How the Netanyahu Government Plans to Liquidate the Palestinian Cause Once and for All

The Palestinians bid farewell to 2022, which is the bloodiest year since 2015, and welcome a new year amid expectations of continued confrontation under a right-wing Israeli government that seeks to liquidate their cause once and for all.

It seems that there are hot files that Netanyahu’s government intends to raise with its assumption of power this month, such as the danger of annexing the West Bank and changing the situation in al-Aqsa Mosque amid the absence of a two-state solution and negotiations with the Palestinians from the right-wing government’s outlines.

On December 29, 2022, Netanyahu won the confidence of the Knesset plenary on the coalition agreements signed with his partners in the new government, whose stated goals are to weaken the judicial system and further consolidate the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The current Israeli government is described as the most right-wing in the history of “Israel” and the most hostile to the Arabs. It includes extremist parties such as Jewish Power, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir; religious Zionism, led by Bezalel Smotrich; and Shas, headed by Aryeh Deri.

On the other hand, the leaders of the future Israeli opposition pledged to work against the Netanyahu government, which they say may turn “Israel” into a messianic state, while the composition of that government has raised concerns regionally and internationally due to the extremist positions of a number of its members.

 

Settlement Policies

Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as Israeli prime minister again on December 29, 2022, to return to the helm of a far-right government that pledges to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Judaize Jerusalem and pursue other policies that have drawn criticism at home and abroad.

A day earlier, Netanyahu pledged that expanding settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories would be a top priority for his government, which won the confidence of the Knesset with 63 votes out of 120, according to the Jerusalem Post newspaper.

During the presentation of its policy, Netanyahu stressed that his government will work to promote and develop settlement throughout what he called “the land of Israel” in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, and the West Bank, saying that this is an exclusive and indisputable right of the Israeli people, as he put it.

The coalition agreements signed by Benjamin Netanyahu with his partners in the religious and ultra-Orthodox Zionist parties stipulate the enactment of a law to impose the death penalty on Palestinians accused of carrying out operations against Israelis and to make legal amendments that require the withdrawal of citizenship and residency and the deportation of every Palestinian who carries out an attack against Israeli targets.

In addition to granting the Knesset powers to annul Supreme Court decisions to prevent Palestinians from resorting to it, as well as excluding ultra-Orthodox Jews from conscription in the Israeli army.

The parties participating in Netanyahu’s government also agreed to support many existing settlements that are not recognized by the Israeli authorities within 60 days of the swearing-in of the government, bearing in mind that all settlements are illegal from the point of view of international law.

The new government will connect the outposts to infrastructure, including water and electricity, as reported by the Times of Israel newspaper.

It also reported that the government would allocate $86 million for the settlements in the next four years.

This comes in conjunction with the disclosure of the Peace Now Movement data on its website about “Israel” publishing tenders to build 400 settlement units in East Jerusalem by 2022.

At the same time, the United Nations Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, during a session of the UN Security Council last week, said that during 2022 “Israel paid plans to build 3,100 settlement units in East Jerusalem,” which represents 3 times the number of settlement units that were paid in 2021, amounting to 900 units.

While the issue of expanding settlements and legalizing illegal and unrecognized settlements by “Israel” appears to be a matter for granted, the more dangerous matter is the annexation of the West Bank, which may arouse the resentment of the Biden administration, the international community, and embarrass the Arab countries normalizing relations with “Israel,” as well as may ignite a new Palestinian uprising.

The Times of Israel newspaper revealed in its report on December 22, 2022, the existence of secret provisions in the deal to form the new Israeli government, which guarantees full control of the West Bank and the start of the actual annexation, in addition to burying any opportunity to establish a Palestinian state through practical steps on the ground.

The deal stipulated that the Jewish people have a natural right to what is described as “the Land of Israel,” as the relevant article in the coalition deal provides for the use of biblical names for the West Bank.

However, the deal stipulated that Netanyahu would do so with a choice of timing and balancing all national and international interests of “Israel,” as it was not clear from the text whether the deal was intended to relate to the entire West Bank or only parts of it.

It seems that Netanyahu, as usual, is playing a double game, as he promised his extremist allies to promote the annexation of the West Bank, adopt the extremist Jewish name for it (Judea and Samaria), and impose Israeli law there, hoping that the Republicans will return to the White House, which will facilitate such a step.

At the same time, he pledged to all international and Arab mediators and envoys who had contacted him in recent weeks to avoid pushing for annexation measures, according to what Al-Monitor reported on December 27, 2022.

It is noteworthy that Netanyahu had sought to annex about 30% of the West Bank, including all settlements, when he was former prime minister in 2020 but canceled that plan when it became clear that it did not have the support of the Trump administration.

The West Bank contains 179 Israeli settlements, while the number of settlers in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, is about 950,000.

The United Nations affirms the illegality of Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories and has repeatedly warned that it undermines the principle of the two-state solution.

 

Disastrous Steps

In the same context, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to transfer the Civil Administration from the authority of the army to the authority of a settler minister shocked even inside “Israel,” amid Palestinian anticipation of the possibility of escalation.

Netanyahu decided to give the Civil Administration to the Religious Zionism leader, Bezalel Smotrich, who holds the position of Minister of Finance and also a second minister in the Ministry of Defense in the new government as the elegant name of this administration hides the real practices on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

This administration is responsible for managing the barriers that cut off the West Bank and enforcing the blockade on the Gaza Strip. It is also responsible for settlement construction in the West Bank, whether in large settlements or even in small outposts, which is also responsible for demolishing Palestinian homes and properties, especially in Area C.

Area C constitutes 60% of the West Bank, and the Israeli Occupation assumes security and civil responsibilities therein, meaning that it also approves construction plans for the Palestinians.

The religious Zionism led by Smotrich wages a campaign against the Palestinian presence in these areas and demands that Palestinians not be allowed to build there.

In a related context, the Knesset had ratified a law to expand the powers of the Jewish Power party leader, Itamar Ben-Gvir, as Minister of National Security, a man who was a member of the racist Meir Kahane movement, classified as a terrorist organization in the United States and banned in “Israel.”

The appointment of Ben-Gvir to this position makes him the appointed ruler by the Israeli Occupation of Jerusalem because the holy city is subject to the authority of the Israeli police and not the army, like the rest of the West Bank, which shocked even inside “Israel,” amid Palestinian anticipation of the possibility of escalation.

Ben-Gvir gained his fame and popularity in “Israel” through his provocative practices against al-Aqsa Mosque and the Jerusalemites in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which “Tel Aviv” wants to expel from their homes, which raises questions about whether Ben-Gvir might use his position to harm al-Aqsa Mosque.

It should be noted that the practices of Ben-Gvir and other Israeli extremists against Jerusalem and al-Aqsa were a direct cause of the outbreak of war between “Israel” and the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip in May 2021, when Hamas responded to the Israeli violations by firing missiles at the flag march organized by settlers in the heart of Jerusalem.

Netanyahu knows very well that annexing the West Bank, as demanded by his ally Smotrich, and allowing Jews to pray in al-Aqsa Mosque, as demanded by Itamar Ben-Gvir, risks sabotaging the normalization process achieved with the Arab countries in recent years.

In turn, veteran political analyst Yossi Alpher predicted the emerging government would constitute an imminent disaster for the country if Netanyahu were unable or unwilling to rein in the radical parties to whom he conceded unprecedented powers during negotiations, expecting the possibility of the rule of law eroding in “Israel” and even more settler violence against Arabs.

According to Debbie Gild-Hayo, a lawyer at the Association for Civil Rights in “Israel,” the bill opens the door to further deaths of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank at the hands of militarized police units.

On its part, the Israeli-Arab NGO Adalah warned that the reference to the “exclusive Jewish rights to the Land of Israel amounts to a complete denial of this right to the Palestinians, in all the territories under its control, adding that this serves as a clear commitment to preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Political analyst Ismail Maslamani said in a statement to Al-Estiklal that “the Israeli plan to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque, if completed, will constitute an open conflict with the Palestinians amid the absence of any political solution to the Palestinian cause.”

“The temporal division currently exists, and what remains is the spatial division that the Israeli government seeks at the present time,” he pointed out.

Finally, Maslamani believes that “next March, which coincides with the holy month of Ramadan, may lead to the outbreak of a third Palestinian intifada, in light of the continued Israeli incursions, the expansion of annexation of the West Bank, the focus on the Judaization of Jerusalem, and the arrests carried out by the Israeli forces.