While Israel continues to massacre Palestinians in Gaza during the so-called “ceasefire”, at times killing over 20 people a day, it is also stepping up the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank.
New laws announced this month by the Israeli government remove restrictions that have prevented Israeli settlers buying land in the West Bank’s Areas A and B.
Since the Oslo Accords in 1993 this land, where all major Palestinian cities and towns are located, has been under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
Now building permits will be controlled by the Israeli Civil Administration—run by far-right Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich—instead of Palestinian authorities. This will extend Palestinian dispossession and settler land grabs.
It follows an increase in violent settler attacks that recently wiped out the village of Ras ‘Ein al ‘Auja in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, evicting all 135 Palestinian Bedouin families making up about 650 people living there.
It was the last village left in the area following a settler campaign of arson, theft and poisoning of livestock. As a result of its destruction settlers now have complete control of 250 square kilometres.
Solidarity spoke to a Palestinian activist from the West Bank who explained, “This is the worst period ever, at least since the second Intifada [which ended in 2005]. The occupation is enforcing new laws and rules every single day. It affects the daily life of any Palestinian living in the West Bank.
“The thing that is really out of control is the settler attacks. Ben-Gvir [Israeli Minister of National Security] decided that all settlers should be armed. So now, groups of at least ten settlers, usually guarded by two or three Israeli soldiers, can go into any village. They attack the elderly, children, they burn olive trees.
“And it’s not just villages. The other day there were 20 settlers in their cars inside the city of Ramallah. That’s the one city where the PA is supposed to be a bit safer and controlled by Palestinian police. And [the settlers] burned over 50 cars.”
Al Jazeera reported last month, “Every week, there is an average of nine Palestinians killed, 88 more injured, 180 arrested … an average of 100 Israeli settler attacks, 300 military raids and assaults and 10 demolitions of Palestinian homes and property.”
Settlements
Illegal settlement construction is accelerating. In December the Israeli Land Authority invited bids to build 3400 new houses in the E1 area settlement project that will effectively cut the West Bank in two. Smotrich boasted that this “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.
As the activist from the West Bank told Solidarity, “Before 7 October, there used to be around 70 checkpoints in the West Bank. After, there are around 300 active checkpoints. And then they added more gates.
“So there are around 910 gates right now. The entire West Bank has 480 Palestinian villages and towns. So you have nearly twice as many gates [to go through] in order for you to go into these villages and come out.”
Palestinians can be forced to wait for hours at gates and checkpoints, due to arbitrary closures imposed by occupying Israeli troops protecting the movements of settlers.
“From Nablus to Ramallah there is a road that used to take 45 minutes to an hour to travel. Now it’s taking six, seven hours. So a lot of time people can’t even get to work.
“And the settlers close the roads. I saw a ten-year-old [settler] kid with a gun the last time I came to Jericho, it was crazy.
“If you visualise the amount of land that is being taken every single day since 7 October, they have a feeling that they can get away with anything. So I think in the long term it will either result in displacement of the entire population, or Palestinians will be trapped in these very, very bad areas in very small regions.
“The recognition [of a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly] doesn’t mean anything. One of my friends said, ‘so now what? I go to the checkpoint and I say, no, you can’t do that. Because I’m standing in a land that is recognised by the international community?’ It means nothing to the Palestinians.”
Anthony Albanese voiced token opposition to Israel’s efforts at dispossession in the West Bank during Isaac Herzog’s visit. But the Australian government’s ties with Israel make it complicit in its policies of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
We need to keep building the Palestine solidarity movement to force sanctions on Israel and demand an end to its brutal policies of occupation and apartheid–not just in Gaza but also in the West Bank and across all of Palestine.
By Luke Ottavi
