Two very different images of the current plight of the Palestinian people were presented at the end of 2025 – one based on statistics and the other on hypocritical hyperbole. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) noted that from 7 October 2023 to the end of 2025, there has been evidence of “a profound structural breakdown across Palestinian society, with long term implications for population stability, development and human rights.” In a speech commemorating Fatah, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, on the other hand, said that “Palestinians will not submit to the goals of this war, will not leave their homeland, and will confront plans of annexation and displacement through steadfastness and rootedness in their land.”

Palestinians will not willingly succumb to colonialism – that much has been proved for decades. However, idealist rhetoric from an illegitimate leadership that sold........

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