Damage, theft, robbery, physical violence, murder. These are the crimes that Israeli settlers and soldiers have been committing for years, with impunity, against the Palestinian people in the West Bank. The script is tried and tested: a Palestinian settlement is targeted, and in the name of security, the land is expropriated to allow the construction of infrastructures that are functional to securing the area. The predictable reaction of the oppressed is labeled as an attack on security, so searches are carried out, so-called terrorists are arrested, their properties are destroyed, their families are evacuated. In some cases, livestock and landholdings are confiscated so that their own settlements can be expanded. The legal framework by which Israeli settlers are privileged is not the ordinary one but the military one, so that trials are not held, but indefinite detention regimes are permitted. By now, nearly 300 settlements have been created using these methods, with a total of 700,000 settlers.
The long-term goal is to liberate the West Bank from Palestinians, making their lives impossible, depriving them of fundamental rights such as security, freedom of movement, private property, education, the very word, resorting to systematic violence, harassment, submission, with the assistance, often or when necessary, of uniformed soldiers, usually ultra-Orthodox, shamelessly complicit in all the atrocities, which they witness undaunted, or more often by lending a hand to carry out the criminal activities. All this is known but little said, the Israelis avoid the comparison if they can; many in the discussion immediately lose serenity, in the few right-thinking people the embarrassment is palpable; with us Italians it is not uncommon for the phenomenon of the settlers and the ultra-Orthodox to be compared to the mafia or terrorism, in a reckless comparison that is devoid of or almost devoid of common characteristics. The issue must obviously be addressed with a view to creating full respect for the law and rights, with all the determination, patience and time needed.
With a final, ideal but not utopian, landing of a civil coexistence similar to that of today in Israel, where 20% of the population is Arab and not even the events of October 7 seem to have seriously undermined the balance achieved. On the other hand, if the international community continues to be oriented towards the “two peoples in two states” solution, pursuing the restoration of rights and legality in the West Bank is an obligatory step, almost a prerequisite. The moment is certainly not the most propitious to venture beyond a result to be achieved immediately: putting an end to the criminality of the ultra-Orthodox settlers in the West Bank. And yet we must begin to think about a long-term solution, integrated by design with that of Gaza and the Palestinian people. The UN, with the support of the most important international players, must reclaim the prerogatives reduced to the bare minimum with the Gaza conflict and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and develop, immediately after a ceasefire in the Strip, a negotiating platform based on the security of Israel and the rights of the Palestinian people. All this by restoring lustre to the role of international contingents, which are needed today more than ever and dragged into inactivity by the loss of role of the Glass Palace.
All in all, the incompatibility between Serbs and Kosovars has nothing to envy to that of the Israeli-Palestinian one, and there, after 25 years of forced coexistence under the watchful eye of NATO, things are still holding up, even if always in the spirit of an armed truce. In the meantime, Israel must return to being a full democracy, like a mussel under running water it must purge all the impurities accumulated in recent years and which have a name and a surname. In recent days, the West Bank issue has been evoked following the criminal raids of about fifty fanatics who have once again destroyed and killed. For a country capable of tracking down anyone, even in the most remote corner of the globe, it is not necessary to bother the Shin Bet to bring to justice individuals who are probably already known and prosecutable after uncomplicated preliminary trials. Seeing them in prison would be a first step towards the re-establishment of law. Just as the brawls and slamming of doors in the Council of Ministers, as has happened in recent days, by those at the top of the government who fan the flames, only to then resume as if nothing had happened as soon as the waters have calmed down, do not seem to be adequate responses.
#tested #script #Time
2024-08-27 19:40:19
