--Zvi Bar'elJan 11, 2023National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich want to go back to the occupation’s early days. They want to erase the remnants of the Oslo Accords, cancel the existence of the Palestinian Authority and the division into Areas A, B and C, manage the Palestinians’ education systems, sewage and water through appointed municipal councils, return all of Hebron to direct Israeli rule – and after that perhaps appoint military governors to issue permits for movement, work, study and car licensing.
The format of this super-plan has already begun to take shape. Sanctions that the government will impose on the PA – including freezing the transfer of 139 million shekels ($40 million) that belong to the PA and channeling them to the families of Jewish terror victims, in addition to the immediate deduction of money that the PA transfers to the families of Palestinian prisoners and fighters of the uprising who were killed – are only the first step. The goal is to make the PA unable to pay the salaries of its employees.
In these conditions, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich hope, the PA will have no choice but to resign. They should only remember that a crisis in the payment of salaries in Gaza was one of the main reasons for the conflicts along the border with Israel – clashes that calmed down largely after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the passage of donations from Qatar to Hamas.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who were given the authority to manage the territories, are trying to quickly recreate Gaza in the West Bank. The territories are already teetering on the brink, a field of human explosive devices. About 100,000 Palestinians work in Israel with a permit and thousands more without one. Some 22 percent of the Palestinians live below the poverty line – 500 shekels a month, as opposed to 2,811 shekels in Israel. The PA employs about 136,000 officials and police officers, half in the West Bank and half in the Gaza Strip, and for many months now it has not paid them their full salaries or has paid them late. The Lapid-Bennett government clearly realized the danger in an economic meltdown in the PA, and in September Lapid called a special meeting to discuss ways to help the PA, including increasing the number of work permits and raising funds from abroad.
The previous defense minister, MK Benny Gantz, indeed approved increasing the number of work permits and a “loan” of half a billion shekels for ongoing funding as well as a few limited building plans. They were the target of barrages of criticism from the right wing, especially from Ben-Gvir, who said: “The leftist Benny Gantz harms Israel’s security to please Biden. Instead of seeing to Israel’s interests, Gantz is behaving weakly and irresponsibly and calling it confidence-building measures. But there is no confidence in those who call for Israel’s destruction, first and foremost Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas], whom Gantz hosted in his home.”
Ben-Gvir, who now heads a private militia in charge of security in the West Bank, and Smotrich, in charge of the Civil Administration, have a plan to reconquer the West Bank, but they have provided no solutions to the intifada that will erupt following tightening the clamps on the PA, which has already begun. The direct outcome of this will be the cessation of security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority. Abbas will put the keys on the table, and Israeli citizens will be left to finance Palestinian civilian services.
The Israel Defense Forces will then be required to direct most of its forces to control the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Temporary closures will be an inseparable part of reality until ultimately a final, full closure is imposed, like the closure and siege that was imposed on Gaza. And still, this will be the easy part. The less easy part will come when Israelis are surprised to discover that they can no longer fly to Europe and perhaps not even to the United States, that Israeli products are no longer wanted abroad, and that they themselves are living in a cage.
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