A few days after the raid by Hamas on 7 October, which left 1400 Israeli civilians and military dead, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was fighting human animals, and further declared Israel would deny Palestinian people electricity, food, water and fuel as it continues its bombardment of Gaza. As the Huffpost put it: “While it appears that Gallant was specifically referring to Hamas fighters in that comment, the rest of the minister’s remarks called for further oppression of all people in Gaza by denying them basic human needs.” (Israeli Defense Minister Announces Siege On Gaza To Fight ‘Human Animal’).
As we listen to the narrative of fighting “human animals” in Gaza, over in the West Bank, under the cover of war, Palestinians are being ethnically cleansed, as commented in an Haaretz editorial (Palestinian Expulsion Amid the Fog of War, reproduced below). The editorial mentions that “58 Palestinians were killed in the past week. According to the security establishment, about 10 of them were shot to death by settlers.”
Gaza itself is an open prison routinely bombed by Israel, and was formerly occupied and settled by Israelis until 2005. It was subsequently abandoned by Israel to avoid the costly business of having to directly oppress 2 million Palestinians to gain a relatively small piece of land.
If the Western media were more balanced and fair in reporting, it would foster a wider understanding of what has led to all this terrible violence. If Hamas has become savage then it is surely because Palestinians have been and are being savaged. This cycle of violence has endured since decades past, and it will endure for decades more unless Israel is compelled to abide by international law and end its occupation and dispossession of Palestinians. That is the root cause and it must be addressed.
Haaretz’s lead editorial Oct 17, 2023 1:11 am IDT, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
Palestinian Expulsion Amid the Fog of War
What to the sane majority in Israel is the greatest catastrophe in its history, is to the settlers an opportunity to chase Palestinians from their land and take it over. Hagar Shezaf exposed (Haaretz, Oct. 15,) that a wave of flight has begun since the outbreak of the war, by Palestinians belonging to shepherd communities in the West Bank, due to settler violence.
In some cases the locales have been completely depopulated, and in others some of the families have left, or women and children have been evacuated. The residents report threats by settlers, at times armed, ordering them to leave. This is not an isolated incident, but a broad campaign, taking place under the auspices of the government of the right-wing and the settlers, and that now, under cover of the war, has gained immense momentum. According to the UN’s office for humanitarian aid coordination report published in September, 1,105 shepherds – some 12.5 percent of this population – have left their homes in the West Bank over the past year.
Most of the residents of Ein Shibli in the Jordan Valley have fled in recent days. According to the residents and Israeli activists accompanying them, a settler named Moshe Sharvit, who lives in a nearby outpost, gave them five hours to clear out. All the residents of Wadi a-Siq in the central West Bank did so. The community, numbering some 20 families, fled for their lives from where it lived due to repeated harassment by settlers. The 100 people who had remained fled on Thursday. “We didn’t leave, we escaped,” said one of the residents. “On Thursday they came and attacked us.”
Farasiya in the northern Jordan Valley also reported threats. A local resident said that five settlers came to them on Saturday night and told them that they must leave. “They were armed, and they hit children in the legs with their weapons,” he said. The residents say the Israeli police and civil administration don’t help them.
Not only expulsion is flourishing under the roar of guns in the south. The number of fatalities in the West Bank has also soared to an extraordinary degree. According to Palestinian Health Ministry data, 58 Palestinians were killed in the past week. According to the security establishment, about 10 of them were shot to death by settlers.
What is happening in the territories calls for military intervention and governmental attention. This time it isn’t “just” deepening the annexation and apartheid. Against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, the settlers’ crimes may push the Palestinians in the West Bank to violence, and bring about the opening of another front, which will make it difficult for the IDF to defend the country. The fact that the military and government allow these crimes to take place during wartime is itself a crime and a security failure. Unlike the failures that brought the current disaster upon Israel, this one can be stopped. The question is whether a government populated by settler representatives, who dream of Nakba 2.0 – or worse – is interested in, and capable of, enforcing limits upon these people.”