| The West Bank and Gaza are two pieces of Palestinian land that were captured by Israel in 1967. Each is an integral part of Palestine. Under international law, both Gaza and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) are referred to as the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). In fact, one of the basic elements in the Oslo Accords was the requirement to treat both areas as a single and integral unit and to provide free passage between the two territories. Yet, Israel has worked deliberately to establish separate systems and separate treatment for each of the territories. When Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006 with a plurality of votes and following Fatah’s refusal to transfer power to them within the Palestinian Authority, Hamas forcibly seized power in Gaza. Since then, it has been handling governmental functions in the strip. Israel took advantage of this to impose a strict siege on Gaza and fully separate Gaza from the West Bank. While much of the world’s attention has been concentrated on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the same Israeli policy imperatives in Gaza have been followed in the West Bank. While the level of carnage has been of a lesser degree until now, the methods and policies are the same. It has been estimated that since October 7, over 700 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed. Furthermore, the Israeli settlers have intensified their attacks on Palestinian farmers and the rate at which they are taking over their land by force, all the while benefiting from the impunity that Israel has been enjoying and the relative silence of the world. Recently, the Israeli army itself has also turned its attention towards the West Bank, using some of the same tactics and weaponry it is using in Gaza against West Bankers. Israel announced that the airforce will now be used in the West Bank, as well as Gaza, and that increased use of weaponized drones and quad copters to assassinate Palestinian activists will be employed. Heavily armored bulldozers are being used to plough up streets and destroy infrastructure in the streets of Jenin, Tulkarem and other northern cities. Restricting and cutting off of water has been announced. And, it was hinted that whole sections of the population will soon receive eviction orders to abandon their homes and that the army has a free hand in destroying whole neighborhoods. Palestinians in the West Bank truly fear–and Israelis openly threaten–that they will face the same fate as the Palestinians in Gaza. None of this is surprising to Palestinians, of course, but as these outrages continue, it is important to remember that the usual excuses Israel uses for its onslaught in Gaza may not be available to them in the West Bank. Specifically, The West Bank is not under Hamas administration There are no Israeli hostages held in the West Bank There are no tunnels for hiding weapons The Palestinian Authority and its personnel (over 70,000 “policemen”) actively cooperate with Israel in combating Palestinian resistance Yet, all these elements will not help the vulnerable Palestinians. The same Zionist ideology of seeking Jewish supremacy and domination over the land, at the expense of Palestinian Arabs, seems to be in full operation there even if the situation is different. The presence and expansion of Jewish settlements and settlers creates a different dynamic. Unlike Gaza, which has a lot of people and very little land, the West Bank has a lot of land which is actively coveted for acquisition and ultimate annexation. The success in obtaining impunity from international law and public scrutiny, which has allowed for the ongoing genocide and atrocities, has emboldened the settlers and the occupation army to use the same tactics in the West Bank as well. The recent massacre at the Mawasi refugee tent camp, which passed by almost unnoticed, is just one example of this arrogant behavior. Four 2000 lb bombs were dropped on a so-called “safe zone” to which Palestinian civilians had been herded, leaving huge craters, vaporizing the bodies of the tent dwellers and resulting in many casualties. A less reported, and thankfully less fatal, incident involved a convoy of UN vehicles on a mission to deliver polio vaccines in Northern Gaza. Despite detailed coordination with the Israeli authorities, it was stopped at one checkpoint so Israeli soldiers could interrogate two of the 12 members. Israel then rammed the vehicles with a tank and a bulldozer. After lengthy intervention at the highest level, and after they interrogated the two people they sought, the vehicles were allowed to continue seven and a half hours later. The utter arrogance, power, and impunity exercised by the Israeli army is precisely what people in the West Bank are facing now as well. US complicity lies not only in providing the weapons for such atrocities but in actively shielding Israel from responsibility and accountability under international law. Until that changes, we can only expect more such atrocities, in both Gaza and the West Bank, as well as the collapse of any credibility for international law itself, international institutions, and any credible moral or ethical standing for those (including Jewish and Christian religious leaders) whose silence and complicity is so blatantly on display. |
