Belfast (Special to Informed Comment; feature) – As a native Palestinian, visiting my homeland is not just about seeing family and friends. It’s also about emotional and spiritual attachment to the place itself, to its mountains, soil, trees, stones and its rich history where my ancient ancestors led humans from hunting and gathering to agriculture and civilization and where they built Jericho, the oldest continually inhabited city in the world.
I visited the West Bank three times over the past 12 months, During the last visit, Israel announced its intention to divide the West Bank into two parts and possibly three according to its E1 plan. This is part of Israel bigger plan for the West Bank including the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and an annexation to Israel.
In fact, ethnic cleansing and annexation are Israel only plans for the West Bank since it occupied Gaza and the West Bank in 1967. All Israel polices, including the engaging in a so-called peace process, are aimed at achieving these Illegal targets.
During my visit, it became evident that the Oslo Agreement signed between Israel and the PLO in 1993, which was supposed to lead to the creation of a Palestinian state by 1998, is not only used by Israel as a mean of land theft and ethnic cleansing but also as a tool to destroy the health and education sectors in the West Bank. The treaty divided the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C, giving Palestinians some control only over “A” until an Israeli withdrawal from B and C– a withdrawal that has never come. The agreement also allowed Israel, until its planned withdrawal, to collect tax money from the Palestinians, which it was supposed to remit to the Palestine Authority. In fact, Israel often withholds this money, which deprives the Palestinian Authority (PA) from its income, forcing reduction in all of its services — especially health and education. The money withheld is estimated to come to $2 billion USD in tax revenue
Palestinian teachers and nurses told me that, like other public sector employees, they only actually receive something like half of their salaries, and even that is paid two months late. These salary arrears in the substantial public sector not only make it hard for them to provide for their families but hurt the already devastated economy as a whole.
As a result, schools are open only three days a week while government hospitals and health centers have to reduce their services to the public. Even private hospitals are struggling as they rely partly on the PA to pay for the services they provide for patients referred from the ministry of health. So while Israel is destroying Gaza hospitals and schools by war, it is partially shutting schools and hospitals and denying the Palestinians their right to health and education by using the very terms of the 1993 peace agreement that they have long since gutted in every other respect.
This wage cut coincided with high inflation, creating a double whammy. While prices of necessary items tend to fluctuate, every time I visit the West Bank, I notice that some commodities are more expensive than in Western countries like the UK. For example, a few weeks ago, the price of a fifth of a pound (1 kg) of lamb was 90 Israeli shekels, which is over $26 US. In April it was 150 Israeli shekels or almost $45. The same thing applies to items like razor blades, along with some vegetables and fruits.
As if all of the above was not enough, Israel is suffocating the Palestinian economy further by refusing to allow Palestinian banks to transfer their increasing surplus of Israeli shekels to Israeli banks. This measure has forced the Palestinian banks to refuse deposits in Israeli shekels, causing difficulties for domestic and international trade, and worsening the already existing economic crisis.
These measures are consistent with the scary vision of the founder of contemporary Zionism as a settler colonialist project, Theodor Herzl, who wrote, “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country … expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.”
File photo of Bethlehem, Palestinian West Bank, by Jorge Fernández Salas on Unsplash
Furthermore, there is a rise in violence of Israeli squatters, protected by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians especially but not exclusively in rural C areas, as well as Israeli army attacks on several refugee camps, cities and villages in the West Bank. Even in A areas which are supposedly under the full control of the Palestine Authority, Israel is using the all but defunct Oslo Accords to force them out. For example, I was informed that owners of dozens of Palestinian homes in the east of Nablus city were told by the Israeli army that Oslo gives Israel the right to underground resources. He said Israeli authorities believe that Palestinian homes are built over an archeological site and they want them to evacuate. This Israeli violence and coercion forced some Palestinians to try to move to other areas where they might feel safer. Once again, the peace agreement is used to uproot the native Palestinians.
Several western countries decided to recognize Palestine as a state this week. For the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, this recognition is worthless, especially from countries that support Israel oppression of the Palestinians, unless they are going to take genuine steps to stop the ongoing genocide and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
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