Is the West Bank the next target?
https://arab.news/vjdx9
Inevitably, much international attention regarding the multifront war that Israel is currently embroiled in has been directed toward the Gaza Strip and, increasingly, to the country’s intensifying war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Much less attention has been paid to the West Bank, despite only a year ago there being fears that it would become the major theater of conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, rather than Gaza.
These fears were a crucial component in Israel’s disastrous decision to divert substantial military resources from the border with Gaza to the West Bank, only to be completely caught by surprise on Oct. 7. However, it is still the case that the danger of a full-scale intifada in the West Bank is real and quickly escalating.
Over the last two decades, despite some common characteristics, fundamental differences have emerged in the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza and the West Bank, which in both cases have led to bloodshed.
Gaza was left, after Israel’s unilateral disengagement of 2005, with no Jewish settlers and hence no friction between Arab and Jewish civilians. However, it was under an intense and almost complete blockade that greatly limited the movement of goods and people, including for the most basic human needs, and left its people poor and despairing.
It is still the case that the danger of a full-scale intifada in the West Bank is real and quickly escalating
Yossi Mekelberg
In the West Bank, neither the economic situation nor restrictions on movement have been as dire as in Gaza, but still Palestinian people live there under a harsh, oppressive Israeli occupation. And, unlike Gaza, they are also experiencing the constant expansion of settlements, increasing confiscation of their land and the growing phenomenon of settler terrorism, perpetrated with impunity and, on more than one occasion, with the Israeli army’s active or tacit support.
Despair among the population is widespread due to the lack of any political horizon for peace, the absence of security and growing economic hardship. To this can be added the dysfunctionality of the Palestinian Authority, which at this point is perceived to be serving Israel’s security interests and as an instrument of prolonging the occupation, rather than being capable of facilitating the welfare of its own people or realizing Palestinians’ aspirations to self-determination. That is in addition to the dwindling legitimacy of its executive and legislature, which last faced the public at the ballot box in 2006.
Consequently, conflict and friction between Israelis and Palestinians have recently been fast brewing in the West Bank, mainly manifesting in the emergence of new militant groups that Israel’s security forces are attempting to eliminate, while making the life of the population much harder. Civilians are being caught in the crossfire, both literally and figuratively.
According to figures released last week by the PA’s Ministry of Health, since Oct. 7, at least 716 Palestinians, including 160 children, have been killed by the Israeli army or attacks by settlers, with 5,750 wounded. Equally staggering is the arrest and detention of nearly 10,000 Palestinians, with or without subsequent trials. In many cases, defendants are not presented with the allegations against them or allowed access to legal aid. Instead, they are detained using what Israel terms “administrative arrest,” which meets no international legal standards.
Despair and frustration in the West Bank has been brewing mainly in the north of the territory. Over the last couple of years, this has led to the formation of militant groups with no clear affiliation to the more traditional factions of Fatah and Hamas and who mainly consist of young people. They have been described as “small, disjointed and scattered, (and) they lack a clear political agenda,” which from an Israeli perspective makes them more dangerous, as they are more unpredictable.
These groups have killed scores of Israelis and provoked a very strong military reaction, as was the case in a recent Israeli army operation in places such as Tulkarm and Jenin. No one questions the duty of Israel’s security forces to protect its citizens; nevertheless, the excessive force that is being used, which leads to many civilian deaths and destroys infrastructure, cannot and should not be excused. As the occupying force, it has equal responsibility to guard the lives of the occupied.
The current Israeli government’s use of force is increasingly being carried out with the political aim of eventually annexing the West Bank through entrenching the occupation militarily and expanding the settlement project, in the hope of breaking the spirit of the Palestinian people and their resistance to the occupation. There is also a general perception that, the longer the war in Gaza continues, the more the loss of discipline among soldiers will become apparent, as brutality toward Palestinians becomes legitimized.
It is extremely worrying to see Israel’s military losing not only its discipline, but also its humanity
Yossi Mekelberg
Last week, horrific footage emerged that showed Israeli soldiers throwing the bodies of three Palestinians from a rooftop during a raid in the northern town of Qabatiya, near Jenin. The video then appeared to show a military bulldozer picking up and removing the bodies. The Israeli army condemned its soldiers’ actions and announced an investigation, but it is extremely worrying to see Israel’s military losing not only its discipline, but also its humanity and empathy for its fellow human beings.
A further development that should deeply concern the international community is that Israeli security forces are ignoring the Oslo Accords by operating freely in Area A, which was assigned to the complete control of the PA. This is happening despite Israel’s international obligations and the fact that the Palestinian security forces are cooperating in averting militancy against Israelis, in spite of huge pressure from their own people to end such cooperation.
Belligerent statements by Israeli officials are also making things worse. In an outrageous and reckless comment during last month’s operations in Jenin and Tulkarm, Foreign Minister Israel Katz tweeted that this was a “war in every sense,” to be handled “exactly as we deal with the terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians.”
Katz reacted angrily when the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused him of seeking to “displace people from the West Bank.” Moreover, if Katz’s model is Gaza, where people have already been displaced several times over the last year, the fear of a similar fate should terrify the Palestinians of the West Bank. In their case, they may even find settlers trying to steal their land and property while they are temporarily displaced.
Considering that there are elements in Israel’s ruling coalition who hold sway over the prime minister and that this is precisely their intention, no one should take lightly a comment such as that of Katz, which only inflames an already explosive situation and makes one wonder whether this is exactly what Benjamin Netanyahu’s government intends to do.
- Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg
