While Russian forces battle to occupy Ukraine, thousands of kilometers
away, in a hilly town called Beita, near Nablus, in the West Bank, Israeli
settlers and the Israeli army are trying to take over more Palestinian
territory. And although the differences in scale, depravity, and human costs
pale compared to Russia’s incursion, it is understandable why Palestinians see
a double standard at work in Western attitudes.
اضافة اعلان
On a recent visit to Beita, I learned more about
Palestinian opposition to Israel’s latest land seizure aimed at establishing a
new settlement, Evyatar, and saw firsthand evidence of Israel’s violations of
international law and human rights.
The Israeli army’s repertoire in Beita includes
excessive force, collective punishments, nighttime arrest raids and economic
warfare. Beita has not been spared in the current escalation that has entailed
a string of terrorist attacks inside Israel, clashes at Al Aqsa mosque that
raised regional tensions and Israeli army operations across the northern West
Bank.
On April 13, Fawaz Hemayel, a Palestinian Authority
official and leading figure in the Beita community, was shot dead during a raid
by Israeli forces. Locals believe the operation was waged against them because
they oppose the implantation of an illegal settlement on land the international
community says it envisions as being the heartland of a future Palestinian
state.
What is happening in Beita is a microcosm of
Israel’s accelerating de facto annexation across the West Bank territory it
captured 55 years ago. Israel has ruled the territory through a military
dictatorship ever since, despite the granting of nominal self-rule to some
Palestinian areas in 1993.
Israel acts without meaningful pressure from the
international community. This lack of accountability helps it engage in what
Israeli West Bank expert Dror Etkes terms “institutionalized land theft” and to
settle its nationals on Palestinian land, despite the prohibitions of the
Fourth Geneva Convention.
Calling Israel to account on its actions in the West
Bank should in no way detract from standing against the terrorist attacks we
have recently witnessed against Israeli Jews inside Israel proper.
Since May 2021, the residents of Beita have waged an
uprising against Israeli moves to establish the new settlement, with some
slinging stones at troops during protests and others using burning tires. The
Israeli army’s response has left 10 Palestinians dead and caused more than
1,200 injuries from live gunfire or from rubber coated metal bullets, according
to the UN’s Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs in
Jerusalem.
The international community does recognize this is a military occupation and that Israel’s behavior of settlements, house demolitions, and other measures is illegal and that Israel is occupying the territory of another country. Yet, the international community does not do anything beyond mere rhetoric.
According to the local municipality, 150 Beita
residents have been handicapped as a result of being shot by Israeli forces.
This in a town of 17,000. At least 10 Israeli soldiers have suffered
“significant injuries” and others minor ones, according to the military.
Officials from Breaking the Silence, a group of
Israeli army veterans who oppose the occupation, have criticized what they see
as misuse of the military on behalf of extremist settlers. They rightly realize
that the army’s mission has become corrupted, and that this spells disaster for
hopes of a two-state peace compromise in which the Palestinians are liberated
from occupation and Israel becomes more democratic. Breaking the Silence
director Avner Gvaryahu has called the toll in Beita “horrible”.
One Israeli activist who has participated in the
protests out of solidarity with Beita shared with me what he had witnessed
during the demonstrations. Ido (he asked that only his first name be published
out of fear of retribution from right-wingers) painted a picture of a military
that acts with impunity.
“There are people I know who got shot in the leg and
arrested, got out of jail two months later, and then got shot in the head,” Ido
said.
“It is very common to be shot.”
For example, “I know of someone who was shot in the
eye as he carried a flag. There are a lot of injuries to the upper body and the
head. Just two weeks ago, a 12-year-old boy named Rayan was shot in the head
with a rubber bullet.”
As the carnage in Beita demonstrates, Israel’s
illegal settlement and occupation activities seem to be growing harsher.
However, the US, while professing to oppose settlements, is not only failing to
meaningfully curb Israel’s behavior, it is actually sponsoring it through the
delivery of unconditional foreign aid packages to the country.
As another Beita resident, Said Hemayel, told me,
while rights groups have documented Israel’s activities in the West Bank,
governments are failing to act on their findings.
“No one is acting to make Israel stop the crimes,”
said Said, whose 16-year-old son, Mohammed, was killed by an Israeli army
bullet to the chest in June.
It is small wonder that a poll recently released by
the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PC PSR) showed
that a substantial majority of respondents believe there is a “double standard”
between the West’s reaction to the invasion of Ukraine and its acquiescence to
the Israeli occupation they suffer from daily.
Khalil Shikaki, head of PCPSR, put it this way: “The
international community does recognize this is a military occupation and that
Israel’s behavior of settlements, house demolitions, and other measures is
illegal and that Israel is occupying the territory of another country. Yet, the
international community does not do anything beyond mere rhetoric.”
The writer is the former Middle East affairs correspondent
at the Jerusalem Post.
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