Member of Knesset Ḥaim Katz (Likud), chairman of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee, visited on Thursday the Jerusalem protest tent erected to demand water and electricity for 46 unrecognized West Bank Jewish villages – or “illegal outposts.”
The tent was set up by Jewish families on hunger strike because their communities aren’t recognized by the state and therefore lack basic services like water and electricity.
“I was shocked to hear about the dire situation of more than 20,000 citizens of the State of Israel in Judea and Samaria,” Katz said after visiting the hunger strikers.
“It is inconceivable that in 2021, a simple shower can take up all the power and hot water a family has.”
One of the hunger strikers, Itai Zar of Ḥavat Gilad, collapsed Wednesday night at the protest tent and was rushed to a Jerusalem hospital.
Zar had been on hunger strike for the past nine days, demanding that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) approve a proposal to recognize the outposts at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, which would connect the 46 communities to water and electricity infrastructure.
“The electricity is terrible, the water is terrible, we’re fed up,” Zar said to politicians who visited him Thursday in the hospital. “Enough!”
“What has politics got to do with it? To left or right? I just want to live like a human being. I went to synagogue on Shabbat eve without showering. There was no water. So why? We’ll suffer another eight years? Why? There are 25,000 people here.”
All 46 of the outpost villages are located in Area C, which makes up over 60% of the West Bank and is under full Israeli security and municipal control. Tensions have risen in recent weeks between residents of these villages and the authorities following the recent police killing of 16-year-old Ahuvya Sandak and the subsequent protests that have often ended violently.
Two weeks ago, a 26-year-old Palestinian named Harun Abu Aram was shot in the neck by an Israeli soldier near the Palestinian village of al-Rakiz in the southern Hebron Hills. He is in critical condition and most likely paralyzed, according to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry.
The shooting took place a month after the army had demolished four homes in the village, including Abu Aram’s.
The official reason for the demolition was that the homes were built “illegally.” But what that really means is that the Civil Administration – the arm of Israel’s military government that runs the day-to-day lives of millions of West Bank Palestinians – refuses to issue building permits to communities with construction needs due to natural growth.
In fact, it’s been reported that the Civil Administration rejects 98.7 percent of Palestinian requests for building permits in Area C (we see the same phenomenon with demolitions of “illegal” homes in Jewish communities where building permits are unattainable).
Abu Aram arrived on the morning of January 1 to help rebuild one of the homes that had been demolished. After hours of work, a Civil Administration vehicle carrying Israeli soldiers arrived on the scene to confiscate the generator the Palestinians were using for the construction.
When soldiers attempted to take the generator, Abu Aram frantically tried to recover it. A fight broke out and one of the soldiers fired a shot. It’s unclear from the video of the incident if the soldier was aiming at Abu Aram. The army issued a statement that he wasn’t. But either way, a man is now in critical condition and likely paralyzed simply for trying to resist an additional petty injustice a month after his family’s home was destroyed.
This isn’t what the people of Israel came home after 2,000 years to become. We didn’t fight our way back from centuries of powerlessness in exile simply to behave like oppressors once we gain power. It’s true that it’s easy to dehumanize a group we’ve been conditioned to see as an enemy population for 100 years. And the mutual fear has a lot of justification. But we need to stop and think.
These two stories, the “illegal” Jewish and Palestinian communities in the West Bank are only illegal because they stand in the way of someone’s interests. The imperialist nations have for decades wanted all Jews out of the West Bank to enable a “two-state solution” and Israel’s government is constantly under pressure to destroy existing Jewish communities and prevent the creation of new ones. If Israel does connect the 46 Jewish villages to water and electricity, it will be regarded by the international community as creating conditions that obstruct their designs to partition this country into two separate states.
European governments have allegedly been pouring money into Palestinian building in Area C, which many Jews – including government ministers and lawmakers – fear is meant to create demographic conditions that would prevent Israel from annexing Area C.
Partially due to these fears, Israel denies building permits and basic services to Jewish and Palestinian communities while regularly engaging in the demolition of “illegal” homes built without approval.
Two things need to change. The first is that West Bank Jews and Palestinians must realize that, although our situations are vastly different, we’re both being victimized by similar policies for similar reasons. And at least some of the injustices both peoples experience often result from the same core issues plaguing Israeli society. Whether directed against Palestinians or Jews, Israel’s politically-motivated policy of demolishing homes and destroying entire communities stems from the same colonized identity and lack of moral compass that perpetuates injustice and keeps Israel subservient to the West.
So long as Jews and Palestinians support the destruction of each other’s homes and communities out of some misplaced understanding of our respective interests, demolitions and other injustices will likely continue on both sides. So rather than support demolitions when victimize the Other, we should be working towards a shared struggle in our opposition to these policies.
If West Bank Jews and Palestinians were to speak in one voice for the humanity and dignity of both peoples, we could ensure a just and equal distribution of building permits, water and other vital resources.
The most effective way to fight these oppressive policies to change is to unite. This will obviously require both communities to overcome serious baggage, as well as our perceptions of one another constructed over a century of violent conflict. But a partnership between West Bank Jews and Palestinians could become one of the most powerful political forces in the country.
The second thing that needs to change are Israel’s actual policies. For over 50 years, Israel has had control over the West Bank but our leaders have yet to decisively decide what we plan to do with these territories. On the one hand, the West Bank – Judea and Samaria – constitutes the cradle of Jewish civilization and the mountains we had been pining for during our centuries of exile.
But the international community, led by the United States, has been very clear in its demands that we surrender these lands. And while Israel once had political leaders that resisted these demands on principle, the last three decades have been characterized by Israeli leaders who say yes to the West while not-so-discretely creating facts on the ground that make actually complying with Western demands near impossible.
Israel doesn’t have a right to this land. We have an obligation to it. We have an obligation to ensure justice in the entire Land of Israel. This of course requires full Israeli sovereignty but also requires that we grant non-Jews living under our control equal access to building permits and basic services.
Israel should stop playing games and just do the inevitable – apply full sovereignty to the West Bank. Not only to Area C but also A and B. There should be no more Palestinian Authority.
A process of reconciliation should commence immediately, aimed at granting Palestinians full Israeli citizenship. But even as that process gets underway and we take steps to build mutual trust, Israel should already begin taking full responsibility for healthcare, security, education, civil servant salaries and basic utilities in Palestinian communities.
The surest way to successfully apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria is to behave justly on the land and live up to our responsibilities to the Other living with us.
I greatly appreciate this piece and the perspective provided. I must, however, object to the statement that the US “has been very clear in its demands that we surrender these lands.” Indeed, there is a sector of the American government and populous that still thinks a two-state solution is viable, however, there are tens of millions of ordinary Americans (Jews and Christians) who support Israel sovereignty and annexation of Judea and Samaria (or, at least, Area C) and, likewise, some members of the government. People like former Ambassador Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott come to mind. My new Congressman, Bob Good, would also be in that category.
I also think it is a bit naïve to believe that “If West Bank Jews and Palestinians were to speak in one voice for the humanity and dignity of both peoples, we could ensure a just and equal distribution of building permits, water and other vital resources.” Politics being what it is, there is not necessarily a straight line from one to the other.