Executing the Palestinian Existence in the West Bank

By Mohammad Alqeeq

The recent Israeli violations, including the latest one in Al-Mughayer village near Ramallah and in Masafer Yatta south of Hebron, coinciding with the military operations in Nablus, Jenin, Ramallah, and Tulkarem, indicate the systematic implementation of a plan to execute the sovereignty of the Palestinians, including their livelihood, personal, food, and economic security.

There are many goals of this Israeli policy:

First: To distort the narrative not only through media but also by evicting Bedouin communities and replacing them with settlers. This is the pastoral settlement model with traditions and habits simulating the same circumstances of Bedouin life.

This is a sign of the ethnic cleansing policy, even against existence itself and its forms.

Second: That formula of settlement is considered the initial geographical protection, serving as a defense line around the settlements and a link between them. At the same time, it is an endpoint for Palestinian expansion.

What we talked about is not far from other policies that Israel has implemented against the Palestinians, such as tightening restrictions on their daily life by installing iron gates and military barriers at the entrances of cities, paralyzing trade and investment, and preventing the transfer of clearance funds and tax money.

All these actions aim to force Palestinians to leave and cram them inside isolated communities in order to pave the way for a settlers’ state.

Israel justified this policy by claiming concerns about the EU’s recognition of a Palestinian state with sovereignty. It justified the genocide in Gaza because of October 7, while it said that its Judaization measures in Jerusalem were to develop the city. But the real reason is to establish the settlers’ state as the nucleus of the new Middle East project.

Netanyahu has a perfect opportunity to push through his plan to change reality, with green lights from the US and the EU, and even the silence of Arab states.

The Future with E1

Israel accelerates the systematic policy of crushing the personal and existential security of the Palestinians.

While committing genocide in Gaza, it intensified attacks against the West Bank by settlers and the army to increase pressure on the internal front, to damage dignity, and to liquidate the Palestinian cause.

All these impacts indicate that the plan is to impose Israeli sovereignty on the West Bank by implementing the annexation plan as part of the “Deal of the Century” before the UN assembly meeting on September 28.

E1 is the dangerous project that Israel tried to implement years ago but was forced to freeze under US administrations.

This project was built on the basis of annexation and dividing the West Bank to cut the geographical continuity of the promised land for a Palestinian state and to link the settlements in the West Bank with Jerusalem.

E1 was designed in 1999 to annex the “Ma’ale Adumim” settlement with Jerusalem, while dividing the southern West Bank from the middle to pave the way for establishing the settlers’ state at the expense of the Palestinians.

The main goals of the project are: to isolate Jerusalem to strengthen Israel’s sovereignty over it, to destroy the dream of Palestinians for an independent state, to confiscate the eastern area of the West Bank to strengthen security supervision of the borders with Jordan, and to expel Bedouin communities to control pastoral areas.

Israel began this project years ago by building a police station and forcing many Bedouin communities to leave.

Israel claimed that it accelerated the project in response to EU promises of recognizing the State of Palestine. In fact, Israel always creates a scene of conflict to justify its plans. Even the Oslo Accords are used by Israel to implement its historical goal of expansion, which was supported by the US administration through moving its embassy to Jerusalem and through the Deal of the Century.

Systematic Intransigence

The Israeli government linked the situation in the West Bank with Gaza to convince the international community of its concerns about Palestinian sovereignty and existence. This means that offers to stop the war of genocide will always be refused to serve Israel’s destructive plans.

Instead of stopping the war to save his state and spare the region further instability and confrontations, Netanyahu ignored the calls from the families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza and from the international community to stop starvation and genocide. He did this to implement his plan for “Greater Israel.”

Therefore, he refused any proposal for a ceasefire to mark himself as the leader and the only one who expanded Israel.

Netanyahu slapped the mediators by rejecting the offer and launching the second phase of the war against Gaza.

The important question now is: how will the mediators respond to Netanyahu? Will it be by putting more pressure on the Palestinians through creating a new offer to suit Israeli standards? Or by exposing Israel as a war criminal state and ending the futile negotiations that distracted the international community and silenced the voice of the people and their suffering?

The mediators are at stake to save their sovereignty and prestige from humiliation and marginalization of their efforts, at least by making Israel respect the agreement it violated last March and forcing it to allow the entry of humanitarian aid.

From my point of view, the perfect response from the mediators is to remove the umbrella of genocide “mediation” in order to expose Israel and call on the international community to intervene immediately, to stop the monopoly of the issue by US hegemony.

Unavoidable Price

The situation is very serious, and the international community must take action with real will and a clear conscience.

Things will accelerate further, to the point that genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank will expand into Syria and Lebanon according to Netanyahu’s dream.

He tries to recall the results of the 1967 war, but I think the transformations in the world have changed. His decisions will lead to the vanishing of Israel according to many Israeli leaders, not to mention that the curse of the 8th decade casts a shadow over Netanyahu’s thinking.

Mohammad Alqeeq is a Palestinian writer and political analyst.