Makram Khoury-Machool
Source: Al Mayadeen English
The tactics (crimes) of CleansOcide, which have been implemented since October 2023 in the Gaza Strip are now being implemented in the West Bank on a higher scale.
The crime of CleansOcide (Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing) which Netanyahu and his criminals have been perpetrating in the besieged Gaza Strip since October 2023 was made possible after the return of extreme right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu to the premiership of the Israeli occupation government on December 29, 2022, armed with "Zionist-religious" fascist forces, making it doubly important to evaluate once again his original scheme known as "Annexation", which he was expected to announce in early July 2020 when he was prime minister and his ally Trump was in power in the White House, but temporarily retracted its announcement.
It is true that the practices of the Bennett-Lapid government were racist and practiced the most heinous forms of oppression and killing against the Palestinians in Eastern Palestine occupied in 1967, and that Netanyahu is on the extreme right... However, Netanyahu's fusion with what is on the right of the extreme right offers us endless degrees of the curve of fascism.
Although war criminal Ariel Sharon, until the second Palestinian intifada (which erupted on 28 September 2000) and the siege of Yasser Arafat (2002-2004) and his consequential killing, was a symbol of the massacres and destructions perpetrated against the Palestinian people, what Netanyahu did since he took over the occupation government back in mid-1996 (with the exception of one period until the advent of Ehud Barak for a period briefly negotiating with Arafat at Camp David 2, and then Sharon's advent until he fell into a coma and Ehud Olmert's assumption of power until his dismissal and Netanyahu's return to power after a decade in 2009 until 2021) exceeds all that the leaders of the Israeli occupation did, regardless of their different political parties.
Even though Netanyahu did not invent a new fascist product (i.e.) settler colonialism, he overshadowed it with blatant fascism that might, between shock and awakening, seize all of Palestine in a project that began with the publication of Herzl's "State of the Jews", passing through the Balfour declaration, the decision to partition Palestine in 1947, the culmination of the Nakba until 1949, the setback of the occupation of the second/eastern part of Palestine, the Oslo treaties, and even Trump's project called the "deal of the century" and the "annexation" project. What this essay doesn’t do is deal with possible Palestinian reactions to the additional steps that will be taken by Netanyahu.
Indeed, the 'Deal of the Century' document deals several times, especially on pages 8, 12, 13, and 14, with these points, as it turns evasive and is linked to several impossible conditions that have proven in the last quarter century to have been placed within the framework of providing a certificate of 'good conduct', but it is nothing but a deception in order to loot more land. It reads, “Palestinian leaders must embrace peace by recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, rejecting terrorism in all its forms, allowing special arrangements that address the vital security needs of Israel and the region, building effective institutions and choosing pragmatic solutions. If these steps are taken and the criteria set forth in this vision are met, the United States will support the establishment of a Palestinian state.” ("Deal of the Century" document - p. 8).
Cross-party looting: 'The 1967 Allon Plan'
The “Deal of the Century” is only a clear reading that the document paves the way for Netanyahu to try to do whatever he wants in Palestine. It is true that in order to serve Netanyahu and Trump, all existing plans must be put in a blender and repackaged for the purpose of political marketing. However, ideological thinking about the “entitlement of the Jewish people,” which was “invented,” as stated for example in former minister Shaked’s document (which uses religious symbols even though it is secular), did not need new innovations. The various political proposals to extend the Zionist occupation’s control over the largest percentage of the lands of Palestine, including natural resources, and with the least material losses, go back directly as a “modern” Zionist capitalist “secular” scheme to less than a month after the Naksa (Setback) of 1967 and not necessarily to the arrival of the fascist settler extreme Right to power.
The “patent” for the marginalisation of the Palestinian people and the destruction of their homeland belongs to Yigal Allon, the secular Labour figure who held the position of minister of labour during the occupation of the eastern/second part of Palestine in 1967, and a figure with a military background, as he headed the terrorist organisation “The Palmach” (1941) during the Nakba, which joined the organisations 'Etzel' (1931) and 'Lehi' (1940) to escalate terrorism against the Mandate government and the Palestinians during the period of preparation for the onslaught on Palestine.
In a cabinet session on June 19, 1967, Allon acknowledged that foreign policy should be as dynamic as military plans, and suggested the annexation of al-Khalil [Hebron] (south of al-Quds [Jerusalem] and Beit Lahm) in order to ensure control of occupied al-Quds. However, he returned and formally presented to his government on July 13, 1967, under what was titled "The Allon Plan".
The “Allon Plan” that Allon presented to the Labour government (Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and Security Minister Moshe Dayan) is based on the colonialist ideology that believes in the absolute right of the Jews to Palestine and in the application of security and economic control. This is based on three points:
The “Allon Plan” also suggested seizing most of the Jordan Valley, returning what they do not need to Jordan, and establishing a border between them, i.e. losing the external borders of any future Palestinian entity and controlling a third of the occupied West Bank as well. Although Allon’s proposal was not officially adopted by the government, the spirit of the plan was followed, and sometimes Allon’s decisions personally, as a minister, encouraged colonisation on the land since the end of the 1960s. And on this basis, ‘Ma’aleh Adumim’ (currently 40,000 settlers) was established as one of the largest colonies east of al-Quds.
The Allon scheme was described as a “compromise” by the Zionist occupation between those who wanted to “return the occupied territories” and those who wanted to hold onto them and establish settlements in them. Yoram Cohen, the former head of the Shin Bet, had no preoccupation with the monotony of repeating the same plan and not being innovative. What he has done recently is a "modified mixture" that takes into account some changes on the ground.
The Control of the Jordan Valley
When Allon presented the idea of his plan for the Jordan Valley to the government immediately after the 1967 Naksa, the Occupation government kept the matter a secret at first, and the motives for this secrecy were not disclosed. The subject of the Jordan Valley was of great expansive importance to Yigal Allon. In order to control its natural resources, the occupation would need to secure its stolen goods by planting “guards” as colonists. Understanding the importance of the Jordan Valley indicates that the occupation is not 'static', but rather is a series of systematic penetrations and violations that are embodied by changing and renewable operations. When the ambitions in the imagination and plans for the lands of Palestine are under constant renewal, the gradual takeover of these lands is a daily process that is confronted by the indigenous citizens with their stubborn struggle and whatever tools they can muster. The Occupation adopted the method of attrition to steal the land inch by inch, and this is what happened and is happening in every part of Palestine in general, but in the eastern part occupied in 1967 in particular, and in this context, the time for of finishing off the Jordan Valley has come.
The Jordan Valley, or the “Ghors” (al-Aghwar), is the border between Jordan and Palestine, making it the eastern and outer border, as it extends from Safad in the north to the Negev in the south. The total area of the Jordan Valley exceeds 700,000 dunums [about 900 square meters], and its breadth (at different points) ranges from 15 to 30 km from the Jordan River. It is home to nearly 70,000 Palestinian citizens in 27 permanent gatherings on an area of 10,000 dunums, and dozens of pastoral and Bedouin gatherings. The area of arable land in the Jordan Valley is 280,000 dunums, i.e. 38.8% of the total area of the Jordan Valley; Palestinians use 50,000 dunums of it. Meanwhile, colonists from the Jordan Valley used 27,000 dunums of agricultural land. The Occupation controls 400,000 dunums under the pretext of using them as closed military areas or 55.5% of the total area of the Jordan Valley. The Palestinian residents are prohibited from practicing any agricultural, urban, or any other activity in these areas. The Occupation has established 90 military outposts in the Jordan Valley since its invasion in 1967. Control exists, therefore, but not legally, and the looting project aims to legitimise the Occupation’s control.
The Jordan Valley areas are divided into: Areas A, which are under the control of the Palestinian National Authority, with an area of 85 square km, and 7.4% of the total area of the Jordan Valley; Areas B, which are a joint sharing area between the Palestinian Authority and the Occupation, with an area of 50 square km, and represents 4.3% of the total area of the Jordan Valley; and Area C, which is under full Israeli control, with an area of 1,155 square kilometres, and constitutes the largest area of the Jordan Valley (by 88.3%). Since the invasion in 1967, and despite the signing of the Oslo Accords more than a quarter of a century ago, the Occupation has not stopped its daily violations. Behind the propaganda is a process of expansion and looting to deplete the natural resources located in the Jordan Valley and deprive the Palestinians of them.
On the lands of the Palestinian Jordan Valley lie 36 settlements, the majority of which are agricultural. They were built on the theft of one thousand dunums, in addition to the looting of 60,000 dunums. Most of the colonies in the Jordan Valley belong to the regional settlement councils known as Arvot Ha-yarden and Mejilot. These daily violations cause profound changes on the demographic, geographical, military, and political map of the Jordan Valley. This takes away the Palestinian right to establish agricultural projects in the first place.
In order to remove the “humanitarian obstacle,” the Occupation has displaced more than 50,000 residents of the Jordan Valley since its occupation in 1967, in addition to entire population centres, under the pretext of their residence in military areas, such as the displacement of the people of Khirbet al-Hadidiya in the northern Jordan Valley.
Before the displacement comes the demolition. Therefore, the Palestinian Valley witnesses continuous and repeated demolitions by the Occupation authorities of Palestinian communities, in whole and in part, as in the Al-Ras Al-Ahmar and Atouf and Khirb Al-Farsieh villages, with the aim of evicting and displacing citizens to facilitate the looting of the Jordan Valley lands after their ethnic cleansing. According to B’Tselem data, between 2006 and September 2017, the Occupation demolished at least 700 housing units in Palestinian towns in the Jordan Valley, in addition to the frequent evictions of many residential communities under the pretext of military exercises and the accompanying demolitions and confiscation of the property of Palestinian citizens.
The situation was further inflamed by the establishment of the “Hamra” and “Tayseer” checkpoints at the entrances to the Jordan Valley, with the aim of using them in the closure policy that they took to implement, to prevent Jordan Valley products from reaching the Palestinian markets. The Occupation forces also completely separated the Jordan Valley from the rest of the occupied West Bank during the second Palestinian Intifada, which began at the end of September 2000, in order to obstruct the arrival of Palestinian farmers and workers.
Therefore, the “Summer Camps” assault by the Israeli Occupation on the West Bank in late summer 2024 shouldn’t be seen as a pure “military operation”, but rather as a tactic to achieve the goals of the broader strategy to attempt to control the whole of Palestine.
To this, we must add the criminal Separation Wall and hundreds of checkpoints, the economic siege, continuous land grabbing, and the establishment of colonies in an area (West Bank) that is 20 times larger than the Gaza Strip, led us to a conclusion that the crimes of the Israeli Occupation to control the geography and torture/evict the demography have never stopped since 1948 and 1967. The tactics (crimes) of CleansOcide, which have been implemented since October 2023 in the Gaza Strip are now being implemented in the West Bank on a higher scale, though the Israeli Occupation has killed around a thousand Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023.
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