to the overwhelming force which the Israeli military represents must balance the enormous military imbalance between the sides with the political dynamic being played out in the international arena, with all its faults. 

In this respect, attacks on the PA at this time weaken the international unity necessary to reach a point where the fate of the Palestinian people is in their own hands, rather than in the hands of an occupying force. As a representative of various tendencies and political factions, like any political front, the PA represents an agreed position based on the realities on the ground and not a perfect solution. 

This is the reality of life in Palestine and its politics. This has been the reality for liberation movements in many parts of the world. Taking into account the situation in the surrounding Arab countries and their huge internal problems, the internal Palestinian division and the failure of the international community — including the UN — to force Israel to end the occupation, it is likely that more violence and instability in the Middle East in general, and Palestine in particular, will continue.

The PA must re-examine its relations with Israel and reset the framework of the negotiations to end the US’s exclusive control of the process. Ending the division means creating a new strategy. This will involve demanding an active role for the UN through an international conference, to implement the UN resolutions and not to renegotiate them. 

The combination of popular resistance and international solidarity with the just cause of Palestine can force Israel to end its occupation. Demands must include an independent Palestinian state, within the borders of June 4 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital. The solution to the problem of the refugees on the basis of UN resolution 194 is the only way to end the violence and to open the way for a better future for the peoples of the region.

• Dr Akel Taqz is head of the international relations department of the Palestinian People’s Party.