A wave of violence in the West Bank last weekend, in which three Palestinians were killed, has prompted some activists and analysts to warn of increased clashes in the Israeli-occupied territory amid a stalled peace process and the rise of a new hardline government in Israel.
On Friday, a Palestinian man protesting against the West Bank separation barrier that Israel is building was killed after being struck in the chest by a tear-gas canister fired by Israeli troops. On the same day, another Palestinian wielding a knife was shot to death by Jewish settlers after he infiltrated an Israeli settlement. On Saturday, a Palestinian teenager from the Jalazoun refugee camp near the town of Ramallah was fatally shot by Israeli soldiers after pelting petrol bombs at a nearby Jewish community.
Activists and analysts claimed yesterday that the ushering of a right-wing Israeli government last month is contributing to a rise in such violent incidents, adding to Palestinians’ frustration about the continuing Israeli occupation and giving legitimacy to Jewish settlers and soldiers to use force against Palestinians.
The governing coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu, the new Israeli prime minister, is composed of mostly hardline parties that oppose Palestinian statehood and openly support stepping up construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank – territory that Palestinians want for their future state.
“The recent elections gave a clear message to settlers in the occupied territories and also to soldiers that they can use violence and clamp down on the Palestinians,” said Neve Gordon, a political science professor at Ben-Gurion University in southern Israel. He added that settlers and soldiers have become “more trigger-happy” in terms of using ammunition against Palestinians.
Activists pointed to the killing last weekend of Bassem Abu Rahmeh, a 31-year-old Palestinian man taking part in a weekly demonstration near the village of Bil’in against the barrier Israel is constructing in and along the West Bank, which Palestinians view as a land grab.A report in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz yesterday cited unnamed officials in Israel’s military as saying that the soldier who fired the tear gas canister at Abu Rahmeh likely violated army orders because he aimed directly at the protester from only a few dozen metres away.
Furthermore, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said yesterday video footage filmed by an eyewitness to the protest showed the gas canister fired on the Palestinian was of a new and more dangerous type used by Israeli police and soldiers in the West Bank since the start of this year. It was described by the group as a high-velocity projectile that is “much faster and heavier than regular tear gas canisters”, causing much greater injury.
Last month, an American protester, Tristan Anderson, 38, was critically wounded during an anti-barrier demonstration in the nearby village of Ni’lin after Israeli troops struck him with a similar gas canister that fractured his skull. He remains hospitalised in Tel Aviv.
While there appears to be more violence by settlers and soldiers, there are also signs of a rise in attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
Analysts say there is an increased likelihood of strikes by Palestinians who are not tied to any groups such as the secular Fatah or the Islamist Hamas.
“Because of the failure of organised movements to launch attacks, the frustration of Palestinians is channelled to individual acts,” said Hillel Cohen, a lecturer at Hebrew University. He added: “People are angry … about the daily life under occupation, the feeling that there is no way to change it, the gradual expansion of settlements and the takeover of Palestinians’ land.” Activists point to several attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem in recent months as examples of such frustration by individuals.
In March, a Palestinian driver from Arab East Jerusalem rammed his bulldozer into a police car, rolling it over until it hit a bus in one of the city’s busiest junctions before he was shot dead by police and a taxi driver. It was the third such attack in nine months that was carried out by a resident of East Jerusalem, where some 250,000 Palestinians live.
Such violence is taking place amid diminished prospects for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, prompting some activists to warn of possible escalation.
“I think it will get much more bloody in the West Bank and Jerusalem – we will see many clashes in different places,” said Jamal Juma, the co-ordinator of a Palestinian grassroots movement against the West Bank barrier.
“Palestinians aren’t seeing anything coming out of the political talks and initiatives, and there is no prospects for an improvement in their lives. Nobody believes there is something called peace coming to this area.”
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