Jakarta –
Feelings and normality have returned to Nablus, a Palestinian city in the center of the West Bank now occupied by Israel. The shops have reopened and the vendors at the fruit stalls are back to selling.
In mid-October, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) blockaded the city for nearly three weeks looking for Palestinian militants who ambushed and killed an Israeli soldier in a nearby settlement.
In a family-run bookstore located at the entrance to the Old City, Palestinian resident Yousef Kandakji described the past few weeks as “very difficult”.
“The two main entrances to Nablus are closed, sometimes the army allows you to enter but not to leave or vice versa,” Yousef Kandakji said. “(The move) halts all movement in and out of the city.”
Israeli forces have stepped up attacks in the West Bank in recent months to counter what Israeli officials describe as a growing terrorist threat.
Since March, Israeli and Palestinian Arabs have carried out a series of attacks that have killed at least 16 Israelis and two foreigners in Israel, according to a United Nations (UN) report. In addition, at least four Israelis, two of them soldiers, have been killed in East Jerusalem and the West Bank in recent weeks.
While on the other hand, Israeli forces have killed more than 100 Palestinians, including children, in the occupied West Bank so far this year. This was stated by the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, in a statement released in October 2022.
Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has also increased, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The United Nations also said this year has the potential to be the deadliest for Palestinians since 2005.
Residents are concerned about the alliance between Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir
At the end of October, Germany, France, Italy and Spain issued a joint statement, saying that “the ongoing tensions and the growing number of casualties on both sides in the occupied Palestinian territories are deeply worrying”.
Meanwhile, the possibility of Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently won an electoral majority, joining the far-right alliance, Religious Zionism, in a coalition government has worried Palestinians.
“Netanyahu doesn’t want peace at all. He just wants destruction, we all know that and the disaster it can bring to the Palestinian people,” Yousef Kandakji said.
“And now with more extremist factions, we also know Ben-Gvir very well from his work in Jerusalem,” the young Palestinian said. He was referring to Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the leaders of the religious Zionist alliance. “He created a lot of tension.”
Other Palestinians have also expressed the same concern. “Ben-Gvir does not ask for anything good,” said Ayat Bustami, a young Palestinian woman who was shopping in the Old City at the time. Another buyer, Randa Jaish, added that the situation was “getting bleaker every day”.
“No Partner for Peace”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said “the election results confirm that we have no partner in Israel for peace.” He called on the international community to “provide protection to our people from Israel’s aggressive policies after a racist party came to power”.
With a growing far-right wing wanting settlement expansion and eventually annexation of the West Bank, hopes for peace talks look dim for Palestinians. The last direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials took place in 2014 under the auspices of US Secretary of State John Kerry.
“The problem is that we don’t see that the Israeli public is willing to vote for a government that is willing to address the core issues, namely the occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem,” he said. political analyst Sam Bahour. in Ramallah.
Several United Nations resolutions classify Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel captured and occupied in 1967 after the Six-Day War, as illegal under international law. They compartmentalize the West Bank into peripheral cities and make the prospect of an independent and coexisting Palestinian state impossible.
Concerns in East Jerusalem
Almost every Friday afternoon for more than a decade, small groups of Israeli and Palestinian leftist activists have been protesting settlements in the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem. This time, several right-wing protesters were seen waving Israeli flags and Itamar Ben-Gvir posters across the street. The police officers separated the two opposing groups.
Some Israeli activists still can’t really believe yesterday’s election results. “The fact that a person like Ben-Gvir can have 14 mandates in parliament with the thoughts of him being horrific, racist, black and white…it’s appalling,” said Israeli activist Ada Bilu.
Itamar Ben-Gvir has said he wants to become public security minister in the next government. He supports settlements in Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinians and Israeli nationalists often clash.
“Only God knows what happens next,” said Fatima Salem whose family home was threatened with an eviction order that is now temporarily frozen. Fatima is concerned that the next Israeli government could deploy more settlers.
Since 2009, settler organizations have taken control of four Palestinian properties in the neighborhood and about 75 families are at risk of eviction, according to Israeli non-profit organization Ir Amim. Settlers say the land belonged to Jewish residents before Jordan captured East Jerusalem in the 1948 war.
In May 2021, the potential eviction of several families was one of the factors sparking fighting between Israel and the militant group Hamas in Gaza.
Another resident named Jawad Siyam had joined the demonstration from Silwan, an area south of Jerusalem’s Old City. Part of his family’s home was also repossessed by settlers after a lengthy legal process.
“The Israelis are on the right wing, and what little is left of Israel’s left wing now has no voice,” Siyam said. “It’s actually going to get worse, but then again, how much worse could it be?” ae/cv
(it it)
