New Delhi, August 19: Palestinian Ambassador to India Abdullah Abu Shawesh on Wednesday warned that Palestinians must not be made to “pay the price” for Israeli domestic politics, as Israel heads towards parliamentary elections amid growing influence of far-right political forces.
Addressing a press conference at the Embassy of the State of Palestine in New Delhi, Abu Shawesh and other Palestinian representatives said Israeli political parties were increasingly using policies towards Palestinians—including settlement expansion, annexationist measures and military control over occupied Palestinian territory—to consolidate domestic political support.
The Palestinian side said the approaching election had created a dangerous political environment in which Palestinian lives and land were being used as instruments of Israeli electoral calculations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing three criminal trials, is fighting for both his political and legal future. According to the Palestinian assessment, his political survival depends substantially on maintaining the support of Israel’s far-right constituency.
“In Israel, an old political truth remains: the easiest way to secure those votes is on the back of the Palestinian people,” the Palestinian side said.
The representatives expressed concern over calls by far-right Israeli political forces for the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, expansion of settlements and increased state funding for settlements and extremist settlers. They argued that such policies were aimed at intimidating, dispossessing and ultimately displacing Palestinians from their homeland.
They stressed that these developments should not be dismissed as mere election rhetoric, saying many of the policies were already being implemented on the ground.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister has publicly spoken of the objective of “burying the idea of a Palestinian state” and pursuing a policy of “maximum territory and minimum Palestinian population”. Another Israeli minister has described government measures in the West Bank as amounting to “de facto sovereignty”.
According to the Palestinian representatives, such statements reflected the growing influence of political forces seeking permanent Israeli control over occupied Palestinian territory.
They also criticised Israel’s political opposition, arguing that it offered little meaningful alternative to the policies of the governing right. Several opposition parties, they said, were competing to adopt tougher positions towards Palestinians, including support for settlement expansion and continued military control over the occupied territories.
Even among smaller Israeli political forces that continue to speak about peace, the Palestinian side pointed to what it described as a contradiction between calls for peace and a lack of support for a genuine two-state solution.
“The hard-right, fanatical and messianic voters hold the balance of power, and all sides are competing for their votes,” the representatives said.
The Palestinian side also drew particular attention to remarks made by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on August 16.
According to the representatives, Ben-Gvir called for “30 to 40 targeted assassinations” in Gaza every night and went beyond calls for attacks against individuals posing an immediate threat. They said he had also advocated Palestinian emigration from Gaza, the re-establishment of Jewish settlements throughout the territory and Israeli control over the entire Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian side described the remarks as evidence of an increasingly radical political discourse in Israel and warned that its consequences were being borne directly by Palestinian civilians.
The Palestinian representatives also highlighted financial allocations by the Israeli government for settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
According to figures cited during the press conference, the Israeli government allocated approximately $431 million in July 2026 to support the establishment of 34 settlements in the occupied West Bank, in addition to approximately $356 million for infrastructure, particularly roads supporting settlement expansion.
They said the figures demonstrated that settlement activity was not merely the work of individual settlers but was increasingly supported through state policy and public resources.
The Palestinian representatives further cited United Nations figures stating that since January 2023, 127 Palestinian communities have experienced complete or partial displacement, including 47 communities that were entirely displaced and affecting more than 6,390 Palestinians.
They also referred to Israeli security data showing a 27 per cent increase in settler incidents during 2025, while serious attacks, including shootings and arson, reportedly increased by more than 50 per cent during the same period.
During the first half of 2026, settler attacks reportedly increased by a further 63 per cent compared with the second half of 2025, according to figures cited at the press conference.
The Palestinian representatives strongly criticised what they described as attempts to soften the language used to describe extremist settler violence.
They noted that some Israeli security officials had themselves referred to extremist settler attacks as “terrorism” or “Jewish terror”. However, they said Israel’s Defence Minister had characterised such acts as a “disturbance of public order” and proposed educational, social and therapeutic programmes for extremist perpetrators.
The Palestinian side rejected such terminology, arguing that attacks involving violence, intimidation, arson and forced displacement should be recognised as acts of terror.
Former Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, along with former Israeli political, military and security officials, have also used the term “Jewish terrorism” when describing extremist settler violence.
The Palestinian representatives further referred to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who, despite his controversial positions on Palestinian identity and statehood, has described attacks by extremist Israeli settlers as acts of terror.
“This is not ‘friction’. It is not ‘tension’. It is not a ‘disturbance of public order’. It is terror,” the Palestinian side asserted.
The Palestinian Embassy called on the international community to act before the Israeli election rather than waiting until the political process was completed.
It urged governments and international institutions to halt settlement expansion, forced displacement and what it described as the de facto annexation of occupied Palestinian territory. It also called for accountability for extremist settler violence and stronger measures to protect Palestinian civilians.
The Palestinian side warned that the consequences of Israel’s political competition were being experienced by people who have no vote in the Israeli election.
“The international community must not wait until the election is over to ask what happened to Palestinian communities in the meantime,” the representatives said.
The central message from the New Delhi press conference was that Palestinian territory and Palestinian lives must not become instruments of Israeli electoral politics.
“Palestinian land is not an electoral prize. Palestinian lives are not campaign currency. Palestinian rights are not ballots to be counted in an Israeli election,” the Palestinian side said.
The press conference came amid continuing concerns over the direction of Israeli policy in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian officials warned that the combination of far-right political influence, settlement expansion and escalating settler violence could further undermine prospects for a negotiated political settlement and deepen the humanitarian and political crisis facing Palestinians.
