It could be said that the other crime began when all the spotlights were pointing to the plumes of smoke over the Gaza Strip, but it would be yet another reductionism that would belittle history. In part, like the gestures of surprise when, this past Sunday, it emerged that Benjamin’s Government, approving a proposal that would allow it to take over – the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, has yet to rule – several areas of the West Bank that it has occupied militarily since 1967.
It is not an unexpected issue nor does it take anyone by surprise, despite representing a frontal attack, a blow to the Trump Administration and the few rules it imposes on its greatest ally in the Middle East. One of them, under the ‘peace’ plan agreed for the Gaza Strip, involves the prohibition of Tel Aviv appropriating more Palestinian land. Not only in that enclave reduced to rubble and on which the building of . No guarantees for Gazans.
Netanyahu has once again aligned himself with the coalition partners that support the Likud, radical Zionism embodied in the Minister of Finance, Belazel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) and the Minister of Internal Security, (Jewish Power). What do they demand? That the land of the biblical provinces of Judea and Samaria is ‘legally’ – in terms of Israeli law, of course – property of Israel. Judea and Samaria? They are the Hebrew names of what we know today as the West Bank.
However, this latest step is not another new red line that Israel tramples on. It is part of the same strategy that has not been hidden in recent years and that has been developed in parallel with the invasion and destruction of the Strip through military and police intervention, but also by sanctioning laws that have been paving the way… for the annexation of Palestinian land. Thus began the plan and strategy to satisfy what had been the great demand of Zionism, the radicals and, apparently, of the current Israeli Government: annex all the land necessary to build.
What the Israeli Army allows settlers: murders, beatings, arson and robberies
The first leg of the Israeli strategy for the occupied West Bank in recent years involved an unprecedented reinforcement of the operations they have been carrying out since the late 1960s in this territory. To the continuous raids and control through different checkpoints To those who subjugate the Palestinian population was added a radicalization and rapid increase in attacks by Israeli settlers on that same population.
To get an idea of what has happened outside the borders of a Gaza that is still occupied by Israel, since the brutal Hamas 7-O attacks took place and the Israeli military campaign began in response to them, 1,054 Palestinians have been murdered in the West Bank. In an occupied West Bank under the control of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and in which the previous Palestinian armed group has no power.
Complaints and graphic documents about collusion between members of the Israel Defense Forces -IDF, in English- and Israeli settlers have been constant in the last three years. There have been arson attacks on Palestinian homes, as well as theft of their property and crop areas. Furthermore, it has been done with a special intensification that shows that the factor of public opinion is becoming less and less important. Public and internationally renowned figures such as the director of the Oscar-winning documentary have been kidnapped and beaten. No Other Land.
The plug that began with the expansion of the colonies in East Jerusalem
The second pillar on which the Israeli strategy for the annexation of the West Bank is based is found in Israel’s other great historical demand: the city of Jerusalem. The bombings on Gaza – which have not stopped – ended up translating into a reaction embodied by a group of countries – among them Spain, Canada and the United Kingdom – that took the step and ended up recognizing the Palestinian State, but giving a boost to Israel’s greatest fear. That this Palestinian nation would end up forming a connected territory of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
And Israel reacted, again, in a gesture very similar to what happened this weekend. Buying the plan of the radical formations in the coalition Executive. Specifically, that of the Minister of Finance, a Smotrich who made it clear that what he was presenting between maps was not, at the expense of Palestinian homes. In his own words,
Last summer, the Israeli Government violated a red line that it had already tried to cross two decades ago with a plan that it had to bury in a drawer. In the midst of the rise of the most ultra postulates, the project to build 3,401 homes for settlers in East Jerusalem has been recovered (West Bank). Beyond connecting with a part that has been key in everything surrounding the Arab-Israeli conflict, the management and coexistence in Jerusalem, this urban project seeks to prevent that Palestinian State from having a connection.
“Every settlement, every neighborhood, every home is a new nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea,” Smotrich said. The reality is that since the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem began, the number of settlers has reached 700,000. For example, in area C of the West Bank, which is equivalent to 80% of this territory, there are 300,000 Palestinian residents. Precisely, the third pillar of the Israeli territorial control strategy has a lot to do with that area.
How to legalize the theft of homes from those considered “terrorists” and force them to prove that your house is yours
Beyond this campaign of terror to which the civilian population in the occupied West Bank is subjected, the Netanyahu Government has managed to pass laws and regulations in the Israeli Lower House that further the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands. The main one has been a law that allows the ownership of a home to be taken away from a Palestinian who is convicted of “terrorism.” And that includes the entire family, their parents, their children, regardless of whether they have committed any crime.
Thus, a total of 32,000 people have been forcibly expelled from the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps. But it doesn’t matter if they were people already overcrowded in refugee camps or families who had lived in their homes all their lives. Israel has also just approved another legal figure that will force Palestinians to prove ownership of their homes. And yes, it also means returning to another red line that was already attempted to be crossed two decades ago.
When the occupation of the West Bank occurred in 1967, the Israeli authorities promoted what they called “regularization of land titles”, basically a land registry that will force Palestinians to have to prove that they are the legitimate owners of said homes or plots. What Israel calls ‘registration’, from the office of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has been described as “annexation in fact“.
Basically, Palestinians who, on occasions, have already lost their documentation in fires, attacks or any of the violent episodes that have accompanied their history, will be forced to undergo long bureaucratic processes that are very complicated to conclude. Added to this controversial record are other measures also developed in recent months, such as the approval of new military outposts.
