{"id":229609,"date":"2023-02-20T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=229609"},"modified":"2023-02-15T08:14:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T08:14:44","slug":"cleansing-palestinians-from-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/02\/cleansing-palestinians-from-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cleansing\u2019 Palestinians from Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s new extremist regime \u2014 the most anti-Palestinian in history \u2014 seems to be aiming at incorporating all of the occupied Palestinian territories into Israel.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Source: Al Jazeera<\/p><\/div>\n

13 Feb 2023 – <\/em>Israeli Prime Minister\u00a0<\/em>Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s religious Zionist coalition, which was sworn in on Dec. 29, 2022,\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0in its manifesto that Jews have the \u201cexclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, in a little over a month, the Israeli regime has killed Palestinians, demolished their homes, mounted incursions into occupied Palestinian territory and endeavored to change laws and policies to accelerate the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from Palestine.<\/p>\n

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the\u00a0Nakba<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 the Arabic word for \u201ccatastrophe.\u201d In 1948, Israel\u00a0assumed control<\/a>\u00a0over more than three-quarters of Palestine. Upwards of 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes or forced to flee and Israel confiscated much of their land.<\/p>\n

Now, Israel\u2019s new extremist regime \u2014 the most\u00a0anti-Palestinian<\/a> in Israeli history \u2014 appears aimed at finishing the job <\/a>by incorporating all of the occupied Palestinian territories into Israel.<\/p>\n

Many people in the new government want an \u201cout-of-state solution\u201d in which Palestinians would be forcibly transferred (or in desperation, leave) to nearby Arab countries, \u201cdispossessing them of their homeland,\u201d Michel Moushabeck, a Palestinian American writer and publisher,\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Truthout.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism Party, is the new minister of finance. In 2021, he\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Arab members of the Israeli Knesset that they were \u201chere by mistake because Ben Gurion didn\u2019t finish the job and throw you out in 1948.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its effort to \u201cJudaize\u201d the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel may be trying to cleanse the\u00a0Palestinians<\/a>\u00a0from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new Israeli government is the culmination of decades of apartheid subjugation of the Palestinian people in their own homeland,\u201d Richard Falk, former U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, wrote in an email to\u00a0Truthout.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cThe long game of the Zionist Project was openly proclaimed in the 2018 Basic Law of Israel confirming the intention of maintaining Jewish supremacy and exclusive rights of self-determination in the entire territory stretching from \u2018the river to the sea.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel Wants to Take Over Occupied Palestine<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Israeli military forces arriving to demolish the Palestinian community of Khirbet Ein Karzaliyah on Jan. 8, 2014. (B\u2019Tselem, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The \u201cGreen Line,\u201d drawn in 1948 to separate Israel from the occupied Palestinian territories, set the boundaries at the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Nearly\u00a015 million people\u00a0<\/a>live between the river and the sea.\u00a0 Jews make up 7.454 million \u2014 or 49.84 percent.<\/p>\n

Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, including Gaza, encompass 7.503 million \u2014 or 51.16 percent, a majority. Between 59 and 65 percent of people living between the river and the sea\u00a0oppose the Israeli occupation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s \u201cundisclosed Zionist Long Game,\u201d Falk\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0at Just World Educational, \u201caims at extending Israeli sovereignty over the whole of Occupied Palestine, with the possible exception of Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGaza, with its 2+ million Palestinians, is not part of the traditional Jewish conception of the promised land, and thus not integral to the Zionist conception of an Israeli one-state solution,\u201d Falk told\u00a0Truthout<\/em>. \u201cIt is rather perceived by Israeli leadership as a dangerous \u2018demographic bomb,\u2019 hence a security threat, if it is incorporated into the Zionist vision of a solution to the underlying conflict. Israel would prefer that Gaza is administered by Jordan or Egypt, as before 1967, or even as an independent mini-state neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1967, Israel (falsely\u00a0claiming self-defense\u00a0<\/a>) attacked Egypt, Jordan and Syria and seized the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, as well as the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. Palestinians call this the Naksa\u00a0<\/em>(\u201csetback\u201d in Arabic).\u00a0<\/em>It ushered in Israel\u2019s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory. But\u00a0U.N. Security Council Resolution 242<\/a>, passed in 1967 and reaffirmed in 2016, stipulates \u201cthe inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collective Punishment Constitutes War Crime<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Areas under Palestinian control or partial control (dark green) those under Israeli control (light green) according to the Oslo Accords. Borders of the Palestinian governorates also shown.\u00a0(Erik Bolstad\/ map data UN\/ CC BY NC SA 3.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has\u00a0documented<\/a>\u00a0killings, house demolitions and incursions by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) against Palestinians since the beginning of 2023.<\/p>\n

Forty-three Palestinians, including 19 civilians (seven of whom were children) were killed by the IOF. Three Palestinians were killed by settlers, allegedly in retaliation for shooting and stabbing attacks. And dozens were injured in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the punishment of people in an occupied territory for offenses they didn\u2019t personally commit. Israel\u2019s reprisals against families and the community for actions they did not take constitutes collective punishment, which is considered a war crime.<\/p>\n

In addition, the IOF rendered 33 families homeless (a total of 229 individuals, including 43 women and 108 children). This was the result of IOF demolitions of 34 houses. Six were forced to demolish their own homes and three were demolished in an exercise of collective punishment.<\/p>\n

The \u201cIOF also demolished 39 other civilian objects, razed other property, and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,\u201d PCHR reported.<\/p>\n

The IOF conducted 1,449 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, since the beginning of the year. During these incursions, 638 Palestinians were arrested, including 11 women and 61 children.<\/p>\n

Moreover, 2022 was the\u00a0deadliest year<\/a>\u00a0for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 18 years. The IOF killed at least 146 Palestinians, including 34 children.<\/p>\n

Seeks to Weaken Supreme Court & Annex West Bank<\/strong><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s new religious Zionist\u00a0coalition government<\/a>\u00a0has begun the process to prevent the Israeli\u00a0Supreme Court from overruling legislation passed by the Knesset (parliament). There are proposals for the coalition to select judges and replace professional legal advisers with political appointees.<\/p>\n

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Hearing hall in Israel\u2019s Supreme Court, 2017. (Avi1111, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The new regime has also withheld nearly $40 million in\u00a0Palestinian tax revenues\u00a0<\/a>and plans to divert that money to victims of Palestinian attacks.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, guidelines\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0by the government call for more construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, legalization of illegal outposts and eventual full annexation of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Jewish Settlements Violate Geneva Convention<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring \u201cparts of its own civilian population into the territories it occupies.\u201d It is illegal for Israel to directly or tacitly support the building of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the U.N. Security Council adopted\u00a0Resolution 2334<\/a>, which condemned Israel for the establishment of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. It says that the building of settlements \u201chas no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Approximately 650,000 Jewish settlers live in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Settlers who illegally build settlements on Palestinian territory have been emboldened by the new regime, which includes leaders of the settler movement among its key ministers.<\/p>\n

Resistance to Israeli Regime Repression<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe resistance in Gaza is doing its duties and defending our people in Gaza,\u201d Hazem Qassem, spokesperson for Hamas,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in a statement. Al-Qassam Bridges, the armed wing of Hamas, declared that Israeli warplanes would be met by anti-aircraft and ground-to-air defense.<\/p>\n

Additional Palestinian factions expressed support for an armed Palestinian response to the Jan. 26 attack in Jenin, when Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in a \u201cmassacre<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that Palestinian factions in Gaza have the right to respond accordingly. Lion\u2019s Den, an armed Palestinian resistance group in the occupied West Bank whose members are considered heroes by many Palestinians, has mounted\u00a0dozens of attacks<\/a>\u00a0against Israeli troops and civilians during the past six months.<\/p>\n

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14-year-old Palestinian Qusai Radwan Waked was fatally shot during an Israeli raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.<\/p>\n

He was shot in the belly and taken to hospital where he was pronounced deadhttps:\/\/t.co\/xyKHfnPBfb<\/a><\/p>\n

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) February 13, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n