With genocide committed in Gaza, annexations and home demolitions in the West Bank increasing, and the return of a Trump presidency in the West: will Palestine and its people continue to be sidelined?
For over a hundred years, the Zionist movement and its primarily Western supporters have attempted to erase the idea of Palestine. They employed various methods to claim Palestinian land–from trying to purchase it from its indigenous inhabitants, to forcibly removing and executing those who resisted–all in an effort to erase the idea of Palestine. When Palestine and its people refused to go quietly into history, they used revisionist history to argue that there never was a Palestine or a Palestinian people. Despite Palestine’s 4,000-year history, detailed accounts from historians like Herodotus, and overwhelming written and archaeological evidence, Zionists continue to erase Palestine and its people, pushing to conquer the land and displace its indigenous inhabitants.
Now, in 2025, as the genocidal assault on Gaza has exposed Zionism to the world like never before, leaving both Israel and its backer, the United States, increasingly siloed on the world stage. Contrary to what some may believe, this will not make them more likely to acquiesce. Rather they are more likely to do away with any facade of civility and could become more dangerous than ever.
What will Palestine look like in 2025 after decades of ongoing erasure? Will Israel fully annex the West Bank? Will Palestine be completely erased?
There are a few factors that should be considered while weighing out the different variables affecting Palestine and its people:
- Israel will not allow a Palestinian state to emerge.
- The Palestinian Authority has gone out of its way to be an extension of the Israeli occupation and is no ally to the working class Palestinian people.
- Donald Trump fully intends to expand the Abraham Accords and is flirting with annexation.
- There is a lack of unity between resistance and anti-resistance Palestinian factions, which keeps them from forming a united front.
- The Palestinian people face coordination and logistical issues.
Israel will not allow a Palestinian state to emerge.
Israel has stated time and time again that it will do whatever it can to ensure the state of Palestine does not materialize.
According to Ynet News, In March 2015, Netanyahu declared that a Palestinian state would not be established during his administration. Decades of Jewish-only colony construction in the West Bank have ensured no contiguous Palestinian state could emerge. Their strategy was to establish facts on the ground. Jewish settlers went from 0 in 1976 to nearly 750,000 in 2024, with over 250 recognized and unrecognized Jewish-only colonies, according to Al-Jazeera. A truly sovereign state of Palestine would require demolishing these settlements, yet this is virtually unfeasible. The vast majority of those settlers are heavily armed, supported by private security forces, and protected by the Israeli military. These settlers have proven to be among the most violent elements of Zionist society, frequently conducting raids into Palestinian villages and towns, where they indiscriminately attack and kill Palestinians. These settlements are widely recognized as one of the most significant barriers to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Despite this, the Israeli government has not only maintained its support for these settlements but has actively pursued policies to expand them, further entrenching the occupation and undermining any prospect of a viable Palestinian state.
In July 2024, the Israeli Knesset went as far as to pass a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state. While Western media continues to lay blame on Palestinians for refusing to negotiate away their land, in reality, it is Israel and its society that has never been willing to accept anything other than the complete erasure of Palestine.
Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has held his position on and off for 17 years, is deeply unpopular and facing trial for corruption. This makes him especially dangerous since he doesn’t have much to lose. His cabinet and base of support are filled with the most violent and dangerous representatives Zionism has to offer, and they are the ones he is keen to entertain.
Middle East Eye reported, “Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has told his department to prepare for the annexation of the occupied West Bank in the wake of Donald Trump's victory in the US elections.” However, it’s important to note that Israel has always tried to erase Palestine, this goes further back than Netanyahu or Smotrich.
Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was famous for saying, “Jordan is Palestine,” implying the Palestinians belong anywhere but historic Palestine. Former Prime Minister Golda Meir repeatedly said, “There was no such thing as Palestinians.” Most Israeli prime ministers and government officials have, at one point or another, tried to erase any sense of Palestinian national consciousness. Palestine cannot exist alongside Israel because Israel’s existence is predicated on Palestine’s erasure.
Israel has taught the world that it has always been a colonizing entity. They must be treated as the pariah state they have shown themselves to be.
The Palestinian Authority has gone out of its way to be an extension of the Israeli occupation and is no ally to the working class Palestinian people.
If the Trump administration were to recognize already established Israeli power over the whole of the West Bank, would the Palestinian Authority cease to exist? No, a puppet government would still be necessary to give a semblance of Palestinian autonomy since Israel wouldn’t dare give citizenship to the 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. That would constitute an existential threat to the colonial state– giving West Bank Palestinians political agency would tip the scale in favor of Palestinians.
The PA was briefly regarded as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people both inside Palestine and in the diaspora. Today that is a far cry from the truth. While the PA was never intended to rule permanently and was meant as an interim government, the reality only shows 30 years of entrenchment. Its security force, one of the largest in the world, recruits from the poorest members of Palestine’s working class, yet the force is not designed to protect Palestinians. On the contrary, it is designed to protect Israel from Palestinians and, as such, regularly coordinates operations alongside Israeli occupation soldiers; in May 2014, Mahmoud Abbas even went as far as calling this coordination with the Israeli state “sacred.”
The PA’s leadership is made up of some of the most influential members of the Palestinian ruling class, and even in a country under brutal military occupation, a small number of Palestinians have grown powerful and wealthy while doing business with the Israeli colonial state. The PA hasn’t had a democratic election in over 15 years and has gone as far as assassinating and imprisoning political opponents.
For Palestine to rise, the PA must dissolve and or break off all coordination with Israel and join the Palestinian people in their popular resistance movement to regain any sense of legitimacy from the working class people.
Donald Trump fully intends to expand the Abraham Accords and is flirting with annexation.
Donald Trump is regularly touted as one of Israel’s greatest friends. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, personally owns stakes in construction companies building Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Trump himself had an Israeli settlement named after him for his administration’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in Syria. Donald Trump, like every US president before him, has never been an ally to the Palestinian people. He ran on a deeply pro-Israel campaign advocating for Israel to “Finish the job” when it came to Gaza.
His campaign financiers have also ensured a pro-Israel policy continues. Miriam Adelson, wife of deceased Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, donated $106 million to the Trump campaign, according to Open Secrets, a campaign finance tracking organization. Citing an article from Haaretz, Palestine Chronicle stated that she donated the money to the Trump campaign under the condition that Trump recognize Israel’s complete annexation of the West Bank. If this is true, decades of US foreign policy, as well as support for the “two-state solution” talking points, would finally be shed off, and the truth that Palestinians have known all along would reach the limelight: the US has never supported a Palestinian state and actively tried to keep it from happening.
The US ensured Israel had access to as much military and foreign aid as possible, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, Israel is the top cumulative recipient of foreign aid in US history, topping $300B in 76 years. From Lyndon B Johnson ensuring Israel maintained a strategic edge over its enemies by allowing it to forgo signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty to Obama publishing an article advocating for “Israel’s right to self-defense” as it committed its genocide in Gaza–The United States has gone out of its way to act as a blank check and shield for Israel.
On Jan 26th, 2025, in a USA Today article, when talking about the Palestinians of Gaza, Trump was cited as saying, “Just clean them out…It could be temporary, it could be long-term.” He went on to say that they needed to go to Jordan and Egypt. On February 4, at a press conference alongside Netanyahu, Trump stated that “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” going on to say he will turn it into a “Riviera.” This mask-off moment serves to teach people of the world that both the US and its proxy, Israel, have every intention of continuing their ethnic cleansing campaign.
This would hinder Trump’s expansion of the Abraham Accords as Saudi Arabia would find itself without any positive thing to point to regarding the Palestinians. Some type of concession would have to be given, whether real or fake, that the Saudi monarchy could say they secured for the Palestinian people. According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia has insisted that they won’t normalize relations with Israel until a Palestinian state is established.
The Abraham Accords have yielded zero positive, tangible results for the people of Palestine like Trump originally purported would happen. So that means the Accords would have to either shed off the facade that they will have a positive impact on the Palestinians or would need to be remarketed as only being a good thing for Israel, defense contractors, and trade relations.
Other Arab nations like Syria, Oman, Algeria, and Kuwait could not be expected to normalize unless notable measures amounting to Palestinian statehood were shown. All of them have governments that are deeply against Israel, not to mention a majority of the population who are very aligned with the popular cause of Palestine.
Trump’s strategy is chaos and sensationalism, which he will use to sow fear among his enemies. Governments will be so focused on defending against warrantless claims and out-of-pocket policies that they will be too thinly stretched to mount any notable resistance. This sets the scene for a variety of strategies Trump can use against the Palestinians. He must be treated like the pariah he is.
Palestinian factions are divided between those who are pro-resistance and those who are anti-resistance.
The main political dispute between the Palestinian factions, notably Hamas and Fatah, is whether resistance—particularly armed resistance—is the way forward.
In July 2024, both movements met and signed a statement intending to "end division and strengthen unity.” However, no concrete step has been taken to chart a way forward, and according to Middle East Eye, the PA has “told the US it is ready to ‘clash’ with Hamas if that is the price needed to take power in the Gaza Strip.” The question remains: Should Hamas continue its strategy of armed resistance or pursue alternative means to unite Palestinians globally and end Israel’s occupation?
While Israel’s genocidal strategy in Gaza has materially weakened Hamas, it is still regarded as the front line of resistance. Unsurprisingly, there are indications that the Qassam brigades were able to keep recruiting fighters throughout the war. Fatah, on the other hand, is part of the ruling Palestinian Authority and is facing historically low approval levels–with many viewing it as complicit in Israel’s occupation and lacking democratic legitimacy.
Hamas should leverage its position to absorb the Palestinian Authority's infrastructure in the West Bank through outright resistance alongside other smaller resistance groups in the occupied territories or finally compel the PA to dissolve and open up the opportunity to create a new government. That could look like a virtual election that circumvents Israeli barriers to in-person voting– allowing the working-class people of Palestine, whether in the camps, the West Bank, in Gaza, and the diaspora, to decide the path forward.
While the Palestinian factions grapple with these decisions, the US and Israel will not sit idly by. Both of their governments have a vested interest in preventing any type of Palestinian unity and will undermine any efforts to coordinate effective resistance.
What is coming from the US and Israel is indeed an existential threat and it demands a unified and strategic response.
The Palestinian people face coordination and logistical issues.
Many factors are working against the Palestinian people, and one notable variable is a collective organizing problem; in a society under occupation, there are multiple outcomes, and some are better than others, but that depends on the choices that everyday Palestinian citizens make. For example, individuals must weigh the risks of participating in resistance activities against the need to protect their families, livelihood, and safety. These everyday decisions are further complicated by the oppressive structures of the occupation, such as hundreds of permanent and rolling checkpoints designed to keep Palestinians fragmented and isolated from one another. Communication is also heavily policed by both the PA and occupation authorities, making it extremely difficult to organize a united front against the existential threat that Israel presents. Palestinians, no matter their citizenship status, have regularly been arrested for publicly stating any descent.
Then there are the nearly 2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel who face loss of citizenship and arbitrary arrest if they branch out and work alongside their Palestinian siblings in the West Bank. In addition, the Palestinians of Gaza have been through hell on Earth and are actively being targeted for complete ethnic cleansing. Outside Palestine, millions are dispersed in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan with millions more spread around the world. While physical divisions make coordination and logistics difficult, it is not impossible, and the Internet can play a vital role in bridging gaps. So how do the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, 2 million in Gaza, and 2 million with Israeli citizenship coordinate?
Palestinians in the West Bank have to deal with daily checkpoint crossings, constant colonial raids, and settler violence. They want an end to the checkpoints, consistent work, and freedom of travel within and outside Palestine. Palestinians in Gaza demand an end to the genocide, the lifting of the siege, and the return of their homes all over occupied Palestine. Palestinian citizens of Israel are arguably the most privileged of the group but still at the bottom of the Israeli hierarchy; while they are afforded relative freedom of movement, they face arbitrary arrest and home demolitions. All of these different groups, no matter their location in Palestine, have different priorities and must create a type of citizens' council or working-class party government to align their needs and create a unified call for liberation.
The Struggle Continues
While Israel and the US continue to tighten their grip, the Palestinian people’s resilience and determination to resist remain. The challenges are immense: from the existential threat that is Israel to the complicity of the Palestinian Authority to the lack of unity among Palestinian factions and the logistical barriers imposed by the occupation. Yet, the Palestinian struggle for freedom continues, and its mere existence constitutes an existential threat to Israel. What is clear, however, is the fact that as long as Western powers continue to ignore the Palestinian people’s demand for freedom, the US and its proxy Israel will continue to face a never-ending popular resistance movement that will ultimately be the undoing of their governments.
The path forward demands unity amongst the people of Palestine and a radical reimagining of strategies that center on grassroots organizing of everyday working-class people, international solidarity, and steadfast commitment to liberation. The future of Palestine depends on the ability of its people to transcend boundaries and confront Zionism with a unified vision of justice and accountability.
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