What is behind the increase in Palestinian attacks on Israelis? At least 11 people were killed in three incidents in one week. Could the upcoming holidays for Christian Jews and Muslims lead to more shootings and stabbings? More Israeli troops are being sent to the occupied West Bank, prompting the prime minister to declare a wave of terrorism. A gunman shot dead five people in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish town on Tuesday, and six others were killed in two previous attacks in Tel Aviv and Bursiva. Israeli security forces say the attackers were targeted by ISIS. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned that such incidents will happen again as Muslims, Jews and Christians prepare for Ramadan Passover, and Easter.
The
chaos of a major attack inside Israel is the third in a week. It was a densely
populated ultra-Orthodox town east of Tel Aviv. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali
Bennett called an emergency security meeting and warned of a new wave of
terrorism.
“This is a great and complex challenge for the army the security
agency and the police that requires the security establishment to be creative
and for us to adapt ourselves to the new threat and read the tell-tale signs of
lone individuals. Sometimes without organizational affiliation and to be in
control on the ground."
The fear
is that this series of attacks could further affect the already fiery era.
Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad from Gaza have hailed the latest
firing, as they have been attacked in recent days. Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the killing of civilians and warned of the dangers
of further instability. These concerns have certainly been shared by an Israeli
government that is now dealing with the deadliest week of attacks on its
citizens in many years. While the Palestinian president has condemned the
killing of civilians, people say the situation is already deteriorating because
the president has been saying that the massacre of civilians is leading to
deterioration. People talk about settlement expansion, settler attacks, and
even almost night raids by the Israeli army.
Palestinians situation:
When
there are individual attacks on someone should be condemned. However, it is
almost inevitable that if one imposes conditions on the Palestinians that
include permanent occupation, and dispossession in which there is a permanent
reality for the Palestinians where they do not have the basic rights and
freedoms at the public and collective level. You will find on the individual
level a depth of frustration, disappointment and despair
that will sometimes lead you to such actions. We see these things happen
from time to time. If the response is only talking about terrorism and security
measures that need to be taken, which has not yet been done by the state of
Israel, unfortunately, this is exactly what one would expect. We are coming in
the holiday season for the three monotheistic faces. We are very close to the
beginning of Ramadan. Disappointment has increased. Sometimes there is an added
layer of frustration if the situation is expected to improve and it does not.
The intensity of provocations against the Palestinians by the region should not
be ignored. Palestinians recently blunted the Secretary of State during a
handshake with some representatives of the Arab states at a summit in the Negev,
basically saying that we do not want a solution to the Palestinian problem and
we have no interest in them. Some of them may have made some statements about
it, but when you look at it, the UAE-Israel-US Abraham Accord has unquestionably
continued since the Trump era, there was an added
poking in the eye of people. (Levy, D)
What is triggering these attacks?
We need
to put it in the context of the long-term injustice and the occupation and the
oppression that the Palestinians have endured since 1948 and before the
Palestinians lost their society and they are occupied. Palestinians in Gaza
have been under blockade since 2007. The Palestinians in the West Bank are also
under occupation and they are also in trouble with the Palestinian Wall
checkpoints in Jerusalem. They are being evicted. Palestine faces
discrimination and racism in Israel. This is the context of the Palestinian
experience that we have to acknowledge. It is a story of experience and
disposition of the injustice they have experienced, and of occupation and
colonization. The Palestinians have to acknowledge this difficult fact and say
that unfortunately, the international community will not talk about the
Palestinians unless there is some kind of violence on the ground and violence
is certainly not acceptable. The basic issues that led to this violence and
these actions are still there. They have not been addressed and this includes
the rights of Palestinians, including Palestinian independence and security.
Palestinian security is also important and needs to be discussed. International
human rights organizations have emerged in recent weeks, with Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and Israeli human rights groups saying
Palestinians are living an "apartheid” in the occupied territories. This is
really the context that needs to be understood when we talk about the
Palestinian experience.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett:
First of all, we don't know if it can be subsided
especially given the timing because it is close to a religious holiday. The
arrangements in and around Jerusalem itself are a source of tension. It has
been almost a year since the Palestinians often call the Intifada, an
outbreak of escalation in Jerusalem. Therefore, Israel would be strongly
advised not to take any serious steps in its security and policing arrangements
in Jerusalem in the near future. Of course, we have also seen Sheikh Jarrah
evicting Palestinian families from the insensitive areas of Jerusalem. What we do know
is that, long after Netanyahu's rule, this is the first time we've seen such a
hybrid Bennett Coalition deal with it. There is a real concern that if
Bennett continues with the extreme rhetoric that he has used in the past as a
response to his real policy, he is lighting a match. Then things would be
expected to get even deeper in a spiral. If we do not pay attention to the
fact, more is inevitable. (Levy, D)
Response from Israel:
In terms
of the Israeli response, the kind of reaction we have seen over the years and
decades has always been about the use of military force against the Palestinians.
For me, the military response does not represent a solution. It causes more
problems on the ground because we must not forget that the military response is
also part of the occupation structure. The Israeli army is present in the
Palestinian territories and on a daily basis, the Israeli army is engaged in
military operations against the Palestinians. We need to put it in context, not
to defend violence. Violence is not acceptable on either side or internationally.
To understand the long experience of Palestinian occupation, basically, they are
facing is an organized system of apartheid.
This whole system has not produced a profound political response to the
Palestinians. A military response has been about the growing injustice on the
ground. It's also about increasing tensions on the ground. We need a broader
political and deeper solution that addresses fundamental issues. These issues,
of course, include security and the rights of Palestinians. So I'm not
expecting a political response from Bennett. I am expecting a strong and
extreme right-wing response. It will not help but rather increases the tension and
injustice on the ground. We need to try something else that is more
comprehensive and something that solves the problem. In my view, the solution
will be a profound political solution that will facilitate the rights of
Palestinians and security for all.
The religious holidays of Ramadan Passover and Easter:
There is an expectation of some escalation in
violence. Without a comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
violence is almost inevitable and the leadership is incapable of doing anything
about it. The fact is that it is enough to visit either the West Bank or see
the complete indifference on the other side of the Green Line when it comes to
Palestinian life and say that NATO is divided and then the international
community is completely disinterested. As far as Israel is going to react, there
will be an overreaction to this kind of situation. You would see the Israeli
security forces responding, especially at this critical time of the holiday.
You will see the presence of more security forces on the streets, but the
question is whether there is an ability to move away
just from security response? As a result, more Palestinians will be
affected. The sad fact is that on both sides there are very weak
administrations, weak governments and weak governments are more reactive than
really reflective.
Is there any hope right now that that is something that can
actually be achieved?
I can unfortunately give you a relatively clear and unequivocal
answer to this last point which is no, we are not in the solution zone. There
is no willingness on the part of Israel to end the occupation, which human
rights groups have described as a reality of apartheid in the current system.
This is also an important issue. You have the Palestinian Authority which has
distanced itself so much from its own people in order to not allow itself to be
held accountable by its own people in elections etc., and that is widely seen
as a subcontractor for the Israeli authorities and therefore is not in a
position to rally its people in one direction or the other.
Where I particularly wanted to intervene is that if we now fall
into the cycle that we have these attacks, I have seen indiscriminate attacks
on civilians which is clearly unacceptable, but once you get into wider
tensions then one needs to be reminded of the fact that Palestinians have a
legitimate right to resist this military occupation. There is a right and a
responsibility, and I say that in the context of the daily commentary and
pictures coming from Ukraine that we see that suddenly when people are being
lauded as heroic and courageous. While Palestinians are always called terrorists.
(Meckelberg, Y)
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articles.
Yossi
Meckelberg, Senior Consulting Research Fellow at the Chatham House Think
Tank
Yasir
Bashir, Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin
Daniel
Levy, President of the US Middle East Project and Former Israeli Negotiator
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