“‘All hell is breaking loose everywhere.’”On the eve of Israel’s elections, the assault on Hebron appears to announce the Zionist’s ‘Elimination Project.’
26 OCTOBER—Whenever the Zionists speak or make any kind of representation of events, it is essential to remember Hannah Arendt’s noted observation about liars. “If everybody always lies to you,” she said in conversation with a free-speech advocate not long before her death, in 1975, “the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.” The thought came immediately to mind last Friday, when the Israeli authorities announced that armed Palestinians attacked a checkpoint in the northern neighborhood of Hebron, purportedly killing two I.O.F. soldiers and wounding three. Within hours, and in an act of collective punishment, occupation forces began demolishing businesses and residences in the al–Jaladah neighborhood, where the alleged attack occurred. At least one multi-story apartment building was demolished and a road was bulldozed. Prime Minister Netanyahu quickly promised retribution on “a scale not seen since the Six–Day War.” This assault already has a name: “Roar of Judea.” What actually happened on Friday, 23 October? Who were the Palestinians who allegedly attacked the I.O.F.? Were they serving of the Palestinian cause, or were they coerced into acting as agents provocateurs? They are now dead, allegedly—their identities and intentions lost to us. The Israeli soldiers, also allegedly, killed in the attack: They were immediately and predictably eulogized as exemplary of “the world’s most moral army,” as the Zionists frequently boast. Haaretz quoted a teacher of one of the soldiers saying, “God always takes the best ones.” There are photographs of the I.O.F. soldiers said to have been killed—smiling, altogether human—but none of their bodies after they were struck. There are photographs and videos purportedly showing the attack and the covered bodies of the Palestinian assailants. Were these bodies beneath the covers? And, if so, were those covered actually deceased? Viewed critically, available images prove nothing. How are we to read these events? Israeli accounts cannot be taken at face value: They have no face value. Names and pictures and eulogies prove nothing and are in any case a side show to the main event. Let us be clear about this. An assault on Hebron and its residents was under way within hours. Is this the start of an operation of demolition and expulsion across the entire West Bank? It’s not yet clear how extensive Roar of Judea will prove to be. But the political utility of last Friday’s events could not be clearer. The timing is at the very least suspiciously convenient for the Israeli PM: The alleged attack preceded by four days elections Netanyahu cannot afford to lose. Bibi and his defense minister, Israel Katz, all but predicted such an assault two days before the 23 October events when—strangely enough—they warned of retribution were any settler or soldier in the West Bank to be attacked. Joe Lauria, Consortium News’s editor-in-chief, was first to suggest that the Zionist regime planned last Friday as a pretext for total war in West Bank. I began hearing from West Bank friends and contacts immediately after news broke of the events in Hebron. I spent much of last Saturday communicating with these sources. Could they, at close range, see any more clearly than I into what had actually transpired? How did they interpret the events of last Friday and what did they think is to come of them? These were my questions. Many of my West Bank contacts believe Roar of Judea will continue and expand. They shared the thought that it is very likely the beginning of a second Nakba, an attempt at the final forced expulsion of Palestinians from their historic land, with much more violence to come. There is also a belief shared by many that this attack was in some way staged or orchestrated to benefit Netanyahu before the election. Some believe things may temporarily quiet down after the election but that would only be a short lull before a devastating onslaught. ■ Netanyahu and Katz went to Hebron immediately after the attack. Dressed in protective armor and speaking from the checkpoint, Netanyahu announced plans to accelerate Israel’s project of ethnic cleansing. “We are going to destroy the terrorist infrastructure, and we are going to build settlement infrastructure,” he said. “We are building and legalizing more than 100 new settlements right here, and not just here.” At midnight Friday, soldiers began forcing families from their homes, giving them two hours to leave. In all, 373 families, more than 2,200 people, were forcibly displaced and are now refugees, Haaretz reported last Sunday. Dozens of families, with nowhere to go, spent the night on the streets. As in 1948, people weren’t allowed to take anything with them, including, in some instances, their cars. By the next morning the blue Star of David was hanging from windows and balconies. Soldiers almost certainly followed up with mass looting, as they do routinely throughout the Occupied Territories. All of this in violation of international law. On Saturday afternoon, Katz confirmed in so many words that families will not be allowed to return. He is quoted here in a report published Friday in The Guardian:
In January and February of 2025—the coldest months in the West Bank—I.O.F. forces depopulated the West Bank refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams, expelling 40,000 residents who have never been allowed to return. They demolished large swathes of the camps, turned them into closed military zones and occupied the areas. In this way Katz tells us precisely the intent of this latest military operation. ■ As on previous occasions, the West Bank was immediately locked down. All checkpoints were closed and movement came to a halt. Two friends, sisters in their mid-twenties pursuing master’s degrees at the University of Birzeit, wrote to tell me they were stranded. One was stuck in the town of Dura in the Hebron governorate, where soldiers conducted a raid Saturday shooting and injuring a young man. The other sister was in Ramallah. I texted on Saturday morning asking if they were safe. “What does safety mean?” one sister replied attaching emojis indicating laughter along with several skulls—the dark humor that is a frequent response to Zionist violence, especially among young adults. Schools throughout the West Bank were moved online. “To summarize,” she concluded, “it’s shit as always.” A friend in East Jerusalem, ninety-three years old, texted saying she’d heard the shooting was a false flag operation,
From the village of al–Mughayyir, where I.O.F. soldiers were present in force and had locked all barricades into and out of the community, a contact sent the following. I quote him at length:
B’Tselem, the honorable Jewish Israeli human rights organization, agrees with my al–Mughayyir contact and issued a call for international intervention before it’s too late. The following is from Haaretz, published Saturday:
The Elimination Project is an extensive report B’Tselem published 14 September. It documents Israel’s project of ethnic cleansing and expulsion throughout the West Bank. It concludes:
Even so, Palestinians insist—most Palestinians I know—that they will remain on the land. Perhaps more remarkably, they hold tenaciously to the belief that one day there will be justice. Here, again, is my contact from al–Mughayyir, in a text that could not be a starker contrast to the one I quote above:
To this I can only add, as I did in reply: Inshallah. Such a remarkable belief in justice should inspire those of us in the West who have perhaps given up on hope. Hannah Arendt’s memorable quotation with which I began this piece deserves to be considered in full because it clarifies the dangers of our moment and the paralyzing consequences when a people are routinely lied to. It must be remembered, she was talking about freedom of speech and the what happens when the press abandons its duties and responsibilities:
This describes but precisely the conditions of citizens in Israel, the United States, and throughout the West. The questions in our household now, as the Zionist regime unleashes its fury in the West Bank, are the ones we have asked throughout the continuing genocide in Gaza: What will the world do? When will it intervene? My answer remains the same: Nothing. And, it won’t. The pertinent question remains, and why I quoted Arendt in full, and because this is the sure way to the justice Palestinians believe in: What are each of us doing? ■ How shall we watch the elections in Israel tomorrow? Closely but with low to no expectations they will matter much to Palestinians, Lebanese, or Iranians. This is the conclusion of John Whitbeck, the international attorney with long professional experience of the Palestine question. I conclude with a brief meditation Whitbeck sent the other day via his privately circulated blog. Personally, I am emotionally and intellectually torn while awaiting the results of next Tuesday’s Israeli elections. |