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On Saturday, I spoke with Loui Ridi, the Palestinian American, Ohio-based business owner whose family home in Qusra is currently under siege by Israeli settlers and soldiers. When I stayed in that house a month earlier, Loui watched our violent encounters unfold in real time on his security cameras from his home in Ohio. Now he’s returned to Qusra, where settlers and soldiers have effectively imprisoned him in his own home.
We talked about what’s happening at his house now, and how it’s actually anything but remarkable, reflecting the broader strategy of IDF-and government-backed settlers seizing hilltops, surrounding villages, and gradually forcing Palestinians from their land. The only thing that makes his case unusual is that his nationality has attracted international media attention. But the coverage is already fading, and he’s worried about what happens after it’s gone.
He told me about the IDF’s response—a response, primarily, to the PR crisis—which has effectively imprisoned him and his neighbors inside his home rather than confronting the settlers at the source, something the Israeli security apparatus certainly has the intelligence to do. Finally, we discussed Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s tough talk about settler terrorists and whether it’s been backed up with action.
As always, my goal is to go beyond what you may have already heard in the mainstream media or on social media, surface unexpected but illuminating details, and place this story in the context of Israel’s methodical, US-backed plan to ethnically cleanse the West Bank.
