By Ranjan Solomon
Palestine Update 621
Bad news for Palestinians as Israel resorts to utmost cruelties
Israel persists with its unilateral and cruel choices of how it treats Palestinians and their villages. Despite the fact that forcible transfer of civilian populations in occupied territory is deemed as a war crime, Israel is pursuing a relentless plan to evict 1000 Palestinians from Masafer Yatta to make way for a firing zone for the Israel army. Israel is wayward in offering a substitute area to dwell. But this offer comes under duress and is, hence, devoid of any civilized intention. Peace Now and Bimkom report that Israel will remove Palestinians from about 3,250 acres of land in the West Bank and about 70 buildings in Hebron supposedly owned by Jews before 1948. This is part of a political deal between Likud and Religious Zionism to enable assets currently held by the Civil Administration to be transferred to their pre-1948 Jewish owners.
The threat to ban the Palestinian flag is not cutting ice among Palestinians. On the other hand, Israel does this more out of fear and insecurity and inanity. How can an entire identity be erased by banning a flag?
More cruelties; this time in Israeli prisons. As of 30 September 2022, there were 4,529 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in detention facilities including 129 children (12-17 years). In the case of children there was a 4 percent increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual decrease of 12 percent compared with 2021. Seven children were held in administrative detention. According to the IPS, 68 percent of child detainees were transferred to prisons inside Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Israel’s new coalition has established a stranglehold over the Biden administration. It has got Biden to revoke its opposition to illiberal, theocratic tendencies to disentangle the judiciary, target ethnic and gender minorities, and unilaterally annex the occupied territories. Washington’s intransigence in the face of these cold realities comes as no shocker. In a cabinet filled with people whose criminal records are scandalous, it can be hardly expected that politically moral decisions will be taken. What do the ilk of Netanyahu’s cabinet coalition partner’s care? Nor is Netanyahu a saint given the array of charges he faces. The face of Israel’s fascists cabinet is scary to say the least.
In solidarity,
Ranjan Solomon
On behalf of MLN Palestine Updates.
19 January 2023