Anadolu Agency
Middle East Monitor / July 16, 2024
Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right politician currently serving as Israel’s Finance Minister, has made no bones about his plans for the complete annexation of the Occupied West Bank.
Smotrich has openly said he wants to make the Occupied Palestinian Territory “an integral part of the state of Israel”, and that his “life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state”, as reported by Israeli news outlet, Haaretz.
More recently, with the International Court of Justice due to deliver a non-binding ruling on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories this Friday, he has called on Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to formally annex the West Bank.
Under international law, what Smotrich and Israel want is illegal, but given the reality of Israeli actions against Palestinians, it is more likely to happen than not.
Analysts warn the Israeli government has recently taken major steps toward this illegal objective, specifically the handover of power from the Civil Administration, the military authority in the West Bank, to civilian officials who work under Smotrich.
That gives Smotrich’s Settlements Administration power over all aspects of civilian life in the West Bank, from building regulations to agriculture, forestry and other domains, paving the way for the far-right Minister to ramp up the creation of more illegal Israeli settlements and devour more Palestinian land.
For academic and writer, Abdaljawad Omar, the future of the West Bank is nothing but grim.
“The Israeli political system that has financed and built the illegal settlements is now reckoning with the monster it has created, embodied in the rising fortunes of its fascist right-wing,” he told Anadolu.
“This right wing not only seeks, in the long term, to take over most of the land in the West Bank and annex it, but also to cleanse the West Bank from Palestinians.”
All of this is happening under the cover of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, where it has now killed more than 38,700 Palestinians and injured over 89,000, and left millions facing famine and starvation.
“This historical process has been particularly intensified at this moment, when Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza provides the needed leverage for the push for more land grabs, confiscations and build-up of illegal settlements,” said Omar, an academic at the Birzeit University in the West Bank.
Muhannad Ayyash, a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka think tank, stressed that all of this is part of Israel’s efforts “to make life impossible for Palestinians to the extent where many begin to leave Palestine”.
With these new Israeli tactics, there will be “even more restrictions on Palestinians living in the West Bank in terms of their movement, access to their lands, the ability to build new homes and, in general, their ability to live a decent, free and dignified life,” he told Anadolu.
Gunning for complete control
In late June, Israeli media reported that the government, at Smotrich’s request, approved the legalization of five illegal settlements in Area B of the Occupied West Bank.
Reports also reveal that the Israeli government has decided to limit or prohibit Palestinian construction in Area B, which makes up about 22 per cent of the West Bank and is theoretically under shared control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel.
“This is part of the process of colonization, defining new frontiers for expansion of illegal settlements and making sure to upend any previous agreements over Area B,” said Omar.
“The right-wing fascists are set now to control the fate of Area C and B. Later down the road, their eyes will be on Area A, where the PA controls both security and civil matters,” he said.
Ayyash emphasized that Israel has always opposed the concept of Palestinian sovereignty.
“Israel wants exclusive Israeli Jewish sovereignty over the entire land from the river to the sea, with very small areas (maybe 5 per cent to 8 per cent) of historic Palestine being under Palestinian self-administration, but not self-determination or sovereignty,” he said.
“This is the goal that all of Israel’s diverse instruments of exploitation are aiming to achieve.”
‘Policy of uninhibited violence’
Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has been consistently intensified since last October, in parallel with its deadly offensive on Gaza, including killings, settlement attacks and demolitions.
At least 574 Palestinians, including at least 136 children, have been killed and nearly 5,350 others injured by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Israel has also detained at least 9,670 Palestinians since 7 October, figures from the Palestinian government and NGOs show.
“Israel’s policy in the West Bank is to fight a nascent resistance, expand its territorial conquest and brutalize Palestinians through its ability to kill and imprison,” Omar said.
“While in Gaza it uses massacres and wholesale destruction, in the West Bank the regime’s brutality manifests most prominently in imprisonment.” Ayyash said Israeli aggression in the West Bank is part of its “policy of uninhibited violence”.
“Some experts talk about the West Bank-isation of Gaza, others talk about how the West Bank will one day face the same type of genocidal violence we are now witnessing in Gaza,” he said.
“Regardless of the differences in their tactics, strategies and instruments of state violence, the Israeli state desires the same outcome for all Palestinians living everywhere in Palestine, and that is the expulsion from their lands.”
He warned that more Israeli aggression is “forthcoming”.
“They are getting away with genocide at the moment, given that the international community, with some exceptions, is either refusing or is unable to stop Israel’s rampage,” he said.
“So long as Israel continues to enjoy international impunity, it will continue to escalate its uninhibited violence against the Palestinian people.”
However, he asserted that the Palestinians “will not be so easily defeated” and that they “will resist and remain on their lands still standing.”
Omar also emphasized the need for Israel to be held accountable for its violence.
“Absent the ability to achieve any political agreement, the push to weaken the Palestinian Authority and its loss of legitimacy, coupled with expansive brutality, tells us that the future is grim,” he said.
