Israel's new challenges

Civilian control of West Bank seals Palestine's fate

In a little-noticed move, Israel’s latest hard-right coalition, which took office in December last year, has moved to transform its stranglehold on the West Bank. Following an amendment to its Basic Law, which passes for Israel’s constitution, a special new minister has taken civilian control of the West Bank, till now the exclusive preserve of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The significance of this move is one of degree; for the 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank, this establishes a de facto Israeli civilian rule (in Gaza, at the opposite end of the country, which is partly under Palestinian rule, the IDF’s air, sea, and land blockade leaves 5 million Palestinians at the mercy of Israel).

The period of 56 years of military occupation has seen thousands of Palestinians losing their lands to Jewish settler colonies, with the IDF determining Palestinians’ access to employment, education, water sources, and other natural resources. Between 2009 and 2022, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), occupation forces destroyed over 9,000 structures (read homes) and affected 13,171 people in the West Bank. The military forces are not the only source of violence against Palestinians; the Israeli state pays Jewish settlers a subsidy to monitor, report, and restrict Palestinian construction in 60 per cent of the West Bank that comes under exclusive IDF control. Since the new uber-right-wing government came to power, the attacks on Palestinians have escalated. In this year so far, OCHA reported the demolition or seizure of 568 Palestinian-owned structures, displacing 558 Palestinians, and firing on worshippers, including the elderly and children, during Ramadan in the Haram Al-Sharif compound and Al Aqsa mosque. Israelis, however, claim that the core value of their democracy has been that all citizens are equal, irrespective of gender, religion, or race. The rights of every Israeli are fully protected, in law and in practice. What they concede is a conflict as a result of which Israelis also get murdered by terrorism acts regularly.

This escalatory violence has underlined for Palestinians the full import of the transfer of power in the West Bank. For one, it establishes, by what Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu famously called “facts on the ground”, the permanent nature of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. Second, it entrenches the two-tier legal system that creates one set of benign rules for the minority, the 700,000 settlers in the West Bank, and another for the Palestinians.

Given the support of the US, its clout as a superpower and Israel’s development of a formidable defence industry, the Palestinians have steadily lost the support of the Arab world. Egypt and Saudi Arabia succumbed years ago; the 2020 Abraham Accords among Israel, Bahrain, and the UAE added the final nail. This is as true of India, historically one of Palestine’s most robust supporters. In December, India abstained from a UN General Assembly vote asking the International Court of Justice for its view on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory, though China and Russia voted in favour of it. With Israel emerging as India’s second-largest defence supplier, realpolitik has come into play.

(This piece has been modified based on feedback)