January 31, 2023
To Israelis, it feels like random terror. But to Palestinians, the killing of civilians in Jerusalem cannot be separated from the IDF killing Palestinians in a West Bank raid, writes BEN LYNFIELD.
As Israel grieves after the deadliest Palestinian terrorist attack in 15 years, civilians on both sides are caught in a maelstrom of blood, fear and dread that seems likely to get a lot worse.
“I didn’t let my daughter take the bus to school. An attack can happen in any place and downtown is very scary,” said Yael Ilan, a photographer who lives in West Jerusalem. “We’ve had one attack after another.”
On Friday night, a lone Palestinian gunman went on a killing spree after synagogue services in the Neve Yaakov neighbourhood in annexed East Jerusalem, leaving seven civilians, including 14-year-old Asher Natan Morali, dead and three others injured. In its initial response, the far-Right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed to intensifying settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
It seemed hard to understand how further encroaching on Palestinian land would make Israelis more secure or lower the flames that were initially stoked by Israel itself with a devastating military raid into the Jenin refugee camp that left 10 Palestinians dead.
Army officials first described it as an operation to arrest Islamic Jihad terrorists bent on carrying out an imminent attack, but no evidence of a ticking bomb was subsequently produced, raising doubts about whether launching the operation was justified. Be that as it may, 10 Palestinians – eight militants and two civilians – were killed in the deadliest single IDF West Bank operation in two decades, fuelling widespread anger and calls for revenge.
“There is no need for incitement. The behaviour of the settlers and the army is the source of the incitement.”Former Palestinian Authority Minister Ghassan Khatib
Many Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza viewed the Neve Yaakov attack as admirable revenge and celebrated the deaths of the Israeli civilians by handing out sweets and launching fireworks. The next day, as Israeli fears of copycat attacks mounted, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and wounded two Israelis in the Wadi Hilweh area in East Jerusalem, which is being taken over by settlers as part of an Israeli drive to transform Arab neighbourhoods into Jewish ones.
In East Jerusalem, residents also said they expect escalation of the conflict. “If there are more punitive measures and the Government encourages settlers to use weapons we will have a reaction,” said the veteran Palestinian journalist Said Ghazali, who formerly contributed to UK newspaper The Independent.
“We’re in a cycle of violence and reaction to violence. People don’t feel safe. They can kill me as I walk down the street and say I was a suspect. If I put my hand in my pocket, it’s enough of a reason to shoot me. People are scared. They feel there is no security. Maybe Israelis feel the same way.”
Meanwhile, it seems unlikely that the Government’s decision to embark on a course of collective punishments harming families of the assailants and other East Jerusalemites will help offer the two warring peoples a way out.
Indeed, the Government was in such a hurry to seal off the family home of the Neve Yaakov shooter, Khairy Alqam, that it violated legal procedure, including the family’s right to appeal to the Supreme Court, said Jessica Montell, director of the East Jerusalem-based HaMoked human rights group. “We are facing a new reality where the Government is not committed even to internal Israeli law,” Montell said.
Other collective punishments reportedly being considered are more sweeping and damaging: stripping citizenship from relatives of assailants and deporting them. “It’s quite outrageous. They can blatantly threaten families solely for being related [to an assailant] and there is not one voice saying it’s illegal and immoral,” Montell said.
Advocates of draconian measures say they are a deterrent to Palestinian violence but in the current climate the proposal seems aimed more at scoring points with the country’s right-wing majority. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has also instructed police to move energetically to demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem built without permits, even though these are often impossible to obtain from Israeli authorities.
On Sunday, Israelis in a cemetery in the Givat Shaul neighbourhood of West Jerusalem gathered for the funeral of Rafael Ben-Eliyahu, 58, who was driving home from Shabbat dinner with his wife and sons and was killed by the assailant after he got out of his car to call medics to come to the scene of the attack.
FOR MANY OF ISRAEL’S OPINION-SHAPERS, THERE IS NO “CAUSE AND EFFECT” IN MATTERS WHERE THE ARMY AND PALESTINIANS ARE CONCERNED.
“He had a heart of gold and he always looked for how to help” his son, Or, said in an interview with Channel 13. “He loved everyone. He was like a friend to me. I would ask his advice. I would watch football with him. What a heart he had. He was supposed to travel to the US because of the birth of a new grandson. Instead of being at the brit, he is in the cemetery. One minute of hate took my father away from me.” Or’s brother Natan was wounded in the shooting.
Amid the horror, some Israelis depicted the attack as inexplicable. Dany Cushmaro, the anchor for Channel 12 News, commented: “It is hard to understand how someone could do that to innocent people who didn’t do anything to him.” Others in the Israeli media attributed the attacks to incitement. The content of Palestinian textbooks was also part of the equation, one journalist explained.
Former Palestinian Authority Minister of Labor Ghassan Khatib took a different view. “There is no need for incitement. The behaviour of the settlers and the army is the source of the incitement. You only need to watch what is going on: the killings in Jenin, their funerals, their mothers. This is what is inciting the Palestinians.”
But hardly anyone in Israel’s mainstream media seemed ready to acknowledge that the Jenin raid may have played a role in the Israeli deaths. For many of Israel’s opinion-shapers, there is no “cause and effect” in matters where the army and Palestinians are concerned.
The lack of introspection comes despite a report by Haaretz military correspondent Amos Harel after the Jenin raid that there was no immediate threat of a Palestinian attack at the time troops in a civilian truck penetrated the camp.
Menachem Klein, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Bar Ilan University, told Plus61J that it was a grave mistake to mount the raid and that the army is on “automatic pilot” when it comes to its raiding policy. “Unfortunately, at the cabinet meeting they don’t say that since the raid cost the lives of seven citizens, we should rethink these raids.”
Last year, Israel began mounting frequent raids in the West Bank after a series of deadly Palestinian attacks inside the Green Line (pre-‘67 border). At the same time, Palestinian Authority influence in Jenin and Nablus further eroded, with local armed groups coming to the fore and clashing with the military, which then intensified its raids.
The emergence of these groups and the public backing they attained was attributed by analysts to despair stemming from the absence of a horizon for ending the occupation and other factors, including high youth unemployment.
In part due to Israeli raids, 150 Palestinians died from army activity in 2022, the highest toll in 15 years, according to the Associated Press. According to Israel, most of the dead were militants, but youths and people who were not involved in hostilities also died. More than 30 people on the Israeli side were killed in Palestinian attacks.
As of Sunday, more than 30 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli security forces in January alone.. Settler violence has also spiked since the Jerusalem attacks.
The high death toll results in high motivation for revenge, Klein says. “What Israelis fail to see is that there is a context,” he says. “The average Israeli sees only the casualties, not the context.”
Photo: Relatives mourn at the funeral of Eli Mizrahi, 48, and his wife Natali Mizrahi, 45, who were killed in the Neve Yaakov synagogue attack (EPA/ATEF SAFADI)