Palestinian experts paint bleak picture as ultra-right takes power in Israel

RAMALLAH: Palestinian political and security officials and experts are deeply concerned, fearing an escalation of violence and economic restrictions on the Palestinian Authority and the people, as a right-wing Israeli government takes shape under Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
Some PA officials expressed fear that if Itamar Ben-Gvir becomes a minister, or head of one of the critical Knesset committees, he will target East Jerusalem, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, as well as the Palestinians residing in the east of the city through racist policies.
Israeli lawmaker Ben-Gvir calls his Arab colleagues “terrorists” and advocates deporting political opponents.
In his youth, his views were so extreme that the army banned him from compulsory military service.
Palestinian experts said the right-wing coalition will likely support Jewish settlers in the West Bank, which will embolden them to target Palestinian citizens, their land and property with more violence.
All of this, they said, will inevitably lead to violence between the Palestinians on one hand, and Israeli security services and settlers on the other.
The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and the PA had terrible experiences with Netanyahu’s previous government, during which he launched wars that led to destruction in the Gaza Strip and caused a high number of casualties in the years he served as premier.
Targeting Al-Aqsa would enrage Hamas, which will target Israel either with rockets or resistance from the West Bank against Israeli targets, experts said.
Meanwhile, a high-ranking Palestinian security officer told Arab News that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank would become more violent in the coming days. The right-wing government would grant the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet agency absolute freedom to act against the Palestinians, he added.
He said while outgoing caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s government sought to distinguish between Palestinian armed groups and individuals that launch attacks against Israel and the citizens and the PA, a right-wing government will say the PA encourages terrorism and will therefore target it and hold it responsible for every individual attack carried out by any Palestinian against Israel, whether from the West Bank or East Jerusalem, where the PA does not control security.
“This government will punish the Palestinian people and the PA at the same level as it punished the Palestinian armed groups, and it will not differentiate between them,” the senior officer, who preferred anonymity, told Arab News.
He said that while Lapid’s government did not consider the PA an enemy and was interested to some extent in helping it economically, the next right-wing government will adopt a policy of economic restrictions against the PA, and control and perhaps reduce the transfer of tax funds by as much as half.
He said that Israeli Arabs will also suffer significantly due to the Israeli government’s extremist policies, as the health, education and welfare budgets will be transferred to Jewish religious schools. The new government will cancel the budgets approved by the previous government for infrastructure projects and development projects in Arab cities and towns in Israel, he added.
Netanyahu will be a “prisoner” of the extremist Israeli religious parties that supported him during his time in the opposition, so he will show flexibility toward them in terms of encouraging settlement in the West Bank and will succeed in justifying their presence in his government to the US and Europe, the officer said.
Palestinian political analyst Ghassan Al-Khatib told Arab News that the new Israeli government will increase restrictions against the Palestinians and encourage settlement in the West Bank. The US and the EU may be embarrassed to deal with a government that includes racists like Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, which could open a diplomatic window for Palestinian leaders, he said.
Smotrich is a radical right-wing politician who heads the Religious Zionist Party and previously served as a Knesset member for Yamina.
Ibrahim Melhem, the spokesman for the Palestinian government, told Arab News that the policies and ideas of extremists Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, if implemented, would lead to violent Palestinian reactions.
“We have no choice but to stand firm on our land and remain in it, and to challenge and confront Israeli racism and extremism, as we do not have a Ukrainian model that was able to obtain international support to resist the occupation,” he said.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed his “grave concern about the growing tension” in the West Bank in a telephone conversation with Lapid on Thursday night.