When the Third Intifada Breaks Out, Don't Forget That Israel Instigated It - Deliberately -
Something is happening for the first time in Israeli history. One war has yet to fully die down, but Israel is already stoking the next one. We have been denied the luxury of a moment to breathe or a bit of delusion and hope. Israel's "diplomatic" horizon now consists only of war after war, with no other alternative on the table. There are no less than three on the agenda: resuming the war in Gaza, bombing Iran, and waging a war in the West Bank.
The last of these began to be stoked the day after October 7, 2023. When the third intifada breaks out, people should remember who instigated it deliberately. Neither will claims of victimhood over deadly attacks change the facts. Demonization of the "human animals" in the West Bank, the kinfolk of those from Gaza.
- Israel is already doing in the West Bank what it threatens to do in Gaza
- Israel says 40,000 Palestinians 'evacuated' West Bank camps, vows to stay for a year
- IDF expands open-fire orders in W. Bank, leading to surge in Palestinian civilian deaths
Israel alone will bear responsibility for the next war in the West Bank. Don't say we were caught by surprise; don't dare say we didn't know. The writing has been on the wall, spelled out in fire and blood, for 16 months – and no one is stopping it. It's hardly even being reported.
This is no longer the West Bank we once knew. Things have changed. The occupation – which has never exactly been progressive – has become more brutal than ever. On the day after October 7, Israel effectively imprisoned the three million residents of the West Bank. Since then, at least 150,000 people – most of them hardworking, diligent, and dedicated laborers – have lost their livelihoods. They had nothing to do with the massacre along the Gaza border. They only sought to provide for their families. But Israel took from them the chance at a decent life – one that is unlikely to return. Hundreds of thousands have been condemned to a life of misery. The younger ones will not remain silent.
That was just the beginning. The West Bank was also sealed from within. Around 900 checkpoints – some permanent and some temporary – have carved up the West Bank and the lives of its inhabitants. Every journey between communities has become a game of Russian roulette. Will the checkpoint be closed or open? When I spent six hours waiting at the Jaba checkpoint, a groom on the way to his wedding was behind me. The wedding was called off. The roads of the West Bank have become empty.
The checkpoints are only one part of the picture. Something has also changed among the soldiers of the occupation. Perhaps they envy their comrades in Gaza, or perhaps it's just the current prevailing spirit of the Israeli military. But most have never treated Palestinians the way they do now. It's not just the easy pull of the trigger or the use of weapons never before deployed in the West Bank, like fighter jets and lethal drones. It is, above all, the way in which they view the Palestinians – as "human animals," just like they were told about people in Gaza.
A journalist tries to avoid mud splatter as Israeli forces drive on a destroyed road in the Nur al-Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near Tulkarem, on Wednesday.Credit: AFP/Zain Jaafar
The settlers and their enablers have eagerly stepped into this picture. For them, this is a historic opportunity for revenge. They want a full-scale war in the West Bank, under whose cover they can implement their grand plan for mass expulsion. Horrifyingly, this is the only plan Israel has for resolving the Palestinian issue.
Meanwhile, not a week goes by without the appearance of another unauthorized settler outpost – a single hut surrounded by thousands of stolen dunams claimed for "grazing." Not a day goes by without another pogrom. These attacks are working. The weakest parts of West Bank Palestinian society – shepherds – simply give up. Entire communities are leaving the land of their ancestors, fleeing in terror from the gangsters in kippahs.
And then came the organized expulsion of the refugee camps. Don't say there is no plan. There is one, and it's monstrous. The plan is to empty all the refugee camps in the West Bank and then raze them. This is the "solution" to the refugee problem. It began with the dismantling of the UN Relief and Works Agency and continues with D-9 bulldozers. Forty thousand people have already been expelled, some of whose homes have already been demolished. The three refugee camps in the northern West Bank are now wastelands, emptied of life.
A woman carries bags as she walks on rubble at the Nur al-Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near Tul Karm, on Wednesday.Credit: AFP/Zain Jaafar
This is not a war on terror. You don't fight terror by destroying water infrastructure, power grids, roads, and sewage systems. This is the systematic destruction of refugee camps.
It won't stop at the Nur al-Shams camp in Tulkarm or the Askar and Balata camps near Nablus. It will continue all the way to the Al-Fawwar camp near Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank until nothing remains.
This is what Israel is doing now, just to be clear. A Nakba.