Operation Breakwater and Israel’s Far-Right Government

So I just try to draw attention to certain countries and their people as best as I can because of this, and today I think we're due for an update on Palestine. Israel continues to do humanize Palestinians daily and blatantly, and it's not just through murdering them. Last year, under new Israeli restrictions on foreign entry into the West Bank, foreigners romantically involved with Palestinians must declare their relationship to the occupying Israeli government. You have to tell them if you

are involved the Palestinian Why. I don't know, because they're treated as less than human. And this is one of many laws that deny Palestinians of basic human rights and keep them under apartheid rule. I want to talk about all that's happened in just these first few months of twenty twenty three, because this cycle of violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank in particular has suddenly surged to

levels that we have not seen in years. As of this recording on March seventh, at least sixty six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since the start of twenty twenty three, and at least seventeen of those killed have been children. For comparison, in twenty twenty two, which was the deadliest year in the West Bank in decades, forty eight Palestinians were killed in the combined months of January, February,

March and April. The deaths are increasing day by day, and there is a scene to be a stop to them at all. Twenty twenty two saw the highest number of civilians killed by Israeli security forces in the past seventeen years, and the highest number of Israelis killed since twenty sixteen. Renewed violence flared up between Palestine and Israel and January of this year for many reasons, and it

continues to build and intensify. After a cascade of concerning events, and before we jump into those events that happened in January and onward. I think we need to look back on twenty twenty two in order to understand this a bit better and to hopefully provide some context. So let's take a look at twenty twenty two and how we got here. We are going to be focusing on the West Bank with the majority of the data in this episode.

In particular, the one tomorrow will be more broad. I'm going to explain a little bit about what the West Bank even is, just for some more context. The West Bank is a landlocked territory near the coast of a Mediterranean in western Asia that forms the main bulk of the Palestinian territories. It is ordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east, and by Israel to the

southwest and north. The West Bank includes East Jerusalem. It's been under Israeli military occupation since nineteen sixty seven, and its area is split into one hundred and sixty five Palestinian quote unquote islands. These islands are under total or partial civil administration by the Palestinian National Authority or the PNA or PA. There are also two hundred and thirty

Israeli settlements into which Israel law is being pipelined. The West Bank initially emerged as a Jordanian occupied territory after the nineteen forty eight Arab Israeli War before being in xed outright by Jordan in nineteen fifty, and it was given its name during this time based on its location on the western bank of the Jordan River. This annexation was widely considered to be illegal and was only recognized

by Iraq, Pakistan and the UK. The territory remained under Jordanian rule until nineteen six seven, when it was captured and occupied by Israel during the Sixth Day War. The Oslo Accords, which were signed in nineteen ninety three between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel, created administrative districts with

varying levels of Palestinian authority. In specific areas. In the West Bank, there was Area A, which is administered exclusively by the PA, there is Area B, which is administered by both the p and A and Israel, and then there's Area C, which is administered exclusively by Israel. And this Area C, which is controlled exclusively by Israel, accounts for over sixty percent of the West Bank's territory. Twenty twenty two was the deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians

in nearly two decades. Israeli forces killed more Palestinians in the West Bank in twenty twenty two than in any other year. The United Nations began systematically recording Palestinian fatalities in two thousand and five, and they started doing this after the last major Palestinian uprising aka these get Intifada

that lasted five years. And knowing that, I want you to keep in mind that, unfortunately, the number of Palestinians that have been killed by the IDF is far greater than some of the numbers I'm going to say in this episode. And again that is because I am focusing particularly on the West Bank. I want to talk about Israel's twelve month crackdown that has been happening in the West Bank. Nearly twelve months ago, Israel begana has become

a year long violent crackdown in the West Bank. Israel last year prompted a sweeping Israeli military campaign that they called Operation Breakwater beginning March of two and twenty two. It was created after attacks occurred by Palestinians against Israeli settlers Since then, Operation Breakwater has conducted nearly nightly IDF raids in the West Bank, which of course causes heightened

friction between the IDF and the Palestinian population. So far, Israeli security forces have made over two thousand arrests, and that's way too big of a number, just to give you an idea of the terrifying scale of this operation. Operation Breakwater is the biggest IDF operation in the West Bank since the Second Instifaba that I mentioned earlier that

lasted from two thousand to two thousand and five. Since the start of this operation last year, nearly every day Israel has conducted raids in the West Bank, which is part of the Palestinian territory which encompasses the Gothas Strip in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. And this whole territory has been illegally occupied by Israel since nineteen sixty seven.

In spite of this, because Israel does whatever the fuck it wants, because it's already founded upon existing illegally in the first place, thousands of Palestinians, many of them young, have been arrested, and nearly every week more Palestinians are being killed. Last year, this all resulted in the highest cumulative death toll in the West Bank since two thousand

and four. Palestinian rights groups and UN experts have said that the bloodshed is due to Israel's excessive use of force and open fire rules during near daily military operations, as well as rising assaults by settlers in the West Bank, where again Palestinians are living under illegal Israeli occupation. Israel justified their intensifying violence because of the fatal attacks on Israelis by Palestinian militants, which also spiked last year, which

is also very bad. But blaming the people you've been oppressing for nearly a century for being angry and fighting back people without an army faced against one of the most powerful armies in the world, it just does not sit right with me. In twenty twenty two, Israeli security forces killed at least one hundred and fifty two Palestinians in the West Bank and predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem, compared

with seventy five Palestinians in twenty twenty one. These are figures provided by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OTCHA. Four Palestinians in the West Bank were killed by Israeli settlers, not soldiers. Settlers, settlers that have been emboldened and even encouraged in their hate and violence by the Israeli far right, and the Israeli far

right is basically the Israeli government at this point. And we're going to get into some of the extremes that these settlers go through in their hate and their violence more tomorrow, but for now, let's focus on twenty twenty two. Most of the Palestinian deaths occurred during Israeli military raids and clashes in the West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus. More than half of the Palestinians who were murdered were

under the age of twenty five. They never even had a chance to live their lives with their families and their loved ones. Each one of these individuals that were killed have people mourning them and missing them every day, and I never want anyone to forget that. Among those killed last year were also US citizens El Jazeero, journalists Sharina Buakle, and seventy eight year old Omaas and because of their US citizenship, their deaths gained rare worldwide attention

and briefly sharpened international criticism of Israel. Sharine, if you remember, was shot in the head while wearing a press vest. She was there as a reporter doing her job. No violence was taking place around her. She was targeted and killed. Israel says she was probably killed by a soldier's gun fire unintentionally, and that was that. The world moved on. I did an episode last year about Sharin Abuachhm and how Israel murdered her in broad daylight, So if you

guys want to revisit that, that is there. Back to the episode. I don't want us to forget that this data is regarding the West Bank. Only hundreds of Palestinians die at the hands of Israel's terrorist organization that they

call an army every year. In May of twenty twenty one, if you can remember that far back, at least two hundred Palestinians were killed in a week of israel The airstrikes, just one week, and the deaths included fifty nine children and thirty five women, with nearly thirteen hundred people wounded. Women and children made up nearly half of the casualties. Fifty nine children fifty nine children that were just taken with families that will never be the same. I just

want people to remember these things. When I mentioned numbers, that each number is an actual living child or person. In twenty twenty two, in a statement to The Washington Post, Israel's military said that Israeli soldiers used live fire when quote necessary during counter terrorism activities in response to quote violent riots, which often include explosive devices, molotov cocktails, and rocks hurled at the IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians. Are

you kidding me? One of the most powerful and supported armies in the world is saying that it's killing people in response to rocks being thrown at them armed and protected soldiers covered in swat gear with all the weapons they could ever fucking dream of fighting against to people without an army at all, blaming them in an official statement to the Washington Post for throwing rocks, I mean, just just get the fuck out of here. The IDF

are all fucking clowns. And maybe I shouldn't be cursing and I should pretend to be professional, but they make me fucking mad, and I think we should all be fucking mad because I don't think it's fair, and I know life isn't built to be fair, but to terrorize and genocided population, drive them into a corner, and then blame them for having the audacity for fighting back and

the only ways accessible to them is fucking ludicrous. You can't both sides a conflict when one of those sides has one of the most advanced and supported armies in the world that oppresses the other side that has no army and no support of any kind, a side who has rocks in their hands, resorting to violence because absolutely

no thing and no one is helping them. A total of two hundred and twenty four Palestinians were killed in twenty twenty two, including the forty nine people that I mentioned earlier that were murdered during a three day Israeli assault on the besieged Gaza Strip. Seventeen were children, and I'm emphasizing this because Palestinian children have started keeping goodbye letters in their pockets in case they're killed by the

Israeli army. No child should have to live in fear that they might be killed at any moment, but that's the reality for Palestinian children. Nearly every day, Palestinians wake up to news that the Israeli military has killed yet another Palestinian. This daily violence against Palestinians has traumatized generations of Palestinian children, and their parents have no way to

protect them. Many of the casualties in the West Bank in twenty twenty two were young Palestinians who have only ever known military occupation and the oppression of the Israeli government. The West Bank also has to deal with the repressive politics the Romala based Palestinian Authority the PA, which was set up as a caretaker government three decades ago and is now widely unpopular among Palestinians. And I'll get into this more after a quick break, so brb Okay, we're back.

As I mentioned earlier, the West Bank has to deal with repressive politics of the Romala based Palestinian Authority, which was set up three decades ago and is now widely unpopular among Palestinians. A spokesperson from the Palestinian rights group Al Huck said people are very, very fed up, whether it's in Jerusalem or Jenin or Nablus. The last twenty years have not shown any improvements in the situation. This

spokesperson spoke only on the condition of anonymity. For fear of reprisal by Israeli security forces, because the Israeli security forces raided the organization's headquarters in Romola last August. The spokesperson explained that quote the near daily raids in areas under control of the PA showed that the sovereignty of the PA does not exist. So they're saying that the

Palestinian Authority is basically useless. If these Israeli raids are happening in areas that are supposedly under control or quote care of the PA, then what the fuck are they even there for. Tour Wensland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Washington Post last year, quote we have a new dynamic in the West Bank and around Jerusalem, with a quote new generation of Israelis and Palestinians in conflict. There is an urgent need to

de escalate. He also cited the quote growing tension and so called friction zones, which are areas Whereasraeli settlements continue to encroach on Palestinian lands and where violence is mounting, probably in part due to the frust ration with the lack of action by the Palestinian authority. Twenty twenty two, also saw the emergence of two new Palestinian militant groups, the Genin Battalion and the Lions Den, both led by

disaffected young men with local support networks. Meanwhile, Israel's military has repeatedly declined to provide the number of internal investigations they supposedly opened last year regarding their misconduct related to the Palestinian deaths. In September of last year, Israel announced the results of its inquiry into the death of Charine Abu Akhle, who again was shot in the head while

covering a military raid near Jenin last May. The IDF said that a quote found a high possibility that Miss Abu Akhle was accidentally killed by IDF gunfire towards suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire, though it has not released any evidence whatsoever showing the presence of gunmen in the area. An investigation by The Post contradicted the i's claim that there was an exchange of fire in the minutes before Abu Aklei was killed

and surprising absolutely no one. The IDF said it would not pursue criminal charges against its soldiers. No one is being held accountable for the killing of Palestinian life, including Palestinian children. Israel has continued to operate as though they have immunity, which in a way they do thanks to the United States, who does nothing but give Israel more

money and weapons and good press. Even more concerning, far right politician at Tamar Ben Gvid, who was Israel's new National security minister, has proposed giving police and soldiers wider latitude to use live ammunition and putting laws in place that would shield them from criminal prosecution for killing or injuring Palestinians. And this should be a red flag for everybody. The other Hawk spokesperson said that many of those killed in Israeli raids last year appeared to be either bystanders

or victim of excessive force. Let's not forget that they also killed members of the press who clearly wear press vests in a moment where no violence was ever taking place, just a camera and reporters trying to raise awareness that the crimes that Israel commits. An early December Israeli fire killed a teenage girl in Jenin who was on her roof as a raid unfolded nearby. Days earlier, Israeli forces fatally shot a sixteen year old boy who was throwing

stones at a checkpoint outside Ramula. We're getting to the end here, so let's take our last little break and we'll be right back. And we're back talking about how the IDF shoots Palestinians as though they're basically playing a video game. They had shot a teenage girl and then a sixteen year old boy, and there are many disturbing videos of idea of soldiers shooting Palestinians like they are

playing a video game. There's one video in particular that I'm thinking about that is so fucking disgusting, where one soldier is crouching down and aiming his gun at a Palestinian who was hiding behind a dumpster. I know that the Palestinian is hiding behind a dumpster because the soldier says something to the effect of what does he think he's doing behind that dumpster? And then the soldier shoots and jumps up in pure elation, cheering for himself because

he shot this person. There's another soldier in the frame next to him who seems to be more aware of the camera that is recording them, who keeps telling his annoying murderer friend to we professional instead of jumping up and down like he just scored a point in a game,

because that is all this is to them. There is much more evidence of this infuriating and horrific attitude and culture of the IDF and Abbey Martin's two nineteen film Gaza Fights for Freedom, which I've probably already recommended a million times and will continue to recommend. It is free

on YouTube Tour Wensland. We mentioned earlier, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process said, quote, the continued killings of Palestinians by Israeli security forces and incidents where they did not appear to present an eminent threat to life are disturbing. He went on to say that quote, I am increasingly concerned by the fragility of the current political and security dynamics, particularly in the occupied West Bank,

including East Jerusalem. Vulker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, for this violence to end, the occupation must end on all sides. There are people who know this.

The violence of last year reflects a dangerous mix of on the ground and generational changes, and this could only escalate further as Israel's mostly far right government becomes more far right because jewe supremacists who have incited violence against Palestinians were recently sworn into office, including Israel's aforementioned new Minister of National Security. And he's just one of the many cogs in the machine of Israel being controlled by

far right terrorists. And yes, to me, they are terrorists because literally everything they do was either a crime or a crime against humanity regardless. At the end of last year, Israel's new government was sworn into office. It's nationalist, exclusionist, and far far right. It's the most extreme Israeli government

in the nation's history. Benjamin and Yahoo, who's already the country's longest serving prime minister, is at the helm of the country for the sixth time, and this time he's assembled the most far right cabinet in Israel's history, with the most notable posts given to ultra nationalists, one of them being the person we mentioned at Tamar ben Gvide, the new Minister National aka, a position that oversees the police.

There's also Bezalel Simotric, who will have significant power over Israeli settlements in addition to his role as Finance Minister. The government has promised to expand those settlements those already illegal settlements. The members of this new coalition have also made extensive comments denigrating the queer community. They've also called

for stricter definitions of who even qualifies as Jewish. In making its vision abundantly clear, the government released policy guidelines at the end of September, announcing the Jewish people's quote exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the land of Israel. Toward the end of January, the policies in the Enyaho's newly sorting government coalition brought out about eighty

thousand protesters in Tel Aviv. The protesters were largely focused on the government's proposals to overhaul the judicial system, which could weaken the country's democracy and separation of powers quote

unquote democracy yet right. But the effects of the policies the one point six million Palestinian citizens of Israel and the five point two million Palestinians living in the occupied territories, all of these effects are going to be catastrophic and only building upon years of policies that Israeli human rights organizations say constitute crimes against humanity. The human rights defenders

and experts in Israeli politics. Emphasize that this government is not a departure from the previous ones, and yes, it is Netanyahu's sixth time leading the country, but instead of being a new government, it's instead a culmination of Israeli politics that are only drifting farther and farther to the right, and then decades longer of policies that amount to defacto annexation of the occupied West Bank and policies of Jewish supremacy.

What's different now, however, is how clearly these ideas are stated in the new government's coalition guidelines by prominent ministers of the fundamentals of how the country runs. This time, it is clear it is written in the guidelines. There's no longer subtlety to the hate it is in writing. The new Israeli government is somewhat of a turn from the brief centrist government of last year, but it's still seeking to implement policies that are anti Palestinian and anti liberal.

But again, it is certainly not the first Israeli government to do these things. The executive director of the Israeli watchdog Bit Salem again apologize probably mispronounced that said it's key not to pretend, as many seem to already be doing that it'll somehow be a sudden departure from Israeli quote unquote democracy. What worries me is that even this level of clarity will not be sufficient to trigger an adequate international response. And the new Israeli government is shaping

up just to be extreme as we anticipated. Israel's parliamentary system is made up of many fragmented parties, and it's slowly been collapsing, and there's been turmoil and whatever, because

there have been five national elections since twenty nineteen. The quote unquote Change government in twenty twenty one brought together opposing parties last year to Auston and Yahoo finally once and for all, right, But that fell apart last summer, and in the ensuing elections Nan Yahoo built a coalition of ultra orthodox and religious Zionist parties that returned him to power, leading to an even more extreme government. So even they tried to get rid of him, but he

came back worse than ever. And so this extreme government is already acting in extreme ways. And again the new government's ministers have made long standing attacks on the queer community as well as religious freedom and Israeli and Palestinian civil society, as well as who can call themselves Jewish.

Above all, there are going to be drastic implications for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and for the civil liberties of Israeli citizens, mostly because then Yahoo's internal coalition negotiations have brought settlers into key ministerial posts, and only days into the government being sworn in, there have been already multip science and signals of how these personalities

are going to rule. Justice Minister Yarev Levin has introduced legislation that would weaken judicial review and the power of israel Supreme Court to strike down legislation. Another proposal would revamp and politicize the country's longstanding process for selecting judges. And of course we can't forget about the fucking new National Security Minister aka to Marvin Gavide, who is part of the Jewish Power Party. His political ideas are inspired

by the late radical iconoclass. Rabbi Mayor Kahane Bengavie has stepped into a role that is basically tailor made to oversee the police both within Israel and the occupied West Bank, and in early January he on somehow legal grounds directed the police to tear down any Palestinian flag in public spaces. And then there's also Finance Minister Bezalel Sumatric. He is the head of the Religious Zionism Party, and he's also a settler whose anti gay rhetoric is prolific, to say

the least. He has already sees customs revenues that belong to the Palestinian Authority, and he's called the Palestinian Authority a terror abetting body that he thinks should fall. He also holds newly created authorities that give him oversight of the West Bank occupation through a role crafted for him

in the Defense Ministry. So they're essentially just creating these roles and creating these rules that only allow them to have more control the corruption one oh one, I suppose we can also see clearly howna en Yahoo and his partners are going to govern. And the coalitions agreement that sets out the new government's guidelines. It's not legally binding, but it states plainly in its ideology that quote, the Jewish people have an exclusive and in aalegal right over

all areas of the land of Israel. The government will promote and develop the settlement of all parts of the Land of Israel, and this includes to them the Occupied West Bank. Israeli Human Rights organization A dull La wrote and in report this goes further than any previous agreements. The government has made explicit the coalition's party's long standing intent to further entrench Jewish supremacy in Palestinian repression throughout the State of Israel and the occupied West Bank through

a two tiered system of governance on all levels. The new government's approach to the occupied West Bank revolves around the illegal annexation of Palestinian land. The government plans to legalize the illegal outposts that are built on private Palestinian land, and the likely result of that is Palestinians being stripped of rights and protections and left even more vulnerable to

violence and the hardships they're already enduring. The Israeli Rights Organization of the LUG goes on to say that these changes to the judicial system and bestowing ministers like Symatric with new authorities over the occupation threatened civil rights and individual rights in Israel, but it is mainly going to be a big, big issue against the national minority. The Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about twenty percent of the country, They are going to be the first

and most severely damaged by those changes. And clearly the Israeli government even before all of this, but now it is clearly stated it has all the components of fascism. And yet the US still appears to beholding out hope that it can somehow work with and Yahoo and his fucking government and its fucking ministers. Even now politics are

all a scam. Everyone fucking sucks. Israel has been violating Palestinians human rights with impunity for decades, but this new government again just illustrates the most brutal intentions with greater clarity.

Bits Salem, another human rights group, said the hypocrisy is denying that Palestinians have already been living for many years under extreme, organized criminal Israeli state violence underwritten by the US, and the lack of accountability and the acquiescence of the international community is to a great stent responsible for driving this.

And as we mentioned in this episode, last year twenty twenty two was the most deadly year for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank since the UN began recording the deaths in two thousand and five, it was also the year that the most Palestinians have been held in administrative detention, and the attacks on Palestinians throughout the center right government leading up to all of this, the governments of Ya Lapide and Nefatali Benett cannot be understated. It's

always been bad. That it's just extremely bad. And in sharpie, the US has a role here too, because it continues to supply Israel with billions of dollars of military aid, and it has also failed to publicly criticize the en

Yahoo's new political allies. An analyst covering Israel and Palestine for International Crisis Group said, there's no way that the n Yahoo, as desperate as he is, would have gone to form this kind of coalition if it wasn't for years and years of US abdication of responsibility for what happens here. He just wouldn't have felt that he could

do it. It would have been too outlandish. And all of this brings us to twenty twenty three, which we will talk about tomorrow because I like short episodes, so I'll see you there. It could happen here as a production of Cool Zone Media well more podcasts from cool Zone Media. Visit our website cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, you can find sources for It could happen here, updated monthly at cool zonemedia dot

com slash sources. Thanks for listening.