As the Israeli electorate goes to the polls on Tuesday, Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank will be under lock and key. In Gaza, this is a permanent state of affairs during the genocide, while in the West Bank such restrictions ebb and flow, more often than not because of Israeli political machinations.
The media covered the closure of the West Bank after last week’s shootout in Hebron that left two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinians dead. What was not covered was that this only applies to Palestinians, not Israelis or Israeli settlers. The latter continue their lives as normal and barely ever suffer any consequences when Palestinians are killed.
The settlers are the colonial kings of the West Bank. More than ever, they control the Israeli army’s operations, with Bezalel Smotrich serving as imperial viceroy. A few years ago, settler attacks were primarily restricted to Area C, the 60 percent of the West Bank Israel directly controls. Settler attacks in Area A and Area B, which are under the remit of the Palestinian Authority, are now commonplace. According to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, about two-thirds of the violent settler attacks against Palestinians this year have taken place in Area A or Area B.
Settler freedom of maneuver is near-total, as evidenced by recent attacks that even a few years ago would have been unthinkable. Attacks on Palestinians are a daily occurrence but the presumption used to be that foreigners were largely off limits, as targeting them risked damaging Israel’s reputation.
The settlers are the colonial kings of the West Bank. More than ever, they control the Israeli army’s operations
Chris Doyle
First, there was the settler attack on Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine as she was filming the olive harvest. The settlers knocked her to the ground and kicked her, putting her in hospital. They were not cowed by the fact the attack was recorded. For sure, compared with the beatings Palestinians receive, this was not unusual at all, except how it showed the settlers’ supreme confidence in their impunity.
Second, on the day after the Levine attack, settlers attacked European diplomats from Belgium, France and Poland. The settlers knocked a French mayor to the ground.
The other aspect of this was the reaction of the Israeli prime minister. Aside from boilerplate statements that those responsible would be held to account, something that rarely happens in the case of settlers, his office referred to Levine as having been “allegedly assaulted.” The video evidence shows exactly what happened. The assaults on European diplomats were also “alleged attacks.” Witnesses, including Israeli activists, were in no doubt. One stated that “they threatened to kill us.”
Endangering diplomats and international journalists is not accidental. It is part of the Israeli government and settler strategy of barring all non-Palestinian witnesses. Five international journalists have been denied entry to Israel in the last few weeks. The British Consulate in Jerusalem has been shrunk to a skeleton mission. Aid agencies have been deregistered.
Israeli authorities do not want non-Palestinian witnesses to their crimes or any recordings. The ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population of the West Bank, which settler violence is designed to bring about, is best executed in darkness. This is why, for example, Israeli forces last week detained Brad Lander, a US congressional candidate.
The settler vision shared by most on the Israeli right is a West Bank denuded of nearly all its Palestinian population
Chris Doyle
The Israeli government plays a key role in the settler plans. Take what is happening now in Hebron. For the most nationalist and ideological settlers, Hebron ranks second to Jerusalem in terms of importance. They will be delighted at the manner in which Palestinians homes are being destroyed and neighborhoods emptied, along with the promise to do to the Hebron area what has been done in the north around Jenin and Tulkarem, namely the razing of UN refugee camps. Thus far, 33,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the northern refugee camps, according to UNRWA, so what will happen in the south?
Some think that once the elections are over the settlers will be instructed to calm down and limit their attacks. Think again. In every viable scenario, the escalation of these settler attacks, backed by the army, will persist. If Benjamin Netanyahu wins, settlers will celebrate by smashing up Palestinian communities. If he loses, they will take every opportunity, before a new government is formed, to wreak havoc. Even with a different government, the settlers will be in no mood to back off and any alternative government will also be both right-wing and pro-settler.
The settlers can sniff the endgame for their Palestinian neighbors. The latest report from Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem last month chillingly described this as “The Elimination Project,” with the strapline, “Israel’s Systematic Dismantling of Palestinian Collective Life in the West Bank.” Some might think that title is provocative, yet this is the language that the settler groups themselves use. They openly push for this scenario, and worse, and work at achieving it every single day.
The settler vision shared by most on the Israeli right is a West Bank denuded of nearly all its Palestinian population. The violence is not just thuggish behavior but an orchestrated onslaught aimed at making this a reality as soon as possible.
Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech
