After the escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in recent days, it is difficult to grasp that the week had actually begun with very good intentions and even cautiously hopeful prospects.
But these seem to have been totally ruined as a result of the new mutual attacks carried out by both parties. On the one hand, there were attacks committed against Israeli civilians, a fact that was added to the attacks of Jewish settlers against Palestinian villages, an episode that aggravates the clashes and adds a new dimension that had not occurred before.
And it is that these two months that go from 2023 have been the most violent in the framework of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that have been recorded since 2000.
The conference in Jordan
On Sunday, February 26, a multilateral security conference was held in Aqaba (Jordan) whose objective was to stop the deterioration of relations between Israelis and Palestinians, to calm the situation as much as possible and thus try to ensure that the approach of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan does not become an uncontrollable scene of violence.
Knowing the explosive potential of the religious component of that month, several regional actors got down to work to try to ensure that the complex situation on the ground that has been escalating in recent weeks does not become a major conflagration. .
(You can read: Palestinian grandmother refuses to be expelled from her home due to attacks in the West Bank)
Actually, the initiative was from the United States, but the key regional sponsors were Jordan and Egypt, and the central players, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The very realization of the event was a good sign, since It was the first meeting in years in which senior representatives of the security spheres of both parties participated jointly.
On the Palestinian side, PA Chairman Mahmud Abbas sent his closest aide Hussein al-Sheikh and his top security chief Majdi Farraj. On the Israeli side were the director of the National Security Council, Tsaji Hanegbi, and the head of the Shin Bet, the General Security Service, Ronen Bar, who is in charge of the fight against terrorism.
It was the first meeting in years in which senior representatives participated jointly
In this last point there was also a key element of the event that must be explained.
(You may be interested in: Why the violence between Israel and the Palestinians is at a ‘critical point’)
It should be remembered that the new government coalition in Israel headed by the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, includes -among others- two parties that are further to the right of the ideological spectrum than Likud itself (to which Netanyahu belongs), openly hardline and opposed to any kind of relationship with the Palestinian Authority.
Its leaders, Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, head of the party called “Religious Zionism,” and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the “Jewish Power” party, consider the Palestinian Authority to be “a terrorist authority ” which must be crumbled.
And the fact that Netanyahu, who is undoubtedly the most pragmatic element in the coalition he leads, has sent high command to that summit in Jordan It was a demonstration that despite his own criticism of the Palestinian Authority, he is interested in maintaining the link with it and coordination on security issues.
For Israel, security coordination with the Palestinian Authority sometimes contributes to the fight against terrorism. In addition, if the PA falls and disappears, the responsibility for the daily life of the Palestinian population of the occupied West Bank, of which the vast majority lives in the areas ruled by Abbas, would fall to Israel.
Third, if the PA falls, the Hamas organization – which already ousted the Gaza Authority in 2006 – will do everything possible to take control of the land, a big problem for Israel.
And from the PA’s point of view, the risk of falling apart in defeat by Hamas is an existential danger. Actually, it is also in economic terms.
(You can read: Israel’s dangerous turn towards autocracy)
The parties should not take “unilateral steps” that undermine stability
It is for this last reason that one of the AP’s demands for the conference in Jordan was to receive substantial financial support, among other things to be able to recruit many more security personnel and even weapons to equip them.
This, for Israel, is a double-edged sword since in recent times the attacks committed against Israeli targets by members of President Abbas’s own security services have increased considerably.
With all these background complexities, the conference in Aqaba It concluded with some agreements whose central point was that the parties should not take “unilateral steps” that undermine stability. For the PA, the main thing was to ensure that Israel does not build more colonies in the Palestinian territories.
However, at the end of the summit, the head of Israel’s National Security Council, Tsaji Hanegbi, clarified that Israel had not shelved its announced plan to build 9,400 housing units in existing colonies and legalize nine unauthorized outposts. .
Apparently, Israel says that it will, but Netanyahu has agreed behind the scenes not to make any such announcements for a long time. But now, all of that seems like a distant past.
(Also: What does the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank imply?)
new attacks
While the conference in Jordan was still in session, the news came about a new attack. Two young Israelis, who were brothers living in a settlement north of the West Bank, were shot to death as they were traveling in their car near Hawara village, on a road that is used daily by Israelis and Palestinians.
A few hours later came the response from an extremist sector among the Jewish settlers and unauthorized posts near Hawara, the scene of the attack, from which the murderer is estimated to have come.
Although the mother of the two murdered young people broadcast a recording addressed to young people in which she asked that the response be to devote themselves to the study of the Holy Scriptures and to do good actions, the extremists opted for something totally different.
Dozens of Israelis from the area stormed especially Hawara, and other Palestinian towns, and they set houses and cars on fire and wreaked havoc in the area. According to the Palestinians, one man was killed and dozens were injured, most reportedly from smoke inhalation and tear gas, and some also with physical injuries.
The head of the central command of the Israeli army, Amir Fuks, called what happened a “pogrom”, using a term used to refer to anti-Semitic attacks such as those that occurred in Europe in the last century.
The vast majority of the Israeli authorities, from President Herzog to Netanyahu through various ministers, including hard-line ones, condemned the events and urged that no one take the law into their own hands.
A Likud party deputy, Moshé Saáda, said that the state should compensate those affected. But there were also those who expressed joy.
(Keep reading: West Bank sees a bolstered far right)
And on Wednesday, Minister Smotrich, who had urged not to act on their own and let the security forces do what they have to do, declared that “Israel must wipe out Hawara.” Former Defense Minister Beni Gantz, today one of the opposition leaders, accused him of wanting to “impose chaos.”
It should be noted that the extremists who attacked Palestinians also attacked army officers and soldiers who were trying to impose order.
and it’s not over
The big question now is what comes next for the region that has seen an unprecedented increase in the spiral of violence in recent weeks.
On the one hand, Israeli security sources hinted that efforts would be made to try to reduce operational initiatives on the ground, but clarifying that when there are “time bombs” action must be taken.
And since this continues, this Wednesday there was also an operation, this time in the Akbat Jaber refugee camp next to Jericho, from which the cell that killed another young Palestinian on Monday came out. The four members of the cell were arrested.
Israeli security sources hinted that efforts would be made to try to reduce operational initiatives on the ground.
The Israeli incursion came after security forces searched for the last two days for the alleged perpetrators of the shooting that killed Elan Ganeles, an American-Israeli citizen who was shot while driving a car on Highway 90, in Israel the day before yesterday. Occupied West Bank near Jericho.
(Also read: Israel, at risk of constitutional crisis due to discussion on judicial reform)
All of this is taking place against a serious backdrop of violence in the region. In two months, 63 Palestinians have been killed, largely due to almost daily Israeli arrest operations in the occupied West Bank, which often lead to armed clashes with Palestinians.
Likewise, the number of people killed on the Israeli side so far in 2023 rises to 14, after several deadly attacks committed by Palestinians, part of them in occupied East Jerusalem and others in the West Bank.
And the truth is that on the ground, the tension, instead of slowing down, on the contrary is constantly increasing. And the proximity of Ramadan adds gunpowder.
Meanwhile, against the background of the Israeli-Palestinian tension, the Israeli government managed to advance this Wednesday in one more instance the bill that would allow the death penalty to be applied to Palestinians who commit attacks against Israeli Jews, by achieving a first endorsement in a plenary session of Parliament in which the Executive also promotes other legal proposals of its controversial judicial reform plan.
In order for the legal proposal to be definitively approved, it must still be voted on in three additional readings in full parliament, a staggered process that will be launched at a later date.
JANA BERIS
FOR THE TIME
JERUSALEM
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