Near constant Israeli “settler violence” spiked on the evening of Feb.26 when 300-400 illegal Israeli colonists burst into the West Bank town of Huwara, attacked Palestinians and torched 30 homes and 100 cars. More than 350 Palestinians were treated for tear gas inhalation and Sameh Aqtash, 37, was shot dead outside his workshop when colonists invaded the nearby village of Zaatara. He had just returned home after volunteering in efforts to rescue and recover victims of the Feb.6 earthquake in Turkey.

The unprecedented Israeli colonist rampage was unleashed after brothers Yagel Yaniv, 20, and Hallel Yaniv, 22, were killed when they drove through Huwara which straddles a main West Bank route linking Jerusalem and Ramalah with Nablus. The shooting of the brothers was in revenge for the Feb.22 Israeli army’s raid on Nablus, seven kilometres to the north, which killed 11 Palestinians and wounded more than 80 with live fire.

That incursion came a month after 10 Palestinians — including three elderly men and a teenage boy — were slain at the Jenin refugee camp, 41 kilometres away. In recent months, Jenin and Nablus have become centres of armed Palestinian resistance to the never-ending Israeli occupation.

The Western powers and media did not react to Israel’s deadly Jenin and Nablus raids as they did to daily Russian attacks on Ukraine even if more Palestinians were killed in these events than Ukrainians. Israel’s near-nightly raids began last spring under the previous allegedly centrist government and have continued under Israel’s most right-wing ever government under Binyamin Netanyahu.

Huwara was predictable for all concerned. Palestinians have realised finally that they have no option but to resume the armed struggle abandoned by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when he assumed the top job in 2005 after the death of Yasser Arafat. By contrast, Arafat adopted negotiations as the route to Palestinian statehood but did not rule out armed resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Young Palestinians have dismissed the Palestinian Authority as unable to provide protection from Israeli soldiers and colonists. Individual Palestinians have lashed out with “lone wolf” shooting, knifing and car-ramming attacks on Israelis while other young Palestinians have joined small, armed, clandestine cells with the aim of defending their home turf from Israeli attacks and raids. These cells can combine fighters from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other factions. Factionalism has been overridden by the need to take action.

Huwara was a wake-up call for many Israelis living within the boundaries of the 1948 state. Those favouring a peaceful deal with the Palestinians have come to realise this is no longer possible because there are now about 700,000 Israeli colonists illegally planted in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Instead of trying to prevent this from happening, the majority of peace-minded Israelis have avoided going to these areas, adopted “internal exile” by putting their heads in the sand and ignoring what has been happening. As a result, the colonists have not only come to dominate 42 per cent of the West Bank and large areas of East Jerusalem but have also become a deciding force in domestic Israeli politics, shifting the Israeli political spectrum to the right and extreme right. Israeli human rights organisations such as Soldiers Against Silence, Yesh Din, and B’Tslem have been warning of the dangers posed by this shift but they have been dismissed as alarmist by a majority of Israelis and self-seeking politicians. Consequently, the colonists have become all the more demanding of state resources and grown increasingly violent toward Palestinians.

They are backed by the Israeli military which is comprised of all Jewish and some Druze and bedouin Israelis over 18 years of age. Well trained, well armed Israeli troops are on front line in the struggle for possession of Palestine and are the first to abuse Palestinians and protect colonists - who have served terms in the military - involved in attacks on Palestinians, uprooting Palestinian olive trees and crops, and setting fire to Palestinian vehicles and homes.

The Hawara assault coincided with the most recent Israeli demonstrations against legislation introduced by the Netanyahu government to strip the Israeli supreme court of its powers and strengthen the legislature and executive. Surrounded, squeezed and tear gassed by police and troops who did nothing to halt the onslaught at Hawara, Israeli protesters suddenly found themselves defenceless against a government which had no intention of taking their concerns seriously. They began to chant, “We are all Palestinians.”

Israeli activists were doubly angered when they were not allowed to enter Huwara to show solidarity with its Palestinian residents. Israeli troops fired tear gas and stun grenades at the gathering, knocked some people to the ground, including ex-Knesset speaker Avraham Burg, and arrested two. Son of a former minister, soldier and politician, Burg, 68, is a founder of Peace Now and was Labour party stalwart who joined the far left bicommunal Hadash which has five seats in the current Knesset. For the first time ever, hundreds of Israelis - shamed and angered over Hawara - have donated nearly $500,000 to rebuild damage inflicted by extremist Israeli colonists.

Hawara embarrassed the US but did not compel the Biden administration to demand an end to colonisation or accountability for the actions of colonists. The US has failed to rein in Israel for so long that it is a broken reed instead of a country with leverage over Israel.

In response to the remarks that Huwara should be “wiped out” by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, State Department spokesman Ned Price said his comments were irresponsible, “repugnant; they were disgusting. And just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence.” He urged Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials “to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments.” However, Price is merely a mouthpiece. He is not Secretary of State Antony Blinken or President Joe Biden.

Any Palestinian who dared make such an incendiary remark would be banned from the US. Smotrich eventually withdrew his statement under pressure from Netanyahu who called it “inappropriate.” Nevertheless, the Jerusalem Post reported that Smotrich may not receive a US visa to attend an Israel Bonds conference on March 12-14. Liberal US Jewish organisations have called for him to be barred. Meanwhile, Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant have stepped up preparations for military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, risking regional war involving the US.

Photo: AP