The war on the West Bank is the worst since the setback

After the announcement of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, and the beginning of the preparation for planting the Zionist entity in Palestine, and passing through the occupation of Palestine in 1948, and the official announcement of the establishment of the State of Israel on the land of Palestine, reaching the occupation of what remained of Palestine in 1967, and the occupation of parts of neighboring Arab countries, and the ongoing Palestinian resistance and uprisings, reaching the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993; which failed to put an end to the ongoing conflict due to Israel's failure to abide by any of the provisions of the agreement, although it does not grant the Palestinians an independent state. In 2000, the United States of America tried to pressure the late President Yasser Arafat at Camp David II to give up all the essential issues whose solution was postponed to the final stage of Oslo, represented by Jerusalem, refugees, borders, water, and the establishment of the state; After that, President Arafat became convinced that Israel did not want to abide by the simplest terms, so he worked to ignite the second intifada, which was caused by the American and Israeli position. Since that time, the Palestinian struggle has been in a phase of ebb and flow, but it has not stopped, and this is due to human nature resisting occupation.

Here, questions arise after 77 years of the occupation of Palestine, which we may not find satisfactory answers to in the near future; questions about the future of the independent Palestinian state, and about the fate of the West Bank in light of settlements, about everything that Palestine has gone through and is going through; in an effort to gain a deeper understanding of these complex questions, even if we have not decided to reveal answers to them, as our attempts extended to compare the past and the present in terms of policy and actual practices on the ground, and what are their goals, specifically the goals of the extreme right-wing government in the West Bank, which resulted in a historical review of the Palestinian struggle in the West Bank and its future, each of which reflects an aspect of official and unofficial Palestinian policy, and at the same time addresses occupation practices and settler practices. These questions are what prompted us to research and write a series of articles that address these topics. Perhaps raising a question about the feasibility of continuing the Palestinian struggle is one of the most prominent cognitive responses that we often resort to in response to those who do not find any benefit in resisting the occupation, as if one of the aspects of the crises that the West Bank is experiencing is a war on the national culture and the culture of resisting the occupation by all means permitted by international law that allow resistance to the occupation until freedom and independence are achieved. We should not be preoccupied with the feasibility of resistance in light of settlements, barriers, and the brutal practices of the settlers, as much as we should be preoccupied with raising the issue of Palestinian unity and unity behind resisting settlements, and confronting the practices of the army and settlers and their principles that express the biblical understanding that states that the West Bank is part of the “Land of Israel.” These practices are not new, but rather began with the occupation and before the “Al-Aqsa Flood”, which was launched to respond to these practices against the Palestinian people, and targeting prisoners in prisons through the enactment of dozens of laws and decisions taken by the resigned Israeli Minister of Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was skilled in punishing prisoners, and bringing in police dogs to suppress prisoners and deprive them of the most basic rights internationally legislated, as their lives became hell, which raises a fundamental question: “Was Hamas able to liberate prisoners, specifically life prisoners, through the Battle of the Flood?”

The issue of prisoners serving life sentences has taken up a great deal of attention among the leadership of the Flood, specifically the duo, the martyr leader Yahya Sinwar and the martyr leader Saleh al-Arouri, who were released from the occupation prisons and pledged to liberate the prisoners. This is what happened, and they paid with their lives in exchange for the historic decision to wage the Battle of the Flood, which came after the acceleration of events and attacks on Al-Aqsa and the prisoners, and the settlement encroachment in the West Bank, including killings and burning of villages and towns, as happened in Huwara, Al-Mughayyir, Turmus Ayya, Al-Bireh, Barqa Ramallah, Barqa Nablus, Jinsafut and Al-Funduq, and the systematic Israeli policy of assassinations of influential field leaders in the northern West Bank. This is what can be concluded from the call of the head of the Israeli "Shabak", Ronen Bar, to take broad steps to change the reality in the West Bank and eliminate the phenomenon of armed groups there.

This was implemented in a crazy way on January 20, 2025, where all entrances to Palestinian cities, towns and villages were closed with iron gates, cement blocks and earth mounds, as the West Bank turned into a large prison for the Palestinians, and inside this prison there are sections, as every city, town and village is a section of this Israeli prison, and the occupation continues to place new gates and barriers, and there are more than 120 gates installed in all areas of the cities and villages of Hebron in an unprecedented manner since 1967, and the Bethlehem Governorate is closed with more than 98 gates besieging its cities and villages, and dozens of gates are also present in Ramallah, and in the Nablus Governorate alone there are 136 gates, and more than 60 earthen mounds and 10 fixed barriers in its vicinity, and dozens of gates and barriers in the Jenin, Tulkarm and Qalqilya governorates tighten the noose on the Palestinians, as the number of barriers in the West Bank has reached more than 800 barriers, and the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission recorded thousands of attacks by settlers On the West Bank during the past year alone. Even the only gate to any town that the Israeli army opens is quickly closed by the settlers, as happened on January 21, 2025, when settlers closed the entrance to Wadi al-Shajna, the only entrance to the city of Dura that was opened by the Israeli army.

It is as if the war is moving to the West Bank, and this indicates that Netanyahu and his government do not want any calm. Netanyahu moves from one front to another, and all the occupation plans and practices aim to annex the West Bank and subjugate the Palestinian people. What has been happening since January 21, 2025, in the Jenin camp and the northern West Bank, from a large and dangerous military operation, is evidence that Israel is racing against time to end the resistance in the northern West Bank in order to re-settle the three evacuated settlements in Jenin, "Sanur, Ganim, and Kadim", after the return of the fourth settlement, "Homesh", where bulldozers work day and night to build settlement homes. Israel aims through this military operation on the Jenin camp and the West Bank to record an achievement, after it failed miserably in Gaza, and is trying to restore the image of the Israeli soldier who was unable to win and crush the resistance, as Netanyahu used to say at the beginning of the war. This soldier was confronted by the resistance, which was able to dispel his image that he was painting as "the invincible army".

Netanyahu and his government give the order to the Israeli army to launch a massive military operation whose title is killing, arresting and destroying, all while the settlers are burning Palestinian villages and towns, and a few meters away the army is storming the village of Azzun, arresting dozens of them in a humiliating manner. This is an exchange of roles and the protection of the settlers by the army. All of this is in the war on the West Bank in order to push towards the voluntary displacement of the Palestinian people through killing, burning and oppression, and creating an environment that repels the Palestinian people. This says that Israel is unable to absorb the release of prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, so it is taking revenge on the West Bank, and wants to extinguish the joy among the Palestinians, and at the same time wants to raise the morale of the army and Israeli society, after the abject failure to achieve the goals of the war in Gaza, and to force Netanyahu to sign the exchange deal on the conditions of the resistance.

This brings us back to the topic of the level of stupidity that has been rampant in the minds of Israeli leaders over the past 77 years of not recognizing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, and leading to more brutal practices against the Palestinian people who have not and will not raise the white flag, all of which increases the Palestinian people’s determination to resist the occupation in order to establish their independent state. In the end, the state of resistance can only end by eliminating the cause, which is the occupation; Israel must put an end to its stupidity, arrogance, and brutal practices and recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

*Palestinian writer and researcher specializing in ideological movements.