Is occupied West Bank on verge of a big flare-up? Positions harden as Israeli extremists flex political muscle

Thick smoke and burning flames from the Palestinian village of Huwara last week not only signaled the following destruction: houses and cars burned, many residents injured and one Palestinian killed by Israeli settler riots.

It could be a turning point in the conflict between the two groups – Israelis and Palestinians – that could leave the occupied West Bank with violence not seen in decades.

“In the West Bank, no Palestinian feels safe anymore,” said Nour Odeh, a Palestinian author and activist in Ramallah.

In Huwara, dozens of armed Jewish settlers had stormed in to avenge the killing of two Israeli brothers a few hours earlier by Palestinian gunmen nearby.

An Israeli general is in charge of the area called a “pogrom carried out by outlaws,” the army division which later detained more than a dozen alleged rioters even as soldiers accused of helping settlers that night.

Friction between settlers and Palestinians is on the rise, as Israeli settlements spread across the occupied territories – settlements largely approved by the Israeli government, though considered illegal and inflammatory by most of the international community. About 620,000 Israeli Jewish settlers currently live in the occupied territories Israeli human rights group B’Tselemalmost seven percent of Israel’s total population.

Settler extremists now have government allies

And now, settler extremists have a more powerful ally in the new ultra-nationalist government Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahua right-wing coalition that includes hardline settlers in key cabinet portfolios.

One of them, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, sparked outrage at home and abroad when he responded to last weekend’s violence by saying, “I think Huwara should be removed.

The US State Department called the comments “irresponsible” and “disgusting”, and pressured Netanyahu not to deny them.

Not only did he not do it, Netanyahu also promoted a new settlement.

Hours before the Huwara attack, Israeli and Palestinian delegations – together with the US and other Arab representatives – met in the Jordanian city of Aqaba to try to agree on a strategy for “de-escalation,” to prevent further violence.

The final combination Communicate including Israel’s “commitment to end discussions on new settlement units within four months.”

Moments after the statement was released, Netanyahu denied any such agreement, tweeting that the construction of the settlement will continue on schedule.

“There is no freeze, and there never will be,” he wrote.

The rampage gave some Israelis pause

In Israel, many worry that all this is just giving extremists the green light to launch more attacks.

“It has given a sense of empowerment to all those who have a more radical perspective, support the far right wing, I would even say Jewish supremacy, militants and violent tactics against the Palestinians,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, pollster and political analyst for Century. A think tank foundation in Tel Aviv.

Some Israelis blame the settlers in the protests.

The settlers did it “because they had the support of the government,” Uri Weltmann said. “They escalated the occupation,” he said, and caused a “spiral of violence.”

Another Israeli reached out to the Palestinians with a crowdfunding campaign to rebuild Huwara, generating more than $600,000 Cdn in contributions.

But Palestinians see an existential threat in the Israeli government’s unvarnished support for settlers and even their extremism.

Odeh said he saw an attempt at “ethnic cleansing.”

“I don’t see that it’s more than them to try to do that, whether by expelling or carrying out military strikes or locking up the Palestinians,” he said. “I fear, that he continues to be drunk with power and that he feels protected from any responsibility.”

Frustration among young Palestinians

Many also fear more violence from both sides.

So far this year, more than 60 Palestinians – militants and civilians – have been killed by the Israeli army, police and settlers. Meanwhile, just over a dozen Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinian militants – three in the past week.

Some Palestinian attacks have been supported by major militant groups, such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad, acting on an ideological basis. But frustration is driving more young Palestinians to strike out on their own, or in “groups that don’t have a political affiliation, that don’t have an ideology, but are more focused on resistance,” Odeh said.

“It only makes the Palestinians take more desperate measures because the threat is getting more and more severe,” said Nizar Farsakh, a former adviser to Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, now a professor at George Washington University.

With any peace negotiations to end the long-standing occupation stalled, Farsakh said Palestinians feel Israel is “only responding to real threats and acts of violence.”

“That’s when we get results,” he said.

Israeli public opinion is hardening, the poll suggests

But public opinion also appears to be hardening in Israel, a long-term trend measured by Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv pollster, who says most Israelis now consider themselves “right-wing,” and a larger proportion have “more extreme views.” what does it mean. They voted for the party that is now in power.

A his poll was conducted in December painted a pessimistic picture. When asking “What should happen next?” to overcome the impasse between Israel and the Palestinians, only 30 percent of Israeli Jews voted to reach a peace agreement, 11 percent less than when they last asked that question two years ago.

However, 26 percent said the solution was a “definitive war with the Palestinians,” an increase of seven percent. The trend is the same for Palestinians surveyed.

And for the first time since 2016, more Jewish Israelis are favoring the “one-state solution” — with Israel controlling all of the territory and the Palestinians having fewer rights — than the “two-state solution,” in which each group has its own state.

Scheindlin said that could explain why the main political parties in Israel are “afraid to embrace a position” that has long been considered a diplomatic goal, even by parties of the center or the left.

“Almost no one in the camp is talking about reviving the peace process or returning to a two-state solution. And no one dares to touch the idea of ​​a settlement freeze.”

‘This is a de facto annexation’

The Netanyahu government’s agenda does not include these matters.

Instead, he has given tighter control over the West Bank administration to Smotrich, a minister who says Huwara “needs to be removed.”

This is a level of direct authority Israeli politicians have never had before, said Oded Haklai, a professor at Queen’s University who has studied Jewish-Palestinian relations and settler politics.

“This is a de facto annexation. It’s an extraordinary change,” he said. “It changes the rule of law to make it into a territorial absorption.”

Combined with the legitimization of “unprecedented” settler violence, Haklai says it puts Israel on “the road to nationalist authoritarianism.”

“I have never seen Israel like this,” he said.