With Jewish settlers dictating the political agenda in Israel and provoking Palestinians in the West Bank, violence is likely to grow in the coming months.
Israeli Jewish settlers are on a rampage in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. While settler violence is part of everyday routine in Palestine, the violence of recent weeks is directly linked to the general elections in Israel, scheduled to be held on September 17.
The previous elections, on April 9, failed to bring about political stability. Although Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu is now the longest-serving prime minister in the 71-year history of the country, he was still unable to form a government coalition.
Tarnished by a series of corruption cases involving himself, his family and aides, Netanyahu’s leadership is in an unenviable position. Police investigators are closing in on him, while opportunistic political allies, the likes of Avigdor Lieberman, are twisting his arm with the hope of exacting future political concessions.
The political crisis in Israel is not the outcome of a resurrected Labor or invigorated central parties, but the failure of the Right (including far-right and ultra-nationalist parties) to articulate a unified political agenda.
Illegal Jewish settlers understand well that the future identity of any right-wing government coalition will have lasting impact on their colonial enterprise. The settlers, however, are not exactly worried, since all major political parties, including that of the Blue and White, the centrist party of Benjamin Gantz, have made the support for Jewish colonies an important aspect in their campaigns.
The decisive vote of the Jewish settlers of the West Bank and their backers inside Israel became very clear in the last elections. Subsequently, their power forced Gantz to adopt an entirely different political stance since April.
The man who, on April 7 (two days before the last elections), criticized Netanyahu’s “irresponsible” announcement regarding his intention to annex the West Bank, is now a great supporter of the settlements. According to the Israeli news website, Arutz Sheva, Gantz vowed to continue expanding the settlements “from a strategic point of view and not as a political strategy”.
Considering the shift in Gantz’ perspective regarding the settlements, Netanyahu is left with no other option but to up the ante, as he is now pushing for complete and irreversible annexation of the West Bank.
Annexing the West Bank, from Netanyahu’s viewpoint, is a sound political strategy. The Israeli prime minister is, of course, oblivious to international law which sees Israel’s military and settler presence as illegal. But neither Netanyahu, nor any other Israeli leader, for that matter, have ever cared about international law whatsoever. All that truly counts for Israel is Washington’s support, which is often blind and unconditional.
According to the Times of Israel newspaper, Netanyahu is now officially lobbying for a public statement by US President Donald Trump to back Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.
Although the White House refused to comment on the story, and an official in Netanyahu’s office claimed that it was “incorrect”, the Israeli right is on the fast track of making that annexation possible.
Encouraged by US Ambassador David Friedman’s comment that “Israel has the right to retain some of the West Bank”, more Israeli officials are speaking boldly and openly regarding their intentions of making that annexation possible.
Netanyahu had, himself, hinted at that possibility in August during a visit to the illegal settlement of Beit El. “We come to build. Our hands will reach out and we will deepen our roots in our homeland – in all parts of it,” Netanyahu said, during a ceremony celebrating the expansion of the illegal settlements to include 650 more housing units.
Unlike Netanyahu, former Israeli justice minister and leader of the newly formed United Right, Ayelet Shaked, didn’t speak in code. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, she called for the full annexation of Area C, which constitutes nearly 60 percent of the West Bank. “We have to apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria,” she said, referring to the Palestinian land using biblical designations.
Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Information Minister Gilad Erdan, however, wants to go the extra mile. According to Arutz Sheva and The Jerusalem Post, Erdan has called for the annexation of all illegal settlements in the West Bank and the ouster of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas as well.
Now situated at the center of Israeli politics, Jewish settlers are enjoying the spectacle as they are being courted by all major political parties. Their increased violence in the West Bank is a form of political muscle-flexing, an expression of dominance and a brutish display of political priorities.
“There’s only one flag from the Jordan to the sea – the flag of Israel,” was the slogan of a rally involving over 1,200 Jewish settlers who roamed the streets of the Palestinian city of Hebron (Al-Khalil) on August 14. The settlers, together with Israeli soldiers, stormed al-Shuhada street and harassed Palestinians and international activists in the beleaguered Palestinian city.
Just a few days earlier, an estimated 1,700 Jewish settlers, backed by Israeli police, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, over 60 Palestinians were wounded when Israeli forces and settlers attacked worshippers.
The violent scene was repeated in Nablus, where armed women settlers stormed the town of al-Masoudiya and conducted “military training” under the protection of the Israeli occupation army.
The settlers’ message is clear: we now rule the roost, not only in the West Bank, but in Israeli politics as well.
All of this is happening as if it is entirely an Israeli political affair. The PA, which has now been dropped out of American political calculations altogether, is left to issue occasional, irrelevant press releases about its intention to hold Israel accountable according to international law.
But the guardians of international law are also suspiciously absent. Neither the United Nations, nor advocates of democracy and international law in the European Union, seem interested in confronting Israeli intransigence and blatant violations of human rights.
With Jewish settlers dictating the political agenda in Israel, and constantly provoking Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, violence is likely to grow exponentially in the coming months. As is often the case, this violence will be used strategically by the Israeli government, this time to set the stage for a final and complete annexation of Palestinian land, a disastrous outcome by any count.
Jews should not be considered “provocative” in exercising their internationally guaranteed right to “close settlement” (Article 6 League of Nations Mandate decision) in their national homeland, no matter which political regime is in place: British Mandate, Jordanian occupation or Israel.
Just the opposite, it is a completely uncontroversial and internationally recognized point of fact under international law that Israel’s settlements in occupied Palestinian territory is illegal.
. . .except the nation belongs to Palestinians, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Zionists wearing the mask of Jewishness have been shown to be unable to grasp the concept of civility. The League of Nations is not relevant.
What “Nation”? It’s a country. A country Arabs invaded, conquered and occupied in 638 CE, destroying the remnant prsence of Jews who resided therein despite Roman, Byzantine and Persian rule since Second Revolt failed in 135 CE. The New Testament calls in the “Land of Israel” (Matthew 2:20) and in Matthew 2:1, the area around Jerusalem is called Judea. And the Quaran (5:20) “Moses said to his people: O my people! Remember the bounty of God upon you…and gave you that which had not been given to anyone before you amongst the nations. O my people! Enter the Holy Land which God has written for you, and do not turn tail, otherwise you will be losers.” Zionists are not masked Jews, which is anti-Semitism, madam. Uncivility belongs to those since 1920 have been targeting civilians in a murderous terror campaign. The League of Nation is quite relevant for those who believe in international law.
The League of Nations neither created Israel nor conferred to the Zionists any legal authority for their unilateral declaration of statehood on May 1, 1948. The state of Israel was established in 1948 by means of war and ethnic cleansing.
I fear your understanding either of what I wrote or of the history of the Arabs’ conflict with Zionism, Jews and Israel is lacking. The League of Nations, as the supreme international law body at the time, approved the decision of the liberators of the Ottoman Empire to develop states for Arabs (Iraq, Syria & Lebanon) and Jews (Palestine) made at San Remo. That was the Mandates system. Eventually, the British added Transjordan as another Arab state, kingdom actually, on territory originally intended for the Jews (so Jews already compromised and lost territory in 1922). In essence, your remark on “creation” is correct. Israel created itself but, of course, it had full justification for doing so based on thr decisions I noted as well as the 1947 recommendation by the UN to establish a Jewish state. By the way, the date of Israel’s founding is May 14, 1948. The war, of course, was one of aggression launched by several Arabs states (the Arabs of Palestine had been fighting since November 30 although I would put that date as April 4, 1920 when they began their terror campaign against Zionism). As for ethnic cleansing, that was, of course, have up to 20,000 Jews who were forced through Arab violence during the Mandate period and the 47-48 war, to leave Judea, Samaria, Gaza and parts of Jerusalem.
Once again, your claim is false; the League of Nations neither created Israel nor conferred any legal authority to the Zionists for their unilateral declaration of statehood on May 14, 1948.
UN declared the State of Jews in 1948. Your manipulations with the facts meansjust your Jew-obsession+Jew-hatred.
The UN neither created the state of Israel nor conferred any legal authority to the Zionist leadership for their unilateral declaration of statehood of May 14, 1948, and it is not anti-Semitic to point out this fact.
Josh, correct. It simply recognized Israel as a state, based on its predecessor’s decision, that of the League of Nations 36 years earlier that “recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country” and “that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” and the following articles:
“ART. 5
The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power.
ART. 6.
The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.
ART. 7.
The Administration of Palestine shall be responsible for enacting a nationality law. There shall be included in this law provisions framed so as to facilitate the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship by Jews who take up their permanent residence in Palestine.”
Well, there you have it. As I said, the League of Nations neither created Israel — note that it spoke of the Jewish “national home” being located in Palestine, not of reconstituting Palestine into a Jewish state — nor conferred any legal authority to the Zionists for their unilateral declaration of statehood on May 14, 1948.
No, they aren’t illegal although many left-wing law professors and progressive politically-oriented experts hold that opinion. Whereas, on the one hand, the sole possible basis for holding that opinion is the phrase “transferring population” in Geneva 1949, which is nebulous, arguable and its background of the Nazi era actions irrelevant, international law awarded a clear right to Jews to exercise “close settlement” in the territory of their national homeland. Add to that non-existence of a “Palestine”, thereby unfulfillment of High Contracting party element, the 1967 war as one of defense in the face of Arab agression, the 1949-1967 period of organized Arab terror of fedayeen and PLO, and more, and you have a clear legal justification for Jews to reside in Judea and Samaria.
Yes, they are. Again, it is a completely uncontroversial point of fact under international law, as recognized by the entire international community except for Israel itself, that Israel’s settlements are illegal.