Israel’s West Bank raids aimed at ‘crushing any resistance’ to occupation plans
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, has condemned Israel’s mass raids in the occupied West Bank as a strategic move to expand control over the territory and displace more Palestinians.
“Israel’s goal is to break down any form of resistance to their political plan,” Barghouti told Al Jazeera. “And their political plan is nothing but expansion of settlements all over the West Bank, annexation of the West Bank… and destruction of any kind of Palestinian authority.”
In effect, Barghouti added, Israel is waging a war on occupied people, which is a violation of international law and represents a “fascist shift”.
“Why are they [Israeli authorities] doing it now?” said Barghouti. “Because they saw the weak reaction from the international community to the atrocities, the genocide in Gaza,” emboldening them to act violently in the West Bank.
Palestinians are stopped by Israeli security forces, during an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, August 31
West Bank assault part of plan to ‘ethnically cleanse’ Palestinians
Mohamad Elmasry, professor in the media studies programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says Israel’s continuing assault in the occupied West Bank was planned before October 7.
“Israel’s plans involve annexing Palestinian land, ultimately over time getting rid of the Palestinian population and ethnically cleansing the West Bank and Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera. “From Israel’s perspective, right now is the perfect time to go to war with the West Bank because people are sort of distracted by what is happening in Gaza.”
Elmasry added that Israel has been emboldened by the lack of response by the US for its ongoing war in Gaza. “So if it can get away with it there, why [would Israel] not in the West Bank?” Elmasry said.
Netanyahu’s ‘problematic’ plan to weaken the Palestinian Authority
Alon Pinkas, former ambassador and Consul General of Israel in New York, says that he doesn’t believe there is a plan for Israel to annex “a wide swath of the West Bank”.
“This government is intent on weakening the Palestinian Authority,” he told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv. “With this [West Bank] operation, Israel is weakening the Palestinian Authority to the point that there’s not going to be anyone to negotiate with, and that is the grand plan that the government has.”
“Mr Netanyahu is doing something very problematic here, very ominous here, in that he is creating a situation, an environment in which further negotiations with the Palestinians three, four, five years from now would probably be impossible because of the weakness and fragility of the Palestinian Authority.”
