IT HAS the feeling of a ghastly ending, one pushed along by desperation and eagerness. First, levelling Gaza and turning it to an uninhabitable moonscape, with the promise of a territory free of Palestinians. Then, displacing and destroying the already precarious holdings of Palestinian residents in the West Bank, all the time subjecting them to curfews, arrests and detentions while aiding vigilante Jewish settlers, firming up the system of segregation and snuffing out any prospect of autonomy.
The campaign of rendering the Palestinian cause for sovereignty extinct has become an article of faith for Israel鈥檚 security forces, and spectators stare, glumly, at its crude, unceasing momentum. On February 23, the Israel Defence Forces announced that tanks from the 188th Armoured Brigade were being deployed to Jenin as part of what it claims are 鈥榗ounterterrorism efforts鈥�, a feature of an operation dubbed 鈥業ron Wall鈥�.听 The justification for the decision lay in the planting of three bombs on empty buses in the Tel Aviv area.听 These prematurely detonated on February 20.听 Two further explosive devices were discovered on additional buses, but these failed to cause any casualties.
The impetus for the failed bombings, it was argued, came from the West Bank, though we are none the wiser about any further details, since a gag order was imposed on February 21, intended to last till March 12.
The move is ominous as being the first time tanks have been used in the West Bank since 鈥榦peration defensive shield鈥� in 2002.听 Defence minister Israel Katz also issued a chilling instruction to the force to clear 鈥榥ests of terror鈥�, to eliminate infrastructure and destroy weapons 鈥榦n an extensive scale.鈥櫶� But this operation, as with others conducted by the Israel Defence Forces, is characteristically brutal, involving the effective expulsion of 40,000 Palestinians from refugee camps.听 According to Katz, 鈥�40,000 Palestinians have so far been evacuated from the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, and are now empty of residents. UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees activity in the camps has also been stopped.鈥�
The measure taken here has the rank smell of permanent displacement, albeit dressed up as a calculated, temporary action intended to protect Israeli security.听 The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs and expatriates was in no doubt that the latest efforts perpetuated Israel鈥檚 鈥榞enocide, displacement and annexation鈥�. The Knesset鈥檚 cabinet committee for legislation has also expressed its proprietary feelings towards the territory this month by approving a bill replacing the term 鈥榃est Bank鈥� with 鈥楯udea and Samaria鈥�.听 On January 29, the Knesset passed a preliminary reading of a bill permitting Israeli settlers to register themselves as legal owners of property in the West Bank.
The Israel Defence Forces, according to Katz, have been 鈥榠nstructed 鈥� to prepare for a long stay in the camps that were cleared, for the coming year, and not allow residents to return and the terror to return and grow.鈥� He spoke of not returning 鈥榯o the reality that was in the past鈥�, suggesting an even more radical targeting of Palestinian refugees, blended, as they are, in the mash of 鈥榯error centres鈥� and 鈥榖attalions and terror infrastructure鈥� aided by 鈥榯he Iranian evil axis, in an attempt to establish an eastern terror front鈥�.
The Israeli operation has also involved raids against Kobar and Silwad north of Ramallah, the Beitunia neighbourhood of Ramallah, and Hebron.听 The long term plan here is to establish corridors similar to the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza, intended for the movement of defence forces personnel and equipment.听 Al Jazeera reports that the forces, in addition to conducting mass expulsions, is also engaged in destroying roads, imposing and enforcing lengthy curfews, blocking critical access points to towns, executing arrests and seizing homes for military use.
No arrangements have been put in place for the Palestinian expellees, leaving them to seek temporary and precarious shelter in community centres, event halls and mosques.听 The cessation of UN Relief and Works Agency activity in the West Bank camps has also effectively concluded the most vital link of aid to the refugees.
The Israeli advocacy group, Physicians for Human Rights, has noted shortages in food, power and medical supplies, along with incessant Israel Defence Forces efforts to obstruct 鈥楻ed Crescent vehicles and humanitarian services, delaying their ability to provide first aid or transport patients for 鈥� treatment鈥�.
The blunt savagery of these latest actions, as with the broader campaign against militant groups by Israel, continues the reductive logic that celebrates force over peace, the use of weapons over considerations of diplomacy.听 The direct targeting of refugee camps in the West Bank shows that the Israeli method is one distinctly hostile to the approach Winston Churchill described as 鈥榤eeting jaw to jaw鈥�. In doing so, Israeli is fecundly engendering the next generation of fighters that will, in due course, return the deadly serve with remorseless dedication.听 In the short term, there is also a serious risk that the West Bank operations will fray an already withering truce between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.听 Not that this seems to bother Israel鈥檚 prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who promises a return to full scale war in Gaza if necessary.
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Dissidentvoice.org, February 26. Binoy Kampmark was a commonwealth scholar at the Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
