A collective funeral and all flags in memory of the victims of the Jenin massacre on January 26, 2023. Photo: HispanTV Author: HispanTV

From “legitimate” to bloody raids, through land dispossession and evictions accompanied by house demolitions, the State of Israel is intensifying its policy of “ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinian people, the first step in an attempt to build a Greater Israel at the expense of the Arab countries and other Muslim countries in the Middle East.

The worst thing about this genocide is that the so-called Western world looks the other way and does not notice what is happening, a conspiracy whose protagonists are international Zionism and its great accomplice: the United States government, ally and supporter, whoever the party may be. , run the White House.

Palestinian lives are threatened by the establishment of the apartheid regime, whose armed forces, which he calls “defense,” killed 220 Palestinians in 2022 alone, including a large number of minors, and as of January 31, 2023, this report already has 35 killed Palestinians, under the false argument that they are “terrorists”.

Israel is not responsible for this criminal behavior and this gives it the impunity and immunity it needs to divide, control and oppress the Palestinians.

To make matters worse and serve as an accelerator for Zionist procedures, in the last election Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister again, with the aggravating circumstance that he achieved this new tenure through a coalition with the most extremist ultra-Orthodox forces. Judaism.

The intensification of repressions and robberies was not long in coming. On Monday, January 31, when US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel ostensibly to defuse tensions and outbreaks of violence, just as the result of the largest joint military exercise in Tel Aviv and Washington, it clearly pointed to the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Knesset or the Israeli parliament adopted on first reading (out of three to become law) 86 out of 120 votes for a bill that revokes citizenship or residence permits from Palestinians accused of “acts of terrorism” and receiving money from the Palestinian Authority (PA), a “legitimate” element of policy” ethnic cleansing.”

This measure would complement the steps taken since 1948, with the creation of Israel, the expulsion of people from their homes began. Then there were more than 700,000 Palestinians – a third of the non-Jewish population – who fell into the category of refugees in other neighboring Arab states, Gaza and the West Bank, in conditions in which they still survive with a population that has increased by passages of more than 75 years. This disgrace is known to the Palestinians as the Nakba or Holocaust, and many exiled families still hold the old keys to their ruined homes.

Then, in 1967, the Israeli invasion and occupation of the West Bank led to a new wave of refugees in neighboring states.

Systematically, the Tel Aviv regime usurped the Palestinian territories, a state that was supposed to be formed simultaneously with Israel in 1948, according to the agreements of the United Nations, but this was prevented by Anglo-American collusion.

Jewish settlements on Palestinian land grew exponentially, while bulldozers demolished the homes of long-suffering and devoted people.

More than 600 villages have been bulldozed in this racist offensive that prevents Palestinians from returning to their homes, confiscates their land and hands it over to Jewish settlers and immigrants, a decisive move since the 1990s.

Currently, it is the Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab desert who are being forcibly evicted, and most recently they were expelled to Masafer Yatta, a place designated as a military area, a zone of fire and maneuver for his repressive forces.

armed citizens

Of course, the rise of the religious far right has given wings to settler vultures who are ramping up provocations and violent acts against Palestinian people and property, even targeting other religious groups, not just Muslims.

Clearly, the fact that a right-wing fanatic like Itmar Ben Gvir has become Israel’s new security minister encourages repression and aggression and allows settler attacks to spread throughout the West Bank.

The Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported in the last days of January that the Israeli Council of Ministers had decided to increase the number of citizens licensed to carry weapons. Of course, we are talking about Jews, and, according to the Ministry of National Security, 86 out of a hundred cities where a high percentage of people with licensed weapons correspond precisely to illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to reports, about 148,000 Israeli settlers and citizens currently hold such licenses, as well as soldiers, police officers and border guards who also support them in racist attacks.

Added to this is the fact that the Israeli police refuse applications for licenses to carry weapons submitted by Arab citizens.

After the shooting in front of the synagogue in the settlement of Neve Yaakov in Jerusalem, Ben-Gvir was blunt: “I want more guns on the streets. [para que] The citizens of Israel can defend themselves”; an invitation also made by the Israeli Police Commissioner General Yaakov Shabtai.

At the same time, Israel Hayom confirmed: “The government is about to vote on a series of measures aimed at retroactively approving dozens of unauthorized outposts in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) worth several billion shekels.” . (The new Netanyahu administration deliberately emphasizes biblical Hebrew names and ignores commonly recognized names.)

In doing so, they “legitimize” Jewish settlements and outposts in the occupied Palestinian territories, which are not recognized internationally and are not even recognized by current Israeli law.

The decision of the Israeli prime minister, his security cabinet and the Knesset to seal and demolish the homes of those he calls terrorists, deprive their families of the right to national insurance and their Israeli identity cards, expedite the issuance of firearms licenses for thousands of (Jewish) citizens, fortify settlements and the strengthening of military and police units, together with the expansion of arrests and “collection of illegal weapons” operations, are elements that add fuel to the fire of civil war. The terrible reality is that Netanyahu and his allies in the government and in the Knesset have decided to add fuel to the fire.

In essence, this is a call for open war against the Palestinians, a people of resistance who are fighting for their right to exist as a nation and state, freely and independently. Perhaps a new intifada is coming.

Israeli soldiers on the Al-Aqsa esplanade. PHOTO: Anadolu Agency

Source: Juventud Rebelde