The fact that Israeli-Jewish extremists have been rampaging in the West Bank occupied territories is a daily news item these days, but this week it reached new height with the establishment of a “settlement” in Qusra, a Palestinian village in the area of Nablus, and denying local Palestinian villagers to leave their house.
The Army sent elite troops from the Golani Brigade to remove the settlers after the American government published a sharp rebuke of the events and the American ambassador talked about Jewish terrorists. However, the “terrorists” returned shorty after that.
With significant delay, the again Army removed the settlers (without arresting any) but again, they returned the day after. Defense minister Israel Katz has ordered the police to take over from the Army, apparently knowing that the police, with Itamar Ben-Gvir as their commander as Minister of Internal Security would not act, neither fast nor efficiently.
The people suffering are the local Palestinians, who are being harassed and threatened, with no one protecting them, even though, since Israel has never applied sovereignty over the West Bank, the Army is the sovereign authority in the area and transferring this authority would be another step towards annexation, even though the government has acknowledged that this is not feasible at this stage because of severe opposition world-wide.
The Israeli government keeps talking about a “small Group of extreme Hilltop youth” but at the same time the Defense minister is praising their actions since according to him they are seizing “Palestinian land that rightfully belongs to Jews”.
But the facts speak for themselves: Israel is making serious efforts to “reoccupy” areas throughout the West Bank, and this includes also the Army that keeps removing Palestinians from their lands, claiming it is a “closed military area”.
The latest take-over by Israeli settlers is a settlement in the Northern West Bank called Ganim, which was abandoned in 2005 as part of the disengagement agreement that Ariel Sharon agreed to, together with three additional settlements that already have been reoccupied.
It is obvious what is really happening here. The Israeli government, with Prime Minister as its leader, is hiding behind the “Hilltop youth” and let them do the dirty work for them while they claim that it is not really anything significant.
Even though Netanyahu claims the Military is fighting Palestinian terror in the occupied West Bank, which incidentally is the case since as a result of the Gaza war and the war in Lebanon, terror has increased in the West Bank with more and more weapons falling into the hands of Palestinians who fight against the occupation. While this is obviously dangerous and the Army needs to do everything to be able to control and stop this, it is often the only option that remains them.
It is time for the World, and in particular, the United States to take a more active stance against the Israeli occupation and more sharply and more publicly condemn this before it will become an even bigger obstacle to progress towards a stable Middle East, even with Israel as a “superpower”.
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