Israel’s war in the West Bank must be stopped

Promises of “absolute victory” in Gaza are nothing but “gibberish,” according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant’s comments were not meant to be made public, but somehow they were leaked and published by Israeli media last week.

The explanations of why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pursuing a losing war in Gaza have been largely confined to his personal interests: avoiding the outcome of his corruption trials, preserving his extremist government coalition and avoiding early elections. Still, none of these rationales explain the absurdity of continuing with the war.

What else could explain Netanyahu’s motives? And why are his most crucial government allies, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, determined to prolong it? The answer may not lie in Gaza, but in the West Bank.

While Israel is extending its failed military campaign in the Strip with no clear strategic objectives, its war on the West Bank is driven by clear strategic motives: the annexation of territory and the ethnic cleansing of large sectors of the Palestinian population.

This is not only obvious through Israel’s daily actions in the West Bank, but also because of the statements made by extremist government officials. These include a commitment by Netanyahu’s own Likud party to “advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel — in the Galilee, Negev, Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria (referring to the West Bank).”

An audio recording obtained by the Israeli group Peace Now conveyed the following remarks by Smotrich at a June 9 conference: “My goal is to settle the land, to build it, and to prevent, for God’s sake, its division … and the establishment of a Palestinian state.” To do so, the far-right politician has assigned himself the job of changing “the system’s DNA.” This “system” was put in place decades ago.

Following its military occupation of the West Bank, Israel began the slow but determined process of illegally annexing Palestinian territories. This included the establishment, in 1981, of the so-called Civil Administration. This is essentially a branch of the Israeli military, but it was designated as “civil” as part of a greater government effort to convert a temporary military occupation into the permanent colonization of Palestine. This entailed the practical annexation and continued expansion of the illegal Israeli Jewish-only settlements built on Palestinian land after the war.

The Oslo Accords of the early 1990s gave Palestinians nominal administrative control over small areas of the West Bank, designated as Area A and Area B. This necessitated the transfer of some of the Civil Administration’s responsibility to the newly formed Palestinian Authority, based on the understanding that the latter would essentially continue to prioritize Israel’s security.

This new arrangement allowed Israel to expand, unhindered, its illegal settlements in most of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It tripled both the size and population of the settlements between 1993 and 2023.

As Israel’s colonial plan in the West Bank reached its zenith, Netanyahu sought, in 2020, to reinforce Israeli gains with the annexation of more than 30 percent of the West Bank. Due to international pressure and growing Palestinian resistance, Netanyahu postponed his plan, though with the understanding that “annexation remains on the table.”

Without much fanfare, however, Israel swapped its hope of a sweeping de jure annexation of the West Bank for de facto control, through the rapid seizure of Palestinian land and the expansion of settlements.

Though the Israeli military is faltering in Gaza, this war is being used as the perfect smokescreen to finalize old colonial plans in the West Bank.

In 2017, this scheme was dubbed by Smotrich as “victory through settlement.” Now in a position of power and with access to a massive budget, he is making his life’s goal a reality.

For Smotrich’s dream to be realized, he needed to revitalize the once-central role of the Civil Administration. In May, he invented a new position of deputy head of the administration and granted it to his close associate, Hillel Roth. Now, both have unparalleled sweeping rights to expand the settlements. Netanyahu’s government has already approved 12,000 new housing units for illegal settlements, while ordering the demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes and other civilian infrastructure.

In the first three months of 2024, Israel declared nearly 6,000 acres of West Bank territory as “state-owned land” and therefore eligible for settlement construction. The decision was described by Peace Now as the “largest West Bank land grab in 30 years.”

The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is already underway. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, in the first half of 2024 alone, at least 1,000 Palestinians were forcefully displaced, while nearly 160,000 were affected by home demolitions.

When the war on Gaza is over, the war on the West Bank will grow more intense and bloodier.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

The Israeli war on the West Bank has also come at a high price of blood. As of Sunday, at least 633 Palestinians had been killed and 5,400 wounded in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Ministry of Health.

When the war on Gaza is over, the war on the West Bank will grow more intense and bloodier, but with the clear strategic goal of annexing the whole of the area.

The International Court of Justice last month resolved that Israel’s “annexation and assertion of permanent control” in the West Bank was “unlawful.”

To avoid a greater war and genocide, the international community must use all available means to enforce international law and end the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

• Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and author. He is editor of The Palestine Chronicle and nonresident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappe, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out.” X: @RamzyBaroud