Bi-Weekly Brief for April 11, 2022
A digest of Israel’s ongoing dispossession of Palestinian land and livelihoods, and Palestinian resistance.
Hopes for a ‘quiet’ Ramadan eclipsed by Bennett’s promise of war without limits on Palestinians
As Secretary of State Blinken stumped the region urging ‘normalization’ with Israel, the limitations of the US/Israel strategy of forging an ‘economic peace’ by giving Palestinians additional work permits but virtually nothing else became apparent. While Palestinian children continued to be killed by Israeli forces, Palestinians staged four lethal attacks killing 14 Israelis since March 22. Palestinian citizens of Israel killed four Israeli civilians in Be’er Sheva on March 22 and two border police in Hadera on March 27. West Bank Palestinians from the Jenin area subsequently killed five people in a mass shooting in Bnei Brak on March 29, and two (a third later died of his wounds) in an April 7th shooting in Tel Aviv. The alleged Tel Aviv assailant, 28-year-old Raad Hazem from Jenin refugee camp, was killed the next day in a shootout in Jaffa. Exactly 20 years earlier, when he was 9 years old, the Israeli army destroyed much of Jenin refugee camp with F16s, Apache helicopters, 150 tanks, and armored bulldozers, killing at least 52 people and leaving some 13,000 homeless. On April 8, Prime Minister Bennett gave Israeli security forces ‘full freedom of action’ with ‘no limits’ to prevent future attacks. The next day the army escalated its raids around the West Bank, injuring and arresting scores of people in the areas around Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, Jericho and Tulkarem. Jenin was encircled and entry was denied to Palestinian citizens of Israel who bring it 70% of its business. A military force raided the Jenin refugee camp, wounded and arrested dozens, and killed 21-year-old Ahmad Nasser Sa’adi while preparing Raad Hazem’s family home for demolition. On April 10, 17-year-old Muhammed Zakarneh was shot in Jenin and died the next day. Also on April 10, soldiers at a checkpoint near Bethlehem killed Ghada al-Sabateen, a 47-year-old mother of six who was unarmed. They said she had approached them in a ‘suspicious manner.’ The army also shot dead 24-year-old Maha Awad near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron who reportedly stabbed a border guard, killed 21-year-old Mohammed Ali Ghoneim with a shot to his back during a raid on al-Khader near Bethlehem, and shot dead a Jewish Israeliin the city of Ashkelon, believing he was a Palestinian. The Israeli High Court has ruled that families of victims of terrorist attacks could sue the Palestinian Authority for financial compensation.
Keeping the West Bank sealed off from Israel not seen as a viable ‘security’ option
The attacks by West Bank Palestinians have raised questions about the purpose and efficacy of Israel’s 310-mile long separation wall, much of which lies within the West Bank. In 2004 those sections were declared ‘contrary to international law’ by the International Court of Justice, which ruled they should be dismantled. Israel has always insisted that the wall was an essential ‘security’ measure, even as it served another purpose: that of appropriating Palestinian land and water sources. But now, as many Israelis demand that Palestinian workers be kept out of Israel, some military officers see the explosively dire economic situation in the West Bank as a bigger security risk, and claim intense surveillance of the Palestinian population is a more effective security device than the wall. A defense official recently stated that “it was impossible to control every breach in the barrier” and it would be a mistake to try to prevent up to 50,000 Palestinian workers without permits from entering Israel daily through those breaches, given the economic distress in the West Bank. On April 9, the army recommended increasing the number of work permits so Palestinian workers would be easier to monitor. The 140,000 Palestinians who work legally in Israel and in settlements pay $750 a month for permits – more than a quarter of their monthly wage.
Bennett’s coalition imperiled by defections from his own party
The Israeli government is facing an uncertain future. On April 6, Bennett’s ruling coalition lost its one-seat majority as Idit Silman, the majority whip from his own Yamina party, went over to Netanyahu’s opposition bloc to protest the Health Minister’s decision to allow visitors to bring leavened bread into hospitals during Passover. Its downfall could be guaranteed if the demands of another Yamina Knesset member, Nir Orbach, are not met. He said he would leave the coalition if plans for 4,000 new settlement homes are not approved and ‘illegal’ outposts are not connected to the electricity grid.
Israel continues its war on Palestinian children, including babies
As it marked April 5 as Palestinian Child Day, the Palestinian Prisoners Society stated that Israel has arrested more than 9,000 children since 2015, including some who were under 10 years of age. At least 53,000 children have been detained since 1967, and many have been subjected to abuse and torture. There are now some 160 children in Israel’s jails. On April 7, Palestinian students at Tel Aviv University held a sit-in to support Palestinian child prisoners, and highlighted the case of Ahmad Manasra, who was 13 when he was arrested in 2015 and subjected to an abusive interrogation. He remains incarcerated and is suffering from severe mental problems. Some children in the Gaza Strip are being denied medical treatment. On April 1, 19-month-old Fatima al-Masri died after waiting 5 months for permission to leave the Gaza Strip to have an operation in Jerusalem to mend the hole in her heart. The newborn are also at risk: on March 31, medical staff had to quickly move incubators when the army fired rounds of tear gas canisters near a Jenin hospital. On April 8, a 10-year-old lost an eye when he was shot in the face with a rubber bullet, and two days later, an Israeli officer was filmed roughing up a 10-year-old boy in East Jerusalem.
US officials determined to shield Israel from investigation into its treatment of Palestinians
On March 28, CNN reported that a bipartisan group of US lawmakers was ‘disappointed’ with Israel’s failure to take action on Ukraine, either by sending weapons or imposing sanctions, especially considering how much aid Israel receives from the US. Some of that aid continues to be diplomatic. During the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council which ended on April 1, the US, UK and Marshall Islands were the lone votesagainst four resolutions criticizing Israel, including one opposing settlements and one affirming the Palestinian right to self-determination. While Israel blasted the appointment of attorney Francesca Albanese to serve as the new ‘Special Rapporteur’ investigating Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, US Members of Congress marshalled bipartisan forces to put forward an AIPAC-supported bill (H.R. 7223) abolishing the permanent UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) set up by the Human Rights Council soon after Israel’s May 2021 onslaught against Gaza. Sixty-eight Senators sent an AIPAC-crafted letter to Secretary of State Blinken urging him to get the COI terminated. On April 7, Israel moved from its strained fence-sitting posture and supported a successful US push in the UN General Assembly to eject Russia from the Human Rights Council, even as Israeli Foreign Minister Lapid lambasted the Council as a “morally flawed, biased and anti-Israeli body.” On the same day, it was reported that Israel had turned down a US proposal for a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian national security advisors at the White House. The meeting was not meant to initiate new negotiations - which Prime Minister Bennett has firmly rejected – but to bolster the Palestinian Authority and prevent Hamas from gaining more support in the West Bank.
Water Fact
The Amnesty International report Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians quotes Zakaria Baker, the coordinator of Gaza’s local Fishermen Committees. Over the last few years, Baker stated, there has been an increase in the cases where Israeli navy officers order Palestinian fisherman to strip off their clothes and swim to their vessels: “The navy demands that fishermen swim over to them naked regardless of how cold the water is. In the winter, they need to swim in really cold water. This is not just a violation of their dignity, it also puts their lives at risk for no reason” (p. 186). The navy continues to attack Palestinian fishing boats off the Gaza coast nearly every day and on April 9 arrested fishermen and confiscated their boats and equipment.
Compiled by The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
Banner design by Paul Normandia of Red Sun Press
