08 Aug 2023 at 05:01 Update: 5 minutes ago
The United Nations sees an increase in violent incidents committed by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian Territories in the first half of 2023. Experts tell NU.nl that the ultra-nationalist government is an important cause of the increase.
In the first six months of 2023, 591 incidents were reported, according to a six-monthly rapport. That is more than in the whole of 2021, when a total of 540 incidents were reported. In 2022 there were a total of 856 violent incidents.
The report distinguishes between physical violence, violence that resulted in material damage and both forms of violence. Of the 591 incidents registered to date, 166 involved physical violence, sometimes resulting in death. That number is also already greater than the total number in 2021. Then there were 150 incidents involving physical violence. In 2022, this number was 231.
The UN also sees that in 2022 and 2023 a total of 399 Palestinians were forced to leave their community. In many cases, this happened as a result of the violence of settlers and sometimes also Israeli authorities.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a nutshell
Israel conquered the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967. Since then, the country has occupied those areas, while some parts have Palestinian self-government. Israel is trying to annex the occupied areas ‘silently’ by establishing Israeli settlements. In the 1990s, it seemed for a while that the Oslo Accords brought rapprochement between the two parties, but peace never came. Since then, violence has flared up regularly. Although many Western countries, including the Netherlands, do not recognize Palestine, the Israeli settlements are considered illegal considered.
‘Government no longer intervenes, but encourages’
Experts see a connection between the arrival of the government in December 2022 and the increase in violence. The government is increasingly looking after the interests of settlers, says Thomas van Gool, who thinks that the actual figures are even higher.
Van Gool is affiliated with peace organization PAX, which is critical of human rights violations by both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. “The government no longer intervenes, which was sometimes the case under previous governments. The army supports and ministers encourage it.”
Anne de Jong, anthropologist at the University of Amsterdam, also sees this. “There is not only a government that does not act against violence, but you can see that it is simply encouraged,” says De Jong.
De Jong and Van Gool refer, among other things, to statements by ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir (Internal Security) and Bezalel Smotrich (Finance), who encourage Israelis to settle in the Palestinian Territories. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are among the most extreme Jewish nationalist “hardliners” in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
‘Settlements are conscious policy’
According to De Jong, the nationalist government has contributed “on various levels” to the increase in violent settlements. “On a symbolic level because Ben-Gvir has entered the holy ground of the Al Aqsa mosque,” says De Jong. “That’s a hugely provocative act.”
But there have also been much more direct provocations towards Palestine. De Jong refers to the attack by the Israeli army on Jenin, in the north of the West Bank. At least 12 Palestinians were killed in the largest attack on the West Bank in 20 years.
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“New settlements have also been approved, which is illegal under international law.” Van Gool: “It is a conscious policy of the government to further expand those settlements.”
Incidentally, the increase in the number of reported incidents started years ago, even before the current government took office. “The Palestinians have seen for years that there is no improvement,” says De Jong. But under the current government, the increase in violence may accelerate.
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“The wolf has taken off his sheep’s clothing”
The question is therefore whether the government will soon moderate its policy. De Jong does not see this happening any time soon, but there is still reason to hope. Because settlement policy is increasingly being enshrined in official policy and violence by settlers is publicly supported, it can also be criticized more easily. “Ngos I work with see a kind of dot on the horizon of hope,” says De Jong. “They say: ‘At least the wolf has taken off his sheep’s clothing. We can take targeted action against this.'”
Moreover, there are also a lot of Israelis who oppose the government’s policy. “That coincides with the demonstrations against the limitation of the power of the Supreme Court,” says van Gool. According to him, it is becoming increasingly clear that proponents of the controversial legal reforms are often settlers. “Opponents of those reforms are increasingly realizing that those are the people who curtail freedom.”
Finally, the current government policy may finally provoke a reaction from the international community, which has hardly happened yet. Van Gool: “We all know that there is no EU consensus on Israel and Palestine. But you would expect countries that value democracy to respond to this. And that is not happening.”
2023-08-08 03:01:00
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