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<div class="gmail-inner-article-top"><h1 class="gmail-">Jewish settlers, paving the way for West Bank annexation</h1><p class="gmail-">Israeli
settlers are escalating state-sanctioned violence and annexation
ambitions in the occupied West Bank, exploiting the world’s distraction
with the war on Gaza to legalize outposts, land-grab, and advance ethnic
cleansing against Palestinians.</p><div class="gmail-another-name"><p><a href="https://thecradle.co/authors/robert-inlakesh" style="color:rgb(164,4,4)">Robert Inlakesh</a></p></div><div class="gmail-another-name" style="margin-top:16px"><p><span>JUL 19, 2024 -<font size="1"> </font></span><font size="1"><a href="https://thecradle.co/articles/jewish-settlers-paving-the-way-for-west-bank-annexation">https://thecradle.co/articles/jewish-settlers-paving-the-way-for-west-bank-annexation</a></font></p></div></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-img"><img src="http://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles/686908f0-45e5-11ef-891f-00163e02c055.jpeg" alt="" width="490" height="232" style="margin-right: 0px;"><span>(Photo Credit: The Cradle)</span></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-content"><div class="gmail-row"><div class="gmail-col-md-8 gmail-col-sm-7"><div class="gmail-article-content"><span><p>While
the world’s attention has been diverted to Tel Aviv’s relentless
military offensive in Gaza, the Israeli settler movement has escalated
its state-sanctioned violence in the occupied West Bank. </p><p><a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/23974">Capitalizing</a> on the distraction, Jewish settlers have intensified their attacks, culminating in the recent ‘<a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240628-israel-approves-plan-to-legalise-west-bank-settlement-outposts-sanction-palestinian-authority/">legalization</a>’
of five outposts by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. This move is part of a calculated strategy of settlement
expansion and ethnic cleansing, paving the way for eventual formal
annexation.</p><p>The occupation government has approved measures
proposed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to legalize the
settler outposts, initiate tenders for thousands more illegal settler
units, and impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the
West Bank.</p><p>Smotrich, himself an <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/6384">illegal West Bank settler</a>, has vowed that these measures will pave the way for the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/6/28/israels-smotrich-promises-a-million-new-settlers-under-expansion-plan">introduction</a> of a million new settlers.</p><p><strong>Record settler violence and ethnic cleansing</strong></p><p>Decrying the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/reports/ahrc5572-israeli-settlements-occupied-palestinian-territory-including-east">expansion</a>
of settlements at record rates, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk
condemned Israel’s decision in March to construct an additional 3,476
settler homes in the West Bank. In this post-Al-Aqsa Flood reality,
assaults on the homes, businesses, and Palestinian populations by
rampaging settlers have surged to unprecedented levels. </p><p>In an April <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/17/west-bank-israel-responsible-rising-settler-violence">report</a>, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented the extreme violence:</p><blockquote><p>Israeli
settlers have assaulted, tortured, and committed sexual violence
against Palestinians, stolen their belongings and livestock, threatened
to kill them if they did not leave permanently, and destroyed their
homes and schools under the cover of the ongoing hostilities in Gaza.</p></blockquote><p>Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, over 540 Palestinians have been <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/canada-sanctions-israeli-extremists-settler-groups-over-violence-against-palestinians/#:~:text=Since%20October%207%2C%20troops%20have,been%20killed%20in%20that%20time.">murdered</a>
in the West Bank, dozens of them by Israeli settlers assaulting
defenseless villages under the protection of the occupation army.</p><p>In addition, state-backed settler “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/opinions/2024/2/26/settler-violence-israels-ethnic-cleansing-plan-for-the-west-bank">Defense Squad</a>” militias that were <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-17/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israels-army-drafted-thousands-of-settlers-accounts-of-their-violence-are-piling-up/0000018d-12e7-d260-aded-b7efddbe0000">supplied</a>
with some 7,000 rifles after 7 October immediately took to ethnically
cleansing thousands of Palestinians from some 16 farming communities
located in Al-Khalil (Hebron), in addition to four other communities
near Ramallah.</p><p>As Ubai al-Aboudi, Director of the Bisan Center for Research and Development, tells <i>The Cradle</i>:</p><blockquote><p>What
has happened since October 7 is that the Israeli army’s general order
has collapsed, so any action by any soldier is not only permitted but is
also allowed against Palestinians. So, if you look at this from a
historical perspective, it is a continuation and intensification; they
see that the world is busy with what is happening in Gaza, so they are
implementing their plans to push people out of their lands and replace
them with Jewish settlers.</p></blockquote><p><strong>Strategic annexation plans</strong></p><p>One
investigative report published in the Hebrew media indicated that since
the Hamas-led resistance operation began, Israel’s Security Minister <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/2193">Itamar Ben Gvir</a> had <a href="https://www.mako.co.il/tv-ilana_dayan/2023/Article-fcb9b89df8dfb81026.htm?sCh=3d385dd2dd5d4110&pId=1434139730">ordered</a>
the police to stop enforcing the law against his fellow West Bank
settlers. This spike in settlement expansion, lawlessness, and illegal
settler violence also fits into what appears to be an accelerated effort
to annex large swathes of the West Bank entirely.</p><p>Back in February, a document presented by Netanyahu to his war cabinet, entitled “<a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/02/24/ycfh-f24.html">The Day After Hamas Principles</a>,” set out to assert complete Israeli sovereignty over everything west of the Jordan River.</p><p>Although
the occupation state has failed abysmally to defeat the Palestinian
resistance in Gaza, and the prospect of annexing the besieged coastal
territory – with any international buy-in – appears slim, the Zionist
settler movement, which currently dominates Netanyahu’s ruling coalition
is seizing an opportunity to achieve many of their desired goals in the
area they see as “Israel’s biblical heartland.”</p><p>Israel recently implemented a decision, first announced by the military on 29 May, to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/20/idf-transfers-powers-in-occupied-west-bank-to-pro-settler-civil-servants">transfer</a>
the responsibility for dozens of Civil Administration bylaws from the
army to “civil servants” who work as officials at the Israeli defense
ministry under Smotrich.</p><p>This followed Tel Aviv’s decision to begin changing the official governing structure of the West Bank by <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/06/08/israel-palestine-west-bank-annexation-netanyahu-smotrich-far-right/">transferring</a>
administrative powers from military to civilian control – in essence, a
step toward declaring the de jure annexation of the West Bank.</p><p><strong>State-backed settler expansion</strong></p><p>Currently, there are around 146 Israeli <a href="https://peacenow.org.il/en/settlements-watch/settlements-data/population">settlements</a> and roughly 191 settler outposts in the occupied West Bank, which <a href="https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2017/50-years-illegal-settlements/index.html">controls</a>
around 46 percent of the territory. Almost all of these Jewish
settlements are situated in what is known as Area C, which accounts for
roughly 61 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli security
and administrative control as per the 1995 Oslo Agreement signed with
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).</p><p>The recent measures in the West Bank are part of a 2017 settler movement proposal titled “<a href="https://www.972mag.com/settlements-roads-infrastructure-smotrich/">Decisive Plan</a>,”
aiming to double the Jewish presence in the territory. Although the
plan was not enacted at the time, the war in Gaza provided opportunistic
conditions for its implementation and means to facilitate the
annexation of the West Bank.</p><p>In August of last year, Israeli
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who himself resides in the illegal
settlement of Kedumim, announced his intention to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-said-aiming-to-allocate-180m-to-settlements-including-illegal-outposts/">allocate</a>
$120 million to settlement and settler outpost construction. It was
also revealed in 2023 that the Israeli military had set up what it calls
the ‘<a href="https://www.972mag.com/desert-frontier-idf-hilltop-youth/">Desert Frontier</a>’ unit, which integrated extremist settlers from the ‘Hilltop Youth’ settler groups.</p><p>These
radicals drew such concern that Israeli intelligence launched an
operation to infiltrate their ranks. Known for turning their weapons on
both army soldiers and Palestinian civilians, these Jewish extremists
were once considered terrorists even by Israeli standards.</p><p><strong>Political empowerment</strong></p><p>While Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank had already <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/3/israeli-settler-attacks-against-palestinians-by-the-numbers">risen to record highs</a> between 2021 and 2023, UN data indicates that settler violence <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/israel-settlers-violence-against-palestine-west-bank">doubled</a> in October 2023 and has only continued to surge.</p><p>This spike coincides with <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-primed-for-authority-over-key-west-bank-appointments-in-deal-with-likud/">increased influence</a>
granted by Netanyahu to far-right politicians such as Ben Gvir and
Smotrich – and emboldened others like the Israeli military’s Chief of
Staff <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2023/11/07/who-is-herzi-halevi-the-chief-of-staff-of-the-israel-defence-forces">Herzi Halevi</a>, yet another illegal West Bank settler.</p><p>To
compound matters, Israeli settler militias that launch violent,
unprovoked assaults on Palestinian villages have been discovered using
army-issued <a href="https://twitter.com/PeaceNowIL/status/1672655841449631745">assault rifles</a>
in their rampages. Settler organizations, including legal outfits that
launch appeals in Israeli courts to bulldoze Palestinian homes, also
receive financing from the government. All of this demonstrates the
interconnectivity between the occupation state and the most radical
elements of the settler movement.</p><p>To smooth that pathway, Israel’s wealthiest billionaire, Miriam Adelson, recently <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2024-06-03/ty-article/.premium/trump-is-desperate-for-cash-but-donors-have-conditions/0000018f-df3a-db29-a3ef-ff3a27530000">donated $100 million</a>
to Donald Trump’s 2024 Presidential bid, anticipating that he would
recognize the Israeli annexation of the West Bank once re-elected.</p><p>Should
the Israeli government pursue official annexation, it is expected to
target Area C of the West Bank, an area rich in water and agricultural
lands that accounts for about 61 percent of the territory.</p><p><strong>Legalizing land theft</strong></p><p>On 18 July, the Israeli Knesset passed a bill <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/25987">rejecting Palestinian Statehood</a>, reinforcing a long-standing government agenda. Since 2017, public <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/likud-top-body-votes-to-annex-parts-of-the-west-bank/">proposals to annex</a> parts of the West Bank have been promoted by the ruling Likud Party.</p><p>Speaking to <i>The Cradle</i>, Khaled Barakat, a leader of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path (PARP) movement, says:</p><blockquote><p>To
explain this new wave of Israeli settlements, we have to go back to
2005, 2006, to the time when Ariel Sharon was the Prime Minister and
when all the Israeli troops withdrew from Gaza due to the resistance; he
found himself in a situation where he had suffered a defeat and so
adopted the strategy of occupying all the hills of the West Bank.</p></blockquote><p>Barakat adds:</p><blockquote><p>They
then established new armed settler organizations, which is why there
are now 12 of them; they are armed, they are militias, and they
cooperate directly with the Israeli army. The major danger behind these
settler militias in the West Bank is that they are non-State actors, so
when they attack Palestinians daily, Israel says well, we have nothing
to do with that; they are just residents of the West Bank. They are, of
course, not residents; they are armed colonialist settlers that remind
Palestinians of the same gangs that existed in Palestine in the 1930s
and the ones that actually founded the Zionist regime.</p></blockquote><p><strong> </strong>In 2019, Netanyahu <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/9/10/20859101/israel-netanyahu-jordan-valley-annex-election-september">proposed</a> annexing the Jordan Valley, sparing only a small pocket <a href="https://twitter.com/RaphaelAhren/status/1171447732902301697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1171447732902301697%7Ctwgr%5E1a1ec9424fe872c1d2f6365d6411ce4d78982c2d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fworld%2F2019%2F9%2F10%2F20859101%2Fisrael-netanyahu-jordan-valley-annex-election-september">under PA control</a>.
This strategy involves maintaining the PA’s power in Areas A and B,
home to over 3.2 million Palestinians, to avoid the logistical and
financial burden of direct rule. Netanyahu’s policy aims to ensure the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-said-to-tell-knesset-panel-that-israel-needs-the-palestinian-authority/">PA’s survival</a> for security collaboration while simultaneously undermining Palestinian Statehood and annexing West Bank territory.</p><p>As
Israel struggles to secure military victories over Hamas in Gaza and
Hezbollah in Lebanon, Netanyahu may pivot to annexation efforts in the
West Bank. This could involve a military campaign similar to the <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/operation-defensive-shield-lessons-and-aftermath">2002 Operation Defensive Shield</a>, aimed at dismantling resistance groups and projecting an image of victory to maintain support from far-right settler allies.</p></span></div></div></div></div>
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