On a pause from genocide, Israel turns its focus to ethnic cleansing

Israel deployed tanks in the West Bank for the first time in more than 20 years on Sunday, February 23. It was the most recent bellicose stunt to take place in the Gaza Strip in the wake of the tense ceasefire agreement being implemented in January.

Any ceasefire is unavoidably temporary due to Israel’s inherently long-term genocidal policy in Gaza, which is, of course. The Israeli military officially killed at least 48, 365 Palestinians during their 15-month occupation of the Palestinian enclave, with the majority of them being women and children, despite the fact that the death toll is undoubtedly much higher. The Israeli offensive forced the majority of Gaza’s residents to flee, many of whom repeatedly.

According to The Times of Israel, more than 40 Palestinians have “fled their homes” since January 21, according to a report from The Times of Israel. This is “allegedly the largest displacement in the territory since the Six Day War in 1967.” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz gave an instruction to the army on Sunday to prepare for an “extended presence in the cleared camps for the following year” and to prevent residents from returning.

There is nothing like ethnic cleansing, which is the Israeli right wing’s preoccupation. Donald Trump, the president of the United States, may soon be giving the thoroughly illegal scheme explicit applause for it, saying in early February, “People do like the idea, but we haven’t taken a position on it yet.”

The EU-Israel Association Council’s 13th meeting took place on Monday in Brussels, with representatives from all 27 EU countries and co-chaired by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, one day after Israel’s deployment of tanks in the West Bank and Katz’s de facto ethnic cleansing announcement.

The meeting would have provided a perfect excuse to condemn Israel’s repeated forced displacement and massacre in the West Bank, as well as, you might say, the genocide in Gaza. Israeli forces fatally shot two Palestinian children in the back near Jenin and Hebron, respectively, three days before the Brussels rendezvous.

According to Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, “relations between the Parties, as well as all the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.” The leaders of Spain and Ireland called for a review of whether Israel was violating the human rights treaty in February 2024 in response to this article.

However, it was clear at the meeting with Sa’ar on Monday that the EU, Israel’s largest trading partner, was more concerned with keeping its relationship with a nation that had committed all kinds of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The EU-Israel Association Council’s General Secretariat stated in its official pre-meeting “note” regarding the EU position that “the EU attaches great significance to its close relations with the State of Israel.

The EU alternately declares “its full solidarity and support to Israel and its people” and designates Israel as a “key partner for cooperation” in a number of areas throughout the 28-page PDF document. The note emphasizes the importance of working with Israel to “address global challenges” and “accelerate the global transition to a secure and just food system” for those who were merely using starvation as a means of war in Gaza.

In 28 pages, the Europeans have not managed to contain even one criticism of Israel. The EU is “deeply deplores the unacceptable number of civilians, especially women and children, who have lost their lives” in Gaza, according to the note, “the EU recalls that annexation is prohibited by international law” and that “the EU continues to be gravely concerned about Israel’s extensive use of arbitrary arrests and administrative detention without formal arrest.” However, the fact that Europe is so incredibly excited to cooperate with Israel now and forever eliminates any real condemnation is ultimately drowned out.

The statement further states that “the EU is gravely concerned that the Palestinian territory’s occupation, which began in 1967, continues to this day,” and that it has been doing so frequently. Yet it’s anyone’s guess how exactly an end to occupation is supposed to occur when the state, which is attempting to occupy but also attempting to oust the Palestinian people, is being hailed as a fantastic regional partner.

Israeli Foreign Minister Sa’ar defended Israel’s ongoing military exercises against terrorists in the West Bank, which have resulted in widespread killings by the army and illegal settlers as well as house demolitions, in a statement to reporters in Brussels.

The old anti-terror justification, in my opinion, never fails to support Israel’s ongoing terror of Palestinians. Defense Minister Katz also used the T-word to explain how Israel was now “applicing the method of repeated raids in Gaza” by putting Jenin under a “strong operation to eliminate terrorists and terror infrastructure in the camp, ensuring that terrorism does not return to the camp after the operation is over.

Israel’s operations in the West Bank, minus the sporadic lip service paid to Palestinian rights, are just an extension of the genocidal strategy toward Gaza. Mass slaughter and displacement occur with full US and European involvement.

When the US wrests control of the region and expels the native population, it remains to be seen if Trump will now propose a “Dead Sea Riviera” in the West Bank to compete with his vision of the “Riviera of the Middle East,” which is supposed to emerge from the remnants of the Gaza Strip.

While genocide is being increasingly confined to the news, Israel’s “key partners for cooperation” around the world will continue to normalize its crimes against humanity. And to be honest, that is a crime against humanity itself.

Source: Aljazeera