| International
|
[
International ] [ Main Menu ] |
|
|
|
56502 |
|
|
Date: November 23, 2024 at 08:14:38
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Trump back, Israeli settlers revive goal of full control of West Bank |
URL: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlers-set-sights-trump-support-full-control-west-bank-2024-11-23/ |
|
All that Bad Biden propaganda helped to put Trump in
office. Suckers. Scratch another win for Putin.
Notice the dearth of bad Biden posts since the Trump
win? Amazing, isn't it?
*************
SHILO, West Bank, Nov 23 (Reuters) - After a record
expansion of Israeli settlement activity, some settler
advocates in the occupied West Bank are looking to
Donald Trump to fulfil a dream of imposing sovereignty
over the area seen by Palestinians as the heart of a
future state.
The West Bank has been transformed by the rapid growth
of Jewish settlements since Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu returned at the head of a far-right
nationalist coalition two years ago. During that time,
an explosion in settler violence that has led to U.S.
sanctions.
In recent weeks, Israeli flags have sprouted on
hilltops claimed by some settlers in the West Bank's
Jordan Valley, adding to worries among many local
Palestinians of greater control of those areas. Some
settlers prayed for Trump's victory before the
election.
"We have high hopes. We're even buoyant to a certain
extent," said Yisrael Medad, an activist and writer who
supports Israel absorbing the West Bank, speaking to
Reuters about Trump's victory in the house he has lived
in for more than four decades in the West Bank
settlement of Shilo.
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
[56510] [56508] [56509] |
|
56510 |
|
|
Date: November 23, 2024 at 12:46:31
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: June:The Man Leading Israel’s Not-So-Quiet Annexation of the West Bank |
URL: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/06/26/israel-annexation-west-bank-bezalel-smotrich-netanyahu/ |
|
ANALYSIS
The Man Leading Israel’s Not-So-Quiet Annexation of the West Bank
Bezalel Smotrich aims to bankrupt the Palestinian Authority and cement Israeli
rule.
By David E. Rosenberg, the economics editor and a columnist for the English
edition of Haaretz and the author of Israel’s Technology Economy.
on Jan. 7. RONEN ZVULUN / POOL / AFP
JUNE 26, 2024, 9:29 AM
View Comments (0)
For Bezalel Smotrich, the head of Israel’s far-right Religious Zionism party, these
are heady times. While the rest of Israel is preoccupied with the fighting in Gaza,
the fate of the hostages held by Hamas, and Hezbollah’s pummeling of the
country’s north, Smotrich has been realizing his dream of creating the conditions
that will bring about Israel’s annexation of the West Bank. Indeed, the war has in
many ways facilitated his plans.
Israel-Hamas War
One year since the Oct. 7 attack
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
The word “annexation” is rarely, if ever, uttered by Smotrich—who serves as a
senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet. Without a shred
of doubt about the Jews’ God-given right to the land between the Jordan River
and the Mediterranean Sea, he regards the West Bank not as territory to be
added to the State of Israel but as an inheritance that need only be claimed. As he
told the Haaretz newspaper in an interview over seven years ago, a Palestinian
state would be tantamount to partitioning Israel; absorbing the West Bank into
Israel is “unification.” To talk about Israel annexing the West Bank would be like
telling the North it was annexing the South after the Civil War in the United
States.
In any case, the legal formalities involved in annexation are less important to
Smotrich than creating the conditions that will bring it about. To do that, he is
employing a two-pronged strategy that on the one side involves changing laws
and creating a settler-friendly bureaucracy and on the other helping to foment
violence and anarchy in the West Bank. As Smotrich has indicated many times,
the signal event in the process of “unification” will be the collapse of the
Palestinian Authority (PA), leaving Israel with no choice but to fill the vacuum and
reassert control over the entire West Bank.
Smotrich’s main job in the government is finance minister, a powerful post that he
has used to implement his policies. But he has a second and, for his purposes, far
more important post as minister in the defense ministry, a job he was promised by
Netanyahu when the current government was formed at the end of 2022.
Smotrich is in effect minister of settlements with powers that extend, to a degree,
over the lives of West Bank Palestinians as well.
Since it captured the territory in 1967, Israel has exerted control of the West Bank
through a military occupation. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), through its Civil
Administration, has been responsible for the administration of justice and other
civilian matters in the 60 percent of the West Bank not under the jurisdiction of
the PA. The Civil Administration has long favored settler interests over
Palestinians, but officially it remained a part of the military and made at least
some effort to consider Palestinian needs. All that changed in February 2023,
when a new Settlements Administration was formed with broad powers—
including the authority to expropriate Palestinian land, to approve housing
construction in settlements, to condemn Palestinian construction as illegal, and to
retroactively authorize settlements that were built without government approval,
popularly known as “outposts.”
As a civilian body, the Settlements Administration’s job is to promote the interests
of Israeli citizens—which means the settlers. And the chief interest of the settlers
is speeding up the pace of building and expanding settlements. More than that,
the transfer of authority from the military to civilians amounts to a quiet and
creeping de facto annexation. “It will be easier to swallow in the international and
legal context so that they won’t say that we are doing annexation here,” Smotrich
said in leaked remarks from a June 9 meeting with supporters, first published in
the New York Times.
In recent weeks, Smotrich has cemented his control further, having Hillel Roth, a
resident of the extremist settlement Yitzhar, made deputy head of the Civil
Administration with authority over a grab bag of areas ranging from building
regulations and water infrastructure to parks and outdoor public bathing
locations.
Control over public bathing may seem like a minor business on par with dog
catching. But it is not: A big part of the contest for the future of the West Bank is
about demographics—increasing the settler population—and control of land. The
Settlements Administration is meant to give the settlers the tools to do that more
effectively. The natural springs that dot the West Bank serve Palestinian farmers
as well as Israeli bathers and constitute one of many battlegrounds for control of
the land and its resources.
But Smotrich’s campaign isn’t limited to the niceties of accelerated planning
approvals: He has also used his powers to turn a blind eye to construction by
settlers. A document obtained by the New York Times summarizing a March
meeting of the IDF’s Central Command, which is responsible for the West Bank,
warned that enforcement of construction regulations for settlers had all but
disappeared since the establishment of the Settlements Administration; even
court orders are ignored. Less than one-tenth of the 395 recorded cases of illegal
construction last year resulted in a building being taken down, and nearly all of
those involved a single case at an illegal outpost, the memo said. And that
probably understates the extent of the problem. Because so many inspectors
have been called up for reserve duty due to the war in Gaza, suspected violations
are not even being investigated. Violators, the memo said, feel free to act knowing
that there is no accountability.
The lawlessness among settlers in the West Bank has not been confined to illegal
building. The most extreme of the settlers have taken advantage of a government
dominated by the far right and the military’s preoccupation with fighting in Gaza
to engage in unprecedented vigilantism. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) counted 968 attacks on Palestinians involving
serious vandalism and injury in the months since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023.
There have been only 10 confirmed cases of Palestinians killed in these incidents
(compared with more than 500 in clashes with the military), but the pace if far
faster than at any time since OCHA began keeping records in 2008—and the real
number is likely higher.
While some of the settler violence has been about vengeance following
Palestinian attacks, much of it has been about land. Especially in the Jordan
Valley and in the area south of the city of Hebron, extremist settlers have seized
control of large swaths of Palestinian pasture land by setting up roadblocks,
erecting fences, and harassing shepherds. In many cases, whole communities of
Palestinian herders have been forced to abandon their homes.
To be sure, Smotrich is not responsible for policing settler violence. The
responsibility for that is shared by his far-right colleague, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who as
minister of national security oversees the police—and by the military.
The police have never made much of an effort to investigate settler violence, but
under Ben-Gvir all pretense of enforcement has been dropped. Ben-Gvir has
been seeking, with a large degree of success, to politicize the Israel Police,
pressing it to crack down on anti-government protesters while demanding that it
stand aside when right-wing extremists attack trucks carrying aid to Gaza. In the
West Bank, Ben-Gvir’s policies have given violent settlers carte blanche. A recent
investigation by the New York Times found that of the three dozen cases it had
looked into since Oct. 7 involving crimes ranging from theft of livestock to assault,
not a single one had led to a suspect being charged.
As for the military, soldiers have been busy fighting in Gaza and on the northern
border, as well as cracking down on Palestinian violence in the West Bank. The
military says it doesn’t have the manpower to stop vigilante settlers. But the truth
is, many of the commanders and soldiers in the regular and reserve military units
stationed in the West Bank are sympathetic to the settlers; often they are settlers
themselves. Moreover, after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, some 5,500 settlers
were called up for reserve duty to protect their own communities. Many have
taken advantage of the arms and uniforms they were issued to go beyond their
official duties to set up roadblocks and attack Palestinians.
An incident near the Palestinian town of Aqraba in April captures the current state
of lawlessness. Following the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli by Palestinians,
settlers rampaged through the town and surrounding area, killing two residents
(two more were killed later). The military initially said there were no soldiers
present, although a Haaretz investigation said troops were there and didn’t
intervene. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant later issued warrants putting five
settlers into administrative detention—prison without trial—for periods ranging
from three to six months. In response, Ben-Gvir railed against “Gallant’s
persecution against the settlers.” The police have arrested no one.
For Smotrich, however, the collapse of the PA is his biggest priority. Here, his job
as finance minister comes into play because the strategy is to strangle the
authority financially. Smotrich has the power to do that because approximately
60 percent of the revenues the PA relies on to pay salaries and provide services
come from customs and other taxes Israel collects in the PA’s name, transferring
the money to Ramallah every month.
For some time, Israel had been deducting from these “clearance revenue”
transfers the money that the PA spent supporting families of Palestinians held in
Israeli prisons. Shortly after the war in Gaza began, Smotrich tripled the monthly
deductions to as much as 600 million shekels—about 60 percent of the overall
monthly transfer. In protest, the PA refused to accept any money, forcing it to cut
civil servants’ wages by as much as 70 percent.
In late February, a face-saving formula was found under which Norway agreed to
put the withheld funds in an escrow account, thereby giving the PA an excuse to
take the money still available. Last month, however, Smotrich renewed his
pressure campaign, calling on Netanyahu to stop all transfers and demanding
that Norway return the escrow funds to Israel. More recently, he demanded steps
be taken against the PA leaders, including expelling those found not to be living
legally in the West Bank, restricting the movements of others and preventing
them from traveling abroad—and charging some with incitement or support of
terrorism.
Smotrich is no less determined to exacerbate the troubles of an already
depressed Palestinian economy. That not only further pressures the PA financially
but also may have the added benefit of coaxing Palestinians to emigrate. To that
end, he and Ben-Gvir have also been able to block efforts to allow the
approximately 150,000 West Bank Palestinians who had been working inside
Israel before Oct. 7 to return to their jobs. By Palestinian standards, those jobs pay
well, so their sudden disappearance has an outsized effect on household
incomes and the economy.
Smotrich is now threatening to deal another blow to the Palestinian economy by
halting the issuing of what until now were routine letters of indemnity to Israeli
banks. The letters provide a legal shield to Israeli financial institutions working
with their Palestinian counterparts in case some money ends up in the hands of
terrorist groups. This correspondent banking relationship is critical to the
Palestinian economy, enabling the annual flow of $10 billion of Palestinian
exports and imports, all of which go through Israel. If Smotrich acts, it will bring
the West Bank economy to its knees.
The defense establishment is opposed to most of Smotrich’s measures, worrying
he is fanning the flames of another intifada, or Palestinian uprising. But it is largely
helpless to prevent them so long as the political echelon doesn’t act. Even if
Netanyahu wanted to stop Smotrich, he needs his ongoing support to keep his
governing coalition intact. Smotrich’s party accounts for seven seats in the 120-
member parliament. If he withdraws from the coalition, Netanyahu’s government
would no longer have a majority.
Smotrich thus has a relatively free hand from his boss.
What he doesn’t have is a public mandate to pursue his program. His main
annexation constituency is the settler population, which makes up no more than
10 percent of Israel’s total, and even its support for his annexation project is
hardly wall to wall. Much of the settler population is made up of people who
moved to the West Bank for economic reasons, including many thousands of
ultra-Orthodox Jews. They are not thought to be wedded to the idea of Greater
Israel. Among the overall population, support for annexation is far from
overwhelming: A recent survey by Tel Aviv University found only about 38
percent of Jewish Israelis supported the idea (and only 14 percent very strongly);
a majority opposed it.
Even far-right voters are seen to be unimpressed by Smotrich—preferring Ben-
Gvir’s loud-mouthed thuggery over Smotrich’s careful (and often behind-the-
scenes) calculations. If elections were held today, according to the most recent
polls, Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party would win nine seats in Israel’s 120-
member parliament; Smotrich’s Religious Zionism wouldn’t receive enough votes
to enter the Knesset at all. But then again, for him, the only vote that counts is cast
in heaven, and Smotrich is confident he has it.
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
56508 |
|
|
Date: November 23, 2024 at 12:39:25
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Israeli settlers planned to steal West Bank irregardless of Trump |
URL: https://www.newsweek.com/map-shows-israel-plans-expand-settlement-west-bank-1939262 |
|
Ignore the 'propaganda'. This has been in the works for a long time... more
bullshit from y'all know who.
Map Shows Israel's Plans to Expand Settlement in West Bank
Published Aug 14, 2024 at 1:55 PM EDT
Updated Aug 15, 2024 at 1:14 PM EDT
By Mandy Taheri
Weekend Reporter
FOLLOW
190
Israel has published plans for a new settlement in the occupied West Bank, the
country's finance minister announced Wednesday, a month after the United
Nation's top court deemed Israeli settlements illegal in the territory.
Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right politician and ally of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, wrote in Hebrew in a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter, that the
"blue line of 602 dunams was published for the establishment of the settlement
of Nahal Heletz," in Gush Etzion, a cluster of settlements in the West Bank.
Smotrich called it part of a "national mission" to connect to Jerusalem.
The Israeli settlement covers about 150 acres and is located within the Battir
UNESCO World Heritage Site, northwest of Bethlehem, and near the Israeli
settlement Har Gilo, according to Agence France-Presse. UNESCO designated
the site in 2014 for its "characteristic stone terraces" and irrigation of grapevines
and olive trees.
"No anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of
settlements," Smotrich wrote in the post, adding: "We will continue to fight
against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on
the ground."
Newsweek reached out to Israel's Central Planning Bureau for comment and
confirmation via email on Wednesday. Newsweek also contacted the City of
Bethlehem for comment via email on Wednesday.
Smotrich often uses anti-Palestinian rhetoric, such as calling a Palestinian state
"dangerous." Last week, he was condemned by several international leaders for
suggesting it might be "justified and moral" to starve Gazans.
Smotrich called the move part of the "national mission" to connect Gush Etzion
to Jerusalem, and said the settlement was a "historic moment." He does not
support a two-state solution that would establish an independent Palestinian
state.
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
[56509] |
|
56509 |
|
|
Date: November 23, 2024 at 12:43:13
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: BBC: Israeli settlers are seizing Palestinian land under cover of war |
URL: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c624qr3mqrzo |
|
Israeli settlers are seizing Palestinian land under cover of war - they hope
permanently
27 August 2024
Share
Save
Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent
Toby Luckhurst
In Jerusalem
BBC Olayan Olayan, who was born in the village of Battir in 1941, overlooks a
valley in which a new Israeli settlers outpost is builtBBC
In the Palestinian village of Battir, where ancient terraces are irrigated by a natural
spring, life carries on as it has for centuries.
Part of a Unesco World Heritage site, Battir is known for its olive groves and
vineyards. But now it is the latest flashpoint over settlements in the occupied
West Bank.
Israel has approved a new Jewish settlement here, taking away privately owned
land for new settler houses and new outposts have been set up without even
Israeli authorisation.
“They are stealing our land to build their dreams on our catastrophe,” says
Ghassan Olyan, whose property is among that seized.
Unesco says it is concerned by the settlers’ plans around Battir, but the village is
far from an isolated example. All settlements are seen as illegal under
international law, although Israel disagrees.
“They are not caring about the international law, or local law, and even God’s law,”
Mr Olyan says.
Ghassan Olyan in Battir
Part of Ghassan Olyan's land is being taken for a brand new Israeli settlement
Last week, Israel’s domestic intelligence chief Ronen Bar wrote to ministers
warning that Jewish extremists in the West Bank were carrying out acts of
“terror” against Palestinians and causing “indescribable damage” to the country.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, there has been an acceleration in settlement
growth in the occupied West Bank.
Extremists in Israel’s government boast that these changes will prevent an
independent Palestinian state from ever being created.
There are fears, too, that they seek to prolong the war in Gaza to suit their goals.
Yonatan Mizrahi from Peace Now, an Israeli organisation that monitors settlement
growth, believes a “mix of rage and fear” in Israeli society after the 7 October
attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed, is driving settlers to seize more land,
with fewer people questioning them.
A June survey by the Pew Research Center suggested that 40% of Israelis
believed settlements made the country safer, up from 27% in 2013. Meanwhile,
35% of people polled said that the settlements hurt Israel’s security, down from
42%.
Mr Mizrahi worries that Jewish extremists in the West Bank are exacerbating an
already tense and volatile situation, making it harder than ever to end the Israel-
Palestinian conflict. “I think it’s extremely dangerous,” he says. “It’s increasing the
hate on both sides.”
Since the outbreak of the war, settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the
West Bank has surged.
It had already been on the rise, but in the past 10 months the UN has
documented around 1,270 attacks, compared with 856 in all of 2022.
According to the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, during the same
period Israeli settler harassment has forced Palestinians out of at least 18 villages
in the West Bank, the Palestinian territory between Israel and Jordan that was
captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and has been occupied ever
since.
Between 7 October and August 2024, 589 Palestinians were killed in the West
Bank – at least 570 by Israeli forces and at least 11 by settlers, according to the
UN. They include some said to have been planning attacks as well as unarmed
civilians. In the same period, Palestinians killed five settlers and nine members of
Israel’s security forces.
This week, a Palestinian man aged 40 was reportedly shot dead after settlers and
Israeli soldiers entered Wadi al-Rahhel, near Bethlehem. The Israeli military said
stones had previously been thrown at an Israeli vehicle nearby.
Last month, a 22-year-old Palestinian man was killed when dozens of settlers
rampaged through the village of Jit, prompting international condemnation. Israeli
security forces have made four arrests and have described the incident as a
“severe terror event”.
But the track record in such cases is one of virtual impunity. Israeli civil rights
group Yesh Din found that, between 2005 and 2023, just 3% of official
investigations into settler violence ended in a conviction.
In the letter by Ronen Bar, which was leaked to Israeli media, the head of Israel’s
Shin Bet security service said that radical settlers were emboldened by light-
handed law enforcement.
'Extremely dangerous'
Settlers live in exclusively Jewish communities set up in parts of the West Bank.
Many settlements have the legal support of the Israeli government; others, known
as outposts, and often as simple as caravans and corrugated iron sheds, are
illegal even under Israeli law. But extremists build them regardless in a bid to seize
more land.
In July, when the UN’s top court found for the first time that Israel’s occupation of
the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was illegal, it said the country should
halt all settlement activity and withdraw as soon as possible.
Israel’s Western allies have repeatedly described settlements as an obstacle to
peace. Israel rejected the finding, saying: “The Jewish people are not occupiers in
their own land.”
More from InDepth
Riots show how the UK's far right has changed
Power, oil and a $450m painting - insiders on the rise of Saudi's Crown Prince
Why does the Church of England struggle to deal with child abuse allegations?
Now there are fears that extremists are working to make settlements in the West
Bank irreversible.
They have rapidly expanded their control over the territory, with the support of
the most far-right government in Israel’s history. These extremists are advancing
annexation plans in the West Bank and also openly call for settling Gaza once the
war is over. Settlers now serve at the heart of Israel’s government, in key
ministries.
At the very time that world leaders opposed to settlements are voicing renewed
enthusiasm for a two-state solution - a long-hoped for peace plan that would
create a separate Palestinian state - Israeli religious nationalists, who believe all
these lands rightfully belong to Israel, are vowing to make the dream of an
independent Palestinian state impossible.
Analysts think this is why some politicians are refusing to accept any ceasefire
deal.
“The reason they don’t want to end the conflict or go into a hostage deal is
because they believe that Israel should keep on fighting until it can reach a point
where it can stay inside Gaza,” says Tal Schneider, political correspondent for The
Times of Israel.
“They think for the long term their ideology is more righteous,” she adds. “This is
their own logic.”
Israeli authorities, meanwhile, have announced plans for five new settlements,
including the one in Battir, and declared a record area of land, at least 23 sq km,
for the state. This means Israel considers it Israeli land, regardless of whether it is
in the occupied Palestinian territories, or privately owned by Palestinians, or both,
and Palestinians are prevented from using it.
By changing facts on the ground, as the settlers describe it, they hope to move
enough Israelis on to the land and build enough on it to make their presence
irreversible. Their long-term hope is that Israel formally annexes the land.
Outside state-sanctioned land seizures, extremists have also rapidly established
settlement outposts.
In one by al-Qanoub, north of Hebron, satellite images showed new caravans and
roads had appeared in the months since the start of the war. Meanwhile, an entire
Palestinian community has been forced off the land.
Map showing West Bank settlements, including areas of Palestinian civil control;
built-up Palestinian areas; areas of Israeli military and civil control; Israeli
settlements and municipal boundaries; the West Bank barrier; areas projected or
under construction; and the pre-1967 ceasefire line
We drove to al-Qanoub with Ibrahim Shalalda, 50, and his 80-year-old uncle
Mohammed, who told us their homes had been destroyed by settlers last
November.
As we approached, an extremist settler blocked the road with his car.
Armed Israelis soon arrived. The group – some Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
soldiers, with insignia on their uniforms and one identified as a settlement
security officer – stopped us for checks.
The settlement guard forced the two Palestinian farmers from the car and
searched them. After two hours, the IDF soldiers dispersed the settlers and
allowed the BBC car to leave.
Ibrahim and Mohammed after the vehicle was stopped
Ibrahim and Mohammed after the vehicle was stopped
Israel began settling the West Bank soon after capturing it from Jordan and
occupying it more than five decades ago. Successive governments since then
have allowed creeping settlement expansion.
Today, an estimated three million Palestinians live on the land - excluding Israeli-
annexed East Jerusalem - alongside about half a million Jewish Israelis in more
than 130 settlements.
But a prominent far-right government figure who took office in 2022 is promising
to double the number of settlers to a million.
Bezalel Smotrich believes that Jews have a God-given right to these lands. He
heads one of two far-right, pro-settler parties that veteran Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu brought into his governing coalition after the 2022 elections
returned him to power.
Mr Smotrich serves as finance minister but also has a post in the defence
ministry, which has allowed him to make sweeping changes to Israeli policies in
the West Bank.
He has massively invested state finances in settlements, including new roads and
infrastructure. But he has also created a new bureaucracy, taking powers from the
military, to fast-track settler construction.
In secretly recorded remarks to supporters, Mr Smotrich boasted that he was
working towards “changing the DNA” of the system and for de facto annexation
that would be “easier to swallow in the international and legal context”.
‘Mission of my life’
Religious nationalists have sat on the fringes of Israeli politics for decades.
But their ideology has slowly become more popular. In the 2022 election, these
parties took 13 seats in the 120-seat Israeli parliament and became kingmakers
in Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition.
During the war, Bezalel Smotrich and fellow radical Itamar Ben-Gvir, now Israel’s
national security minister, have repeatedly made comments stoking social
division and provoking Israel’s Western allies.
After Israel’s military arrested reservists accused of sexually assaulting a
Palestinian detainee, Mr Ben Gvir said it was “shameful” for Israel to arrest “our
best heroes”. This month, Mr Smotrich suggested it might be “justified and moral”
to starve Gazans.
But it is in the West Bank and Gaza that the far right seeks to make permanent
changes. “This is a group of Israelis who have been against any type of
compromise with the Palestinians or Israel's other Arab neighbours,” says Anshel
Pfeffer, a veteran Israeli journalist and correspondent for The Economist.
And with the war in Gaza, the far right sees a fresh opportunity. Mr Smotrich has
called for Palestinian residents to leave, making way for Israelis who could “make
the desert bloom”.
Although Mr Netanyahu has ruled out restoring Jewish settlements in Gaza, he
remains beholden to far-right parties who threaten to collapse his coalition if he
signs a “reckless” ceasefire deal to bring home Israeli hostages currently held by
Hamas.
The logic of the extremists may be one that only a minority of Israelis follow. But it
is helping to prolong the war, and dramatically transforming the landscape of the
West Bank - causing long-term damage to chances of peace.
Top picture: Getty Images
BBC InDepth is the new home on the website and app for the best analysis and
expertise from our top journalists. Under a distinctive new brand, we’ll bring you
fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions, and deep reporting on the
biggest issues to help you make sense of a complex world. And we’ll be
showcasing thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too.
We’re starting small but thinking big, and we want to know what you think - you
can send us your feedback by clicking on the button below.
Israel & the Palestinians
Israel-Gaza war
Palestinian territories
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
[
International ] [ Main Menu ] |