Tragic family loss

By Stuart Littlewood

With Easter came the sad news of more killings in the illegally occupied West Bank, including the shooting of two lovely girls, the daughters of a rabbi from North London whose wife also died as a result of the incident.

Reports seem reluctant to explain that the unfortunate rabbi had moved his family to Efrat, an illegal ‘settlement’, and that the transfer by Israel of its own population into so-called settlements on Palestinian territory is considered a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime.

The family was living on land confiscated (i.e. stolen) from the Palestinians. No doubt they were assured by the Israeli authorities it was safe when, in fact, they were putting themselves in harm’s way.

The tragedy has received extensive media coverage here in the West while equally distressing killings, abductions, and imprisonments of Palestinian youngsters by Israel, and demolition of their homes, go unreported. And they were living on their own lands!

Israeli ‘settlers’ routinely go armed and beat up and murder Palestinians, destroying their crops, wrecking their homes, and generally making their lives hell; and they are supported in this by the Israeli regime and its military as part of their strategy to chase out the Palestinians and eventually annex the West Bank.

De facto annexation

Israel, founded on land theft and terror even before it declared statehood in 1948, has set up 144 illegal ‘settlements’ and over 100 outposts, containing some 670,000 Jewish ‘settlers’, in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. This project began with the Allon Plan of 1967, seizing Palestinian territory for military use and later transferring Israeli civilians into it. Palestinians, fighting for their freedom against Israel’s relentless intrusion and oppression, are beginning to hit back – which of course they are perfectly entitled to do.

Israel has been busy for decades establishing ‘facts on the ground’ throughout the West Bank by using lethal military force and implanting settlers to achieve pseudo-sovereignty over the territory. And the Israeli government has been keen to encourage the building of synagogues in its settlements to consolidate their position and give the criminal enterprise a veneer of sanctity. This is perhaps how the good rabbi from England came to be appointed to the Zait Ranaan synagogue in Efrat.

It is not difficult to understand that dumping settlers (i.e. squatters) on Palestinian territory in the hope of eventually acquiring sovereignty is a violation of occupation law and a war crime on the part of the individuals involved. Israel also violates its legal obligation to respect the sovereignty of another people and their right to self-determination. What is more, Israel violates its obligations under international law on the use of force. Ending these violations is non-negotiable and requires the immediate removal of the squatters and an immediate end to Israel’s exercise of control, including its use of military force. That’s the first step towards true peace, before any return to the negotiating table.

But Israel remains in denial. General Yehuda Fox, the chief of the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank, is reported saying: “This is an extremely severe attack. We’ll settle the score with these terrorists, we’re hunting them and will catch them.” The score to be settled, of course, is with Israel’s leaders who have pursued this evil policy of military occupation since 1967, and all those who have willingly participated in it.

Palestinians have nothing more to lose

The simple fact is that nearly 700,000 Israeli squatters live without Palestine’s permission in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Bearing in mind the extra-territorial nature of these settlements, Israel like any other nation, has no legal right to use military force to protect its nationals outside its own territory.

New generations of Palestinians want a decent future within their traditional homeland, free from Israeli control. They simply want their homes, lands, livelihoods and resources back – and of course their right to self-determination and freedom of movement respected. And, after 75 years of Israeli oppression, they’ll fight for it using any means available, including armed force. They have nothing more to lose.

Here’s how AlJazeera describes the settlers’ crime orgy:

Close to 12 per cent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank currently live in [what’s called] Area C, about 375,000 people. While at least 46 per cent of Area C is made up of private Palestinian land, less than 1 per cent is accessible for Palestinian construction, and most of that is already built upon.

Area C is largely rural and comprises the only land remaining for Palestinian expansion and development. It is also the only contiguous part of the West Bank.

The presence of Israel’s illegal settlements, the separation wall, and hundreds of military checkpoints and bases have turned the West Bank into 165 disconnected Palestinian ‘enclaves’ suffering from severe development and movement restrictions.

Meanwhile, more than 70 per cent of Area C, about 44 per cent of the West Bank, is used for illegal Israeli settlements and military firing zones, among other restricted areas.

The Israeli government has sought to formally annex the area after having built hundreds of illegal settlements and outposts since 1967, most of which were built either entirely or partially on private Palestinian land and are now home to about 700,000 Israeli settlers.

The settlements are a violation of international law and serve to block any potential Palestinian state being formed on the 1967 occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

During the three Israeli elections in 2019 and 2020, the two largest Israeli political parties at that time – Likud and Blue and White – pledged to annex the West Bank.

The new government has been even blunter than previous ones about its intention to annex the West Bank and to maintain Jewish dominance on both sides of what is referred to as the ‘Green Line’, which separates Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory on the 1949 armistice lines.

The international community considers Israel’s so-called settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace. So, if our international laws mean anything at all, it’s time those who created them and signed up to them began implementing them.

Also see:

“A British-Israeli tragedy, born out of the occupation“