In the shadow of the Gaza war, violence is also increasing in the West Bank, with thousands demonstrating against Israel. Is the already weakened autonomous authority at risk of overthrow?
After the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas, Israel is also taking tough action against the Islamist organization in the occupied West Bank. The aim is to prevent them from gaining strength there.
More than 130 Palestinians have died in clashes with the army and radical Israeli settlers since October 7th. The already ailing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has nothing to counter either the violence of the settlers or the violence of extremist Palestinians.
At rallies in solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip in the face of massive Israeli retaliation, some demonstrators reportedly tried to reach government buildings of Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA). Security forces therefore prevented them from doing so. Thousands attended the anti-Israel rallies, which were also reportedly organized by Hamas members.
The PA’s strategy is currently based on “allowing public protests as an outlet for Palestinian grievances,” writes Neomie Neumann of the US think tank Washington Institute. At the same time, the authorities want to prevent the demonstrations from becoming violent so as not to risk a loss of control. Because the competing Hamas could benefit from this.
Fatah and Hamas are bitter rivals
President Mahmoud Abbas leads the PA and the secular Fatah faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Fatah and Hamas are the two largest Palestinian organizations – and bitter rivals.
The last presidential election to date took place in 2005, and the last parliamentary election in 2006. According to surveys, many Palestinians are very dissatisfied with the 87-year-old Abbas. A large majority wants him to resign. The autonomous authority is repeatedly confronted with allegations of corruption.
As part of a bloody civil war, the Islamist Hamas drove Fatah out of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Since then, Abbas has de facto only ruled in the West Bank. But his influence there is only small.
Hundreds driven out of the West Bank
Nothing weakens the PA more than its inability to protect Palestinians from settler violence, emphasizes Palestinian analyst Jihad Harb. And since October 7th there has been increasing violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. According to human rights activists, they have since killed at least seven Palestinians. Hundreds were therefore displaced during this period.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, on October 12, settlers and soldiers brutally beat three Palestinians for hours, urinated on them, stripped the men down to their underwear and then photographed them. Two perpetrators stubbed out their burning cigarettes on the victims. According to the report, there was also an attempted sexual assault. The Israeli army said it was investigating the incident.
Some right-wing extremist politicians in the Israeli government who defended it are also to blame for the increasing settler violence, writes analyst Alex Lederman in the US magazine “Time”. Soldiers in the West Bank are often settlers themselves and perpetrators rarely have to face legal consequences.
Despite the great dissatisfaction with the autonomous authority, which is considered to be corrupt, he currently sees no signs of an overthrow or a takeover of fortunes in the West Bank by Hamas, says analyst Harb of the German Press Agency.
Approval ratings for Hamas may have increased
According to scientist Neumann from the Washington Institute, surveys show that “the local population has major reservations about the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah party, but also does not see Hamas as a solution.” However, Harb assumes that approval ratings for Hamas in the West Bank have increased since the terrorist attacks on Israel.
The PA is also under pressure after Israel announced it would temporarily stop paying millions in taxes. Israel’s right-wing extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich cited the alleged support of the Hamas terrorist attack by representatives of the Fatah party as the reason. Israel’s Defense Minister Joav Galant criticized the decision: The PA also needs the money to prevent terrorism.
Since Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, the Israeli military says it has arrested more than 1,000 terror suspects in the West Bank, including many Hamas members. During the same period, Palestinian terrorist incidents there increased significantly, writes Neumann for the Washington Institute. Hamas is also increasing its efforts to control attacks in the West Bank.
The Palestinian public in the West Bank is currently not inclined to take part in violence, summarizes scientist Neumann. People didn’t believe in its effectiveness. “If they resort to violence, the price is high.”
More than 300 Palestinians killed since the beginning of 2023
According to the Ministry of Health there, more than 300 Palestinians have died in Israeli military operations, confrontations or their own attacks in the West Bank since the beginning of the year. According to human rights organizations, it is the highest number in more than 15 years.
So far there has been a relative reluctance on the part of the population in the Palestinian territory, emphasizes Neumann. However, this could change in the event of a dramatic increase in the number of deaths in the Gaza Strip or an unexpected military failure by the Israelis there. For the time being, Hamas has not succeeded in opening a second front in the West Bank in its war against Israel.
In order to maintain stability in the West Bank, Israel’s government must take action “against Palestinian and Jewish violence equally,” emphasizes analyst Lederman in “Time” magazine. Settler violence also threatens the integrity of Israeli democracy and the country’s security. The stationing of large numbers of soldiers in the West Bank to protect settlers has also led to a neglect of security at other borders. On October 7th, thousands of terrorists crossed the Gaza Strip border to carry out massacres in Israel.
Washington Institute analysis in the US magazine “Time”