News Analysis |
Two Palestinian teenagers were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on Thursday as violence continues in the occupied territories. The latest deaths and a subsequent remark by an Israeli minister calling for more death shows that the Palestinian occupation crisis is deteriorating.
A Palestinian teen from the Gaza Strip was killed east of the Burij refugee camp after a live round was fired into his chest, the Wafa news agency quoted medical sources as saying. Three other Palestinians were wounded, one critically, it said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said “violent riots” involving rock-throwing youth erupted at two locations along the Gaza border, and some 50 Palestinians were involved. Soldiers opened fire because the Palestinians “posed a threat”. Denny Cormier, a pro-Palestinian activist who lived in Gaza during the 2014 war, wrote on Twitter that it was likely the Israeli perpetrators knew the children did not pose a serious threat.
On the other hand, is partial to the anonymity of numbers, particularly when there is no requirement other than for it to turn a blind eye until Israel decides upon the next phase of Gaza’s destruction.
In the West Bank village of Iraq Burin, south of Nablus, a 16-year-old boy died in hospital after he was shot by Israeli troops as Palestinians pelted them with stones. Soldiers manning a checkpoint outside the village opened fire without warning, said Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors illegal Israeli settlement activities in the northern West Bank.
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Strict measures have been imposed on tens of thousands of Palestinians following the killing of an Israeli rabbi in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank this week. Main roads have been closed, villages sealed off, and inspections of Palestinians increased.
The killing of the Israeli settler happened on Tuesday near the illegal Israeli settlement of Havat Gilad, where the 35-year-old rabbi resided. Israeli settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that an occupying power cannot transfer its population into the territory it occupies.
The dehumanisation of Palestinians in the Israeli minister’s words is also reflective of how statistics contribute to the absence of Palestinians in terms of collective memory.
The recent days have seen more murderous rhetoric being spouted by the Zionist regime. Minister Uri Ariel said Wednesday that there needs to be more dead and wounded Palestinians in Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Speaking on Reshet Bet radio, the agriculture and rural development minister said that in the recent months the Israeli army has attacks on the coastal enclave, but “no deaths or injuries” were reported among the “Palestinians, terrorists.” He asked, “What is this special weapon we have that we fire and see pillars of smoke and fire, but nobody gets hurt? It is time for there to be injuries and deaths as well,” he said.
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Ariel called on Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to employ the “carrot and stick” method he had spoken about in August 2016 regarding the Palestinians in the West Bank – to banish the families of terrorists and demolish their homes. “We will implement a differential policy in [the West Bank],” Lieberman said at the time. “Its purpose is to continue to give benefits to those who desire coexistence with us, and make life difficult for those who seek to harm Jews.”
Haaretz states that the IDF has tried to keep its responses moderate enough to avoid triggering a new war – partly because it would like to forestall any conflict until work finishes on its anti-tunnel barrier around Gaza
Ariel was also asked Wednesday about Hamas’ threats to carry out more attacks on Israel. “We should not be defending ourselves, we should be attacking,” he said. “If a person comes to attack, attack him first.”
The Israel Defense Forces attacked 59 targets in Gaza in 2017, including attack tunnels, training bases and weapons-production facilities. Most of the targets were Hamas facilities, since the Islamist group controls Gaza and therefore Israel holds it accountable for whatever happens there.
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However, Haaretz states that the IDF has tried to keep its responses moderate enough to avoid triggering a new war – partly because it would like to forestall any conflict until work finishes on its anti-tunnel barrier around Gaza. The dehumanisation of Palestinians in the Israeli minister’s words is also reflective of how statistics contribute to the absence of Palestinians in terms of collective memory.
For Israel, the numbers serve to boost the false claims of self-defence. Conversely, statistics for Palestinians depict the cycles of murder by Israeli institutions. The international community, on the other hand, is partial to the anonymity of numbers, particularly when there is no requirement other than for it to turn a blind eye until Israel decides upon the next phase of Gaza’s destruction.