Middle East Press On: Israel, West Bank, Argentina, Palestine, Netanyahu, and Gaza: New Age Islam's Selection, 26 February 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
26 February 2025
1. Israel’s West Bank offensive looks very much like a prelude to annexation
2. Controversy in Argentina over renaming of Palestine Street to honour Israeli family
3. Who will govern Gaza the day after the war?
4. Palestinians are being displaced by rhetoric and action
5. Restoring Palestine to its rightful owners by decolonising solidarity
6. Who ‘owns’ the Palestine discourse?
7. Netanyahu eyes West Bank as he oscillates on Gaza
8. Closing bookshops will not make Israel safer
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Israel’s West Bank Offensive Looks Very Much Like A Prelude To Annexation
February 25, 2025
By Rabia Ali
As its armed forces intensify their assault on the northern West Bank, concerns are mounting over Israel’s broader objectives: further territorial expansion, forced displacement of Palestinians and the annexation of occupied land.
Israel has killed at least 60 Palestinians, arrested around 365, displaced over 40,000 and destroyed scores of homes and properties in the occupied West Bank since it launched so-called “Operation Iron Wall” on 21 January, just two days after a ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip. On Sunday, Israel deployed tanks in the West Bank for the first time in more than 20 years as Defence Minister Israel Katz said the army will remain in some refugee camps “for the next year” to ensure that residents cannot return.
As the operation, which began in the city of Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp, spreads across several West Bank cities and camps, analysts say that Israel’s long-standing aim to annex the occupied Palestinian territory is now more evident than ever.
“Israel has plans to annex the West Bank and to squeeze the Palestinians into the smallest areas possible, particularly to expel them from Area C,” British Palestinian academic Kamel Hawwash told Anadolu, referring to the division that makes up some 60 per cent of the Palestinian territory. “The Israelis have also armed the settlers so that they can terrorise residents, and burn and destroy homes and cars.”
Hawwash expressed his fears that US President Donald Trump may recognise Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, just as he did for Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights, both occupied by Israel since 1967.
Abdaljawad Omar, a lecturer at Birzeit University, suggested that annexation would primarily be a symbolic move aimed at securing American recognition of Israel’s de facto control over the West Bank, where it already exerts power over 62 per cent of the territory.
Annexation would signal the end of the two-state solution, while demonstrating that the US is “completely on the side of Israel in terms of the expansion of illegal colonies within the West Bank,” explained Omar. “In terms of annexation, in the long term, what is really being placed on the agenda — specifically through Trump — is this notion of ethnically cleansing the Palestinians and driving them from the land of Palestine.”
As the Israeli military operation escalates, Palestinian academic Muhannad Ayyash warned that illegal settlers are also expected to push further into Palestinian territories.
“Area C is basically what the Israeli settler movement and the Israeli state view as ultimately theirs,” said Ayyash, a professor of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary. “That’s over 60 per cent of the West Bank. They’re also creeping into Area B, which is approximately 22 per cent of the West Bank.”
This backing provides them with military, economic and political support across the political spectrum, not just from right-wing factions.
“These are people from across the world – from Russia, from the US – coming into Palestine and claiming that the land is theirs. Their claim is based purely on force and their ability to steal the land violently from the Palestinians,” he told Anadolu.
In January, the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now warned that the Israeli authorities were planning to approve the construction of 2,749 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank. The group said that 2025 could see “record numbers” of settlement expansions, an average of 1,800 units per month.
Settlers backed by the Israeli state believe that all of the West Bank should be theirs, and that they are the “rightful” owners of the land, explained Ayyash. However, all of Israel’s settlements and settlers are illegal under international law.
Hawwash highlighted the fact that Israel’s aggressive assault on refugee camps, particularly in Jenin and Tulkarem, aligns with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal to end the concept of a Palestinian refugee.
“That is why the attacks at the moment are really focused on the refugee camps in the West Bank, as well as on UNRWA,” he said, referring to the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees. “They want to eradicate the notion that there are, first of all, refugees living in parts of historic Palestine, and even the name ‘Palestinian’… They continue to use words like ‘Arabs’. They don’t want to acknowledge a distinct people called Palestinians.”
“In Jenin, they have instructed the Palestinian mayor to rename the camp as part of the city rather than as a refugee camp,” he said. “I think they will do the same thing in all other areas where there are refugee camps, right up to Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus.”
Amid Israel’s ongoing offensive, Palestinian civilians face an increasingly dire humanitarian situation.
“More Palestinians will be killed and imprisoned, and more will lose all of their life savings, their livelihoods, their homes,” said Ayyash. “Infrastructure in their towns and districts will be utterly destroyed, and Israel is not being held to account for its crimes.”
Omar, who is based in Ramallah, argued that Israel’s actions are part of a broader strategy enacted by the far-right government, aiming to isolate Palestinians economically and socially.
Their objective is “delinking Israel from the Palestinian territories in the West Bank by preventing the entry of Palestinian labour into Israel, a deliberate policy of impoverishing Palestinians that is intended to create harsher conditions in the West Bank,” he said. “The intention of this policy is to create harsher economic conditions on an everyday level, restricting travel within the West Bank to choke the Palestinian population and, slowly but surely, cleanse Palestinians from the land of Palestine.”
Hawwash noted that Israel has increased restrictions on Palestinian movement by installing new gates at village entrances and expanding the number of military checkpoints. “The number of checkpoints has gone up to over 900. People can spend hours just trying to get from one place to another… This also has an impact on business and the economy. People’s disposable income is shrinking and they can’t buy things. Prices are also increasing, which again means that they are out of reach for many people.”
Moreover, Israel has also withheld tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, crippling its ability to pay salaries and provide basic services.
Hawwash pointed out that unlike Gaza, where aid agencies are still allowed to operate, the West Bank has been largely cut off from humanitarian relief.
“UNRWA was the main agency providing for Palestinians in the refugee camps, but Israel has banned it from East Jerusalem and is making it nearly impossible for it to operate in the West Bank,” he pointed out. “This is having a huge impact, not only on the well-being of people, but also on the economic situation.”
“We’ve seen this across the political spectrum in Israel for decades,” said Ayyash, who is also a policy analyst at Palestinian think tank Al-Shabaka. “Their ultimate goal is to establish Israel as the exclusive sovereign authority from the river to the sea. That would be exclusive Israeli-Jewish sovereignty… over 100 per cent of historic Palestine.”
This would require reducing Palestinians to a minority of the total population, who would end up under Israeli rule, he said.
“Right now, it’s about 50 per cent. They don’t want that. They want to bring the number of Palestinians down to about 15 or 20 per cent, so that they become a minority in their own land and lose all claims to sovereignty,” said Ayyash. “Ultimately, all of Israel’s actions and policies throughout the past several decades have been geared toward the ultimate goal of creating ‘Greater Israel’ across all of historic Palestine.”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250225-israels-west-bank-offensive-looks-very-much-like-a-prelude-to-annexation/
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Controversy In Argentina Over Renaming Of Palestine Street To Honour Israeli Family
February 25, 2025
By Eman Abusidu
The debate is growing in Argentina surrounding the proposed renaming of Palestine Street to “Bibas Family Street”, a change that has sparked both controversy and support in various communities. Yamil Santoro, a member of the municipal council in Buenos Aires, introduced the proposal in honour of the late Israeli-Argentine citizen Shiri Silberman Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were taken hostage on 7 October, 2023, and killed while in captivity in the Gaza Strip. According to Hamas, the family were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023, but this is disputed by Israeli forensics experts.
The street in question is in Buenos Aires and has been called Palestine Street for many years. The Bibas family are noted for their contributions to the local community and their outspoken support for Israel. The debate surrounding the change is linked to both the family’s strong ties to the Jewish community in Argentina and the ongoing global discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Argentine media reports suggest that the country’s right-wing President Javier Milei supports the initiative, but the final decision rests with the Buenos Aires legislature, where opinions are divided. The discussion is at the intersection of local Argentine politics, international relations and the delicate dynamics surrounding the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The decision to rename the street joins a series of diplomatic and practical steps taken by Milei who supports Israel unequivocally. His family has long been known for their pro-Israel stance, and have promoted Israel’s interests in Argentina, attracting both praise and criticism for their efforts. Members of the family have also been involved in organising cultural events, business initiatives and political advocacy that align with Israeli interests, making their name prominent within both local Jewish and wider Argentine circles.
This has all placed them at the centre of a broader debate in Argentina, which has a large Palestinian diaspora and an ongoing discourse surrounding Middle Eastern politics. For many, renaming Palestine Street to honour a family with such strong ties to Israel is seen as a provocative gesture that is likely to alienate the Palestinian community.
Most Latin American countries have demonstrated support for Palestine and distanced themselves from the occupation state of Israel during its genocidal offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza. Even in Argentina, solidarity with legitimate Palestinian resistance is fast becoming a regular feature of daily life with the naming of streets and public squares, Palestine-themed murals and protest marches. President Milei seems, therefore, to have taken a step that is not only out of line with most of Latin America, but also his own people.
The Milei family’s support for Israel resonates with the Argentine Jewish community, though, and those who favour stronger relations with Israel. The debate highlights the difficulty of balancing national identity, community ties and international political positions.
The decision has not yet been made on whether to rename the street or not. The outcome will likely depend on how well the various interest groups can negotiate their positions and whether the local government can navigate the delicate balance between honouring the Bibas family while respecting the significance of Palestinian identity in the area.
In the end, the decision will not only affect the streetscape of Buenos Aires, but also serve as a microcosm of the broader tensions that continue to shape the way we view national identities and international alliances.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250225-controversy-in-argentina-over-renaming-of-palestine-street-to-honour-israeli-family/
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Who Will Govern Gaza The Day After The War?
February 25, 2025
By Mahmoud Hassan
The governance of the Gaza Strip on the day after the war remains a major concern for Tel Aviv, Washington and several Arab capitals, amid regional and international anticipation regarding the sustainability of the ceasefire agreement and the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions, mainly Hamas.
The issue of ruling Gaza after so much death and destruction is not an easy matter, given the enormous challenges and complex issues related to reconstruction, the tunnel network, the weapons of resistance groups, displacement plans, Israel’s security and US President Donald Trump’s stated plans for the enclave. All of these factors make Gaza’s governance a difficult and costly test.
There is still no clear plan, not least because of the internal Palestinian divisions that prevent the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority from taking control of the Strip. Moreover, there is Israeli and US opposition to any post-war role for Hamas, coupled with Arab reluctance to get involved in administering Gaza or confronting the resistance factions.
The situation is complicated further by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firm stance. He has declared that “on the day after the war in Gaza, there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority” in Gaza. He rejects replacing Hamas with Fatah, and has said, “I will not allow Hamastan to be replaced with Fatahstan.”
Last year, Israel attempted to rely on local tribal leaders in Gaza as a possible post-war governance option, but the lack of popular support and the growing influence of the resistance doomed this plan to failure.
Neighbouring Egypt favours the formation of an independent technocrat committee to administer Gaza, to be established by a Palestinian presidential decree and under a framework of Palestinian consensus. This approach would ensure that the governance structure for the “day after” remains Palestinian while also fulfilling Israel’s demand to exclude Hamas from power.
This decision appears to be a tactical move to avoid external pressure. However, Netanyahu seeks to go beyond simply side-lining Hamas; he is calling for its leaders to be deported and for the disarmament of its military wing, setting up significant obstacles to any potential resolution.
Complicating matters further is the stance of the Arab League, which appears to align with Israeli interests. The Assistant Secretary-General of the League, Hossam Zaki, said recently that “Palestinian interests require Hamas to exit the scene.”
Israeli rigidity and Arab alignment with this position have prompted Hamas to reaffirm its stance. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan declared at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha last week that, “The day after the war in Gaza will be entirely Palestinian, and Hamas will not leave Gaza under any agreements, nor will it be excluded from the Palestinian project under any pressure or implementation of external plans.” He warned further: “Anyone who replaces the Israeli occupation in Gaza or any Palestinian city will be dealt with as we deal with the occupation, through resistance. This is a settled matter and is not up for discussion.”
As soon as the ceasefire took effect, Hamas redeployed its police forces in Gaza and municipalities resumed the provision of public services for the population, demonstrating its continued governance over the Strip, where it has been in charge since winning the Palestinian election in 2006.
This reality undermines the feasibility of a proposed plan to deploy an international peacekeeping force, including Arab countries, throughout Gaza, while establishing a buffer zone in the north. Under this plan, the Palestinian Authority and the UN would assume specific roles, with private security firms overseeing aid distribution and reconstruction efforts.
The prospect of disarming the resistance seems extremely difficult, if not impossible, given the atrocities committed by Israeli forces since October, 2023. The occupation forces have killed at least 50,000 Palestinians and wounded well over 100,000 others. Palestinians know that they have to be able to defend themselves.
According to Sky News Arabia, Hamas political bureau member Muhammad Nazzal emphasised that, “Disarming the movement is not open for negotiation under any circumstances,” and asserted that “[resistance] weapons will not disappear from Gaza or any Palestinian territory until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”
Furthermore, the prospect of dismantling Gaza’s tunnel network or revealing its precise layout is highly unlikely. The tunnels provided a strategic advantage that played a crucial role in ensuring the resilience of the Palestinian resistance.
Palestinian affairs expert Abdel Ghani Abu Shama noted that the resistance does not trust Israel, the US or any mediators. Hamas’s ideological and religious beliefs make it unlikely to abandon its positions or relinquish resistance as a fundamental choice. “Yes,” he pointed out, “the methods may change, but the objective remains the same, from stones to knives, and from Kalashnikovs to rockets.”
Abu Shama told me that the issue of disarmament has been proposed for nearly a century — internationally, regionally and within the Arab world — yet it has always been met with Palestinian rejection. “For Palestinians, bearing arms is not a matter of prestige, but a necessity to defend themselves, their land and their sacred sites against the occupation.”
Finding a governance structure for Gaza remains an extremely complex issue, as it is nearly impossible to satisfy all parties involved. The divisions among Palestinians themselves, the rift between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, the conflict between the resistance and Israel, and the diverging interests of Arab states and the United States, particularly with Trump pushing for the displacement of Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan, all contribute to this complexity.
However, some flexibility in handling the situation could provide Israel with a long-term truce — a hudna — lasting ten years or more, along with a buffer zone, while allowing Egypt’s proposal for a technocrat committee to serve as a compromise. This would address Israel’s veto against Hamas remaining in power and its opposition to the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza.
Of course, financial and logistical concerns related to reconstruction, salaries for Gaza’s employees and humanitarian aid distribution will be subject to European and UN oversight, as well as direct supervision by regional and international mediators, including the US, Qatar and Egypt.
Observers believe that Hamas is open to comprehensive reconciliation with Fatah, a national role for the Palestinian Authority, and legislative and presidential elections, provided that any political arrangements for Gaza’s administration do not exclude it or involve its disarmament.
Hamas’s decision not to participate in governance may be a political manoeuvre or a temporary strategy to accommodate Western concerns about its continued control over Gaza. However, this does not imply its withdrawal from the Strip, acceptance of disarmament or dismantling of its military wing, according to political analyst Muhammad Jamal.
Hamas remains the key factor in Gaza’s equation, and its perspective on “the day after” must be considered. As the de facto ruling force in the Strip and the largest military faction in the resistance, any attempt to exclude it from the political landscape is unlikely to benefit Israel. There are concerns that such a move could lead to security chaos in Gaza and the rise of even more radical factions.
Gaza will remain a long-term headache, not only for Israel, but also for the entire region and the world, especially under an extremist Israeli government backed by the US. This far-right Israeli government rejects the two-state solution and embraces killing and destruction as strategic options, while facing a people who believe in their right to live on their land and see no alternative but to engage in legitimate resistance to the brutal Israeli occupation.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250225-who-will-govern-gaza-the-day-after-the-war/
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Palestinians Are Being Displaced By Rhetoric And Action
February 25, 2025
By Ramona Wadi
Rejecting Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians by rhetoric does not work. However, the Palestinian Authority and world leaders seem to convolute statements into purported displays of action, when the only action being taken is by Israel in its quest for ever more colonial expansion.
At the 12th session of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, for example, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas noted that Ramallah rejected Israel’s attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians, and that the international community stood by the PA in this.
“We will continue working to establish a ceasefire, guarantee the flow of humanitarian aid, and ensure that the State of Palestine assumes responsibility in Gaza, all while preserving the territorial unity of Palestine,” said Abbas.
Meanwhile, as Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar travelled to Brussels to meet with his EU counterparts, EU officials rejected forced displacement in the weakest way possible.
“We support the Palestinian Authority and its return to Gaza. We support the return of every displaced Palestinian for whom Gaza is their home,” said European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas. Bringing Israel’s violations in the occupied West Bank into the equation, Kallas added, “The ceasefire is a real chance to break the cycle of violence.”
While Spain and Ireland had called for a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, yesterday’s meeting, which was supposed to take into consideration Israel’s compliance with, or lack thereof, Article 2 of the agreement, veered in a different direction.
According to Saar, his invitation letter to Brussels contained no indication of reviewing Israel’s required human rights compliance. “This approach,” he said, with reference to shifting the focus on Israel’s violations against Palestinians, “will not give the European Union a strong and influential position, quite the opposite.”
Keeping in mind that Israel and the US are forging ahead with plans to displace Palestinians permanently, while the EU focuses on the defunct two-state paradigm and Gaza’s reconstruction on its own terms – that is, without Hamas – gives the EU that common ground with Israeli aims. While policy is expected to differ throughout US President Donald Trump’s term, the fact remains that Israel, the US and the EU have taken Palestinians out of the Palestinian equation; they have been displaced by both rhetoric and actions.
Kallas’s press statement following the meeting with Saar only confirms how the EU prioritises Israel. Addressing Saar, she noted that 50 years since the EU and Israel signed the first trade agreement, the relationship between both entities has grown. Kallas moved straight to 7 October to emphasise and reference the EU’s support for Israel, rather than trade deals, making the EU visibly complicit in the genocide that ensued. Of course, Kallas diluted genocide to “a deadly conflict… with atrocious levels of loss of civilian lives.”
Upon arriving in Brussels, Saar told reporters that Israel can face criticism, “as long as criticism is not connected to delegitimization, demonization or double standards.”
The EU certainly delivered on Israel’s requirements, although double standards holds an alternative meaning for diplomats. Because it is only by applying double standards that Israel is able to thrive, and able to displace Palestinians under the auspices of alternative “solutions” and “security”, with varying degrees of collaboration from the US, the EU and — yes, Mahmoud Abbas — the PA too.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250225-palestinians-are-being-displaced-by-rhetoric-and-action/
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Restoring Palestine To Its Rightful Owners By Decolonising Solidarity
February 25, 2025
By Dr Ramzy Baroud
I have long argued that the Israeli war and genocide in Gaza must be a catalyst for change in the overall political discourse on Israel and Palestine, particularly regarding the need to free Palestine from the confines of victimhood. This shift is necessary to create space where the Palestinian people are seen to be central to their own struggle.
It is unfortunate that centring a nation in a conversation about its own freedom from colonialism and military occupation requires years of advocacy. This is the reality that Palestinians face, though, often due to circumstances far beyond their control.
As outrageous as US President Donald Trump’s comments about buying Gaza were, they were a crude interpretation of a pre-existing culture that views Palestinians as marginal actors in their own story. While previous US administrations and their Western allies didn’t use such blatant language as Trump’s “taking over the Gaza Strip”, they did treat Palestinians as irrelevant to how the West perceived the “solution” to the “conflict”, language that rarely adhered to international and humanitarian laws.
For many Palestinian intellectuals, the fight for justice has been waged on two fronts: one to challenge global misconceptions about Palestine and the Palestinian people; and the other to reclaim the narrative altogether.
Many of these supposedly “authentic” Palestinians do not represent the collective aspirations of the Palestinian people.
This argument responds to the Western exposition of certain types of Palestinians whose narratives do not directly challenge Western complicity in the Israeli occupation and war. These voices often focus on highlighting the victimisation component of the “conflict”, often indicating that “both sides” should be supported — or blamed — equally.
This is why it was refreshing to talk with the iconic Norwegian Professor of Emergency Medicine Mads Gilbert, who is fighting to decolonise the concept of solidarity in medicine and, by extension, western solidarity as a whole.
Prof. Gilbert has spent much of his career working in Gaza, as well as among Palestinian doctors and communities in the West Bank and Lebanon. Since the start of the war, he has remained one of the most tireless voices in exposing the Israeli genocide in the Strip.
Our conversation touched on many subjects, including a term that he has coined: “evidence-based solidarity”. This concept applies evidence-based practice in medicine to all aspects of solidarity, both within and beyond Palestine.
A good example was his explanation of the field hospital as a strategy to cope with man-made crises, such as the genocide in Gaza. Our discussion elaborated on an article by Gilbert and other colleagues, published on 5 February in the BMC Medical Journal, entitled “Realising Health Justice in Palestine: Beyond Humanitarian Voices”.
The article was a critical response to another piece, published last May by Karl Blanchet and others, entitled “Rebuilding the Health Sector in Gaza: Alternative Humanitarian Voices”. Gilbert found the original article reductionist for failing to recognise that the crisis in Gaza was “entirely manufactured” and for overlooking the centrality of “Palestinian perspectives”.
This conversation may seem rhetorical until it is placed within its practical context. Field hospitals, which could be seen as the ultimate act of solidarity, in Gilbert’s view often deplete local resources and exacerbate the challenges facing Palestinian healthcare. He pointed out how the establishment of these temporary foreign-run facilities can contribute to a “brain drain”, while simultaneously exhausting the local healthcare system by creating parallel structures that, despite being well-funded, do not integrate with the native system.
According to Gilbert, these efforts divert critical resources away from the urgent task of rebuilding and restoring Palestinian hospitals and providing fair wages for the dedicated healthcare workers — doctors, nurses, paramedics and midwives — who are integral to the local medical infrastructure.
It must be frustrating for Palestinian medics, hundreds of whom have been killed in the Israeli genocide on Gaza, to watch others have a conversation about helping Gaza without acknowledging the vital role of the Palestinian Ministry of Health and local hospitals and clinics. They fail to recognise the unmatched experience — let alone the resilience — of the Gaza medical community, which has proven to be one of the most durable and resourceful anywhere in the world.
The West, whether “evil-doers” or “do-gooders”, insists on seeing the Palestinian as an outsider to be removed from Gaza altogether or treated as a person with no relevant input, no worthy experience and no agency. Many often engage in this thinking, while assuming that they are indeed helping the Palestinians.
However, the genocide should serve as the watershed moment for these conversations to escape the academic realm and enter the public sphere, where the centrality of the truly representative Palestinian experience becomes the litmus test for any outside “proposals”, “plans”, “solutions” or even solidarity. As for the latter, decolonising solidarity is now an urgent task. There is no time to waste when the very existence of Palestinians in their historic land is at stake.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250225-restoring-palestine-to-its-rightful-owners-by-decolonising-solidarity/
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Who ‘Owns’ The Palestine Discourse?
Dr. Ramzy Baroud
February 25, 2025
We have long argued that the Israeli war and genocide in Gaza must catalyze a change in the overall political discourse on Israel and Palestine, particularly regarding the need to free Palestine from the confines of victimhood. This shift is necessary to create a space where the Palestinian people are seen as central to their own struggle.
It is unfortunate that centering a nation in a conversation about its own freedom from colonialism and military occupation requires years of advocacy. But this is the reality Palestinians face — often due to circumstances far beyond their control.
As outrageous as US President Donald Trump’s comments about taking over Gaza were, they were a crude interpretation of an existing culture that viewed Palestinians as marginal actors in their own story. While previous US administrations and their Western allies did not use such blatant language as Trump, they did treat Palestinians as irrelevant to how the West perceived the “solution” to the “conflict” — language that rarely adhered to international and humanitarian laws.
For many Palestinian intellectuals, the fight for justice has been waged on two fronts: one to challenge global misconceptions about Palestine and the Palestinian people, and the other to reclaim the narrative altogether.
Recently, I have argued that reclaiming the narrative by centering Palestinian voices is not enough. Many of these supposedly “authentic” Palestinians do not represent the collective aspirations of the Palestinian people.
This argument responds to the Western exposition of certain types of Palestinians whose narratives do not directly challenge Western complicity in the Israeli occupation and war. These voices often focus on highlighting the victimization component of the “conflict,” often indicating that “both sides” should be equally supported — or blamed.
This is why it was refreshing to talk with the iconic Norwegian emergency medicine doctor Mads Gilbert, who is fighting to decolonize the concept of solidarity in medicine — and, by extension, Western solidarity as a whole. Gilbert has spent much of his career working in Gaza, as well as among Palestinian doctors and communities in the West Bank and Lebanon. Since the start of the latest war, he has remained one of the most tireless voices in exposing the Israeli genocide in the Strip.
Our conversation touched on many subjects, including a term he coined: “evidence-based solidarity.” This concept applies evidence-based practice in medicine to all aspects of solidarity, both within and beyond Palestine. It means that solidarity becomes more meaningful when it is supported by the kind of information that guarantees the support does more good than harm.
A good example was his explanation of the field hospital as a strategy to cope with humanmade crises, such as the genocide in Gaza. Our discussion elaborated on an article written by Gilbert and his colleagues that was published this month in the medical journal BMC, entitled “Realizing Health Justice in Palestine: Beyond Humanitarian Voices.”
The article was a critical response to another piece, published last May by Karl Blanchet and others, entitled “Rebuilding the Health Sector in Gaza: Alternative Humanitarian Voices.” Gilbert found the original article reductionist for failing to recognize that the crisis in Gaza was “entirely manufactured” and for overlooking the centrality of “Palestinian perspectives.”
This conversation may seem rhetorical until it is placed within its practical context. In Gilbert’s view, field hospitals, which could be seen as the ultimate act of solidarity, often deplete local resources and exacerbate the challenges facing Palestinian healthcare.
He pointed out how the establishment of these temporary foreign-run facilities can contribute to a “brain drain,” while simultaneously exhausting the local healthcare system by creating parallel structures that, despite being well funded, do not integrate with the native system.
According to Gilbert, these efforts divert critical resources away from the urgent task of rebuilding and restoring Palestinian hospitals and providing fair wages for the dedicated healthcare workers — doctors, nurses, paramedics and midwives — who are integral to the local medical infrastructure.
It must be frustrating for Palestinian medics, hundreds of whom have been killed in the Israeli genocide on Gaza, to watch others have a conversation about helping Gaza without acknowledging the vital role of the Palestinian Ministry of Health and local hospitals and clinics. They fail to recognize the unmatched experience — let alone the resilience — of the Gaza medical community, which has proven to be one of the most durable and resourceful anywhere in the world.
This is a manifestation of a much larger issue: the West, whether as “evil-doers” or “good-doers,” insists on seeing the Palestinian as an outsider — either to be removed from Gaza altogether or treated as a person with no relevant input, no worthy experience and no agency.
Many often engage in this thinking, while assuming they are helping the Palestinians.
But this genocide should serve as a watershed moment for these conversations to escape the academic realm and enter the public sphere, where the centrality of the truly representative Palestinian experience becomes the litmus test for any outside proposals, plans, solutions or even solidarity. As for the last of these, decolonizing solidarity is now an urgent task. There is no time to waste when the very existence of Palestinians in their historic land is at stake.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2591565
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Netanyahu Eyes West Bank As He Oscillates On Gaza
Osama Al-Sharif
February 25, 2025
The scenes of Israeli tanks screeching through the gutted streets of the Jenin refugee camp late on Sunday said it all. This was a camp that was home to between 15,000 and 20,000 Palestinian refugees. By the admission of Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, this and other camps are now virtually empty. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been forced to leave the three West Bank camps of Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams in the northern West Bank. He declared that none would be allowed to return and that the Israeli army would stay there for almost a year.
By sending armor into the deserted camps, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to send multiple messages: that his far-right coalition partners can do whatever they want in the West Bank, that the Palestinian Authority can do nothing to stop them, and that annexation is only a step away.
With all eyes on Gaza and the fate of the ceasefire deal with Hamas — now in doubt as Netanyahu has presented new conditions that are almost impossible to accept — the Israeli government is moving ahead with plans to create new realities on the ground in the West Bank.
The deployment of tanks in the territory, for the first time since the 2000 Second Intifada, is a gross violation of the Oslo Accords and of security arrangements with the PA. Israel’s military campaign in the northern West Bank has been ongoing for weeks. So far, it has killed more than 30 Palestinians, destroyed tens of houses and uprooted the entire infrastructure in the three targeted camps.
Those 40,000 displaced Palestinians will not be allowed to return to their homes now or in the near future. For Israel, the destruction of refugee camps is now a central theme of its goal to bury the two-state solution forever. Using Gaza-like destructive methods has become the mainstream policy of the Netanyahu government in the West Bank.
Netanyahu was never happy with accepting the Gaza ceasefire plan. He is using all excuses to derail the agreement and restart the war, even if this means ending any chance of the Israeli captives being returned alive or dead. His goal is to resume the war and delay any investigation into what happened on Oct. 7, 2023. His motives are personal and defy the fact that a majority of Israelis want the second phase of the ceasefire deal to go ahead, even if that means ending the war.
But what about the West Bank? Under pressure from his ultranationalist partners in the ruling coalition, Netanyahu has caved in to demands by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to give the army a free hand in crushing the Palestinians and preparing the ground for the annexation of most of the occupied territory.
There was no need to dispatch tanks into an empty Jenin refugee camp. But the image was needed. The extremists in Israel wanted to use that image as they concoct plans to annex the majority of the occupied lands.
In their view, the Trump administration is on the cusp of recognizing such annexation. For them, Oslo is dead and so is the two-state solution. In the past few weeks, the Israeli government has adopted measures to strangle the PA economically. With the fall of the PA, now that the Trump administration has cut off aid to the security forces, Israel can move in to extend its authority over all of Areas A, B and C, thus rendering all agreements under the Oslo Accord void and irrelevant.
Netanyahu knows that Israel will not have its way in Gaza. Donald Trump seems to have withdrawn his outrageous proposal to take over the Strip. Arab leaders will meet early next month to adopt a proposal that responds to that of the US president. Essentially, the Arab proposal will underline two fundamental truths: no forced displacement and a combined effort to rebuild Gaza. While the counterproposal will send a message, the details will present considerable challenges. Who will end up ruling Gaza? What happens to Hamas leaders and fighters? And where will the money come from?
For now, Netanyahu is not bothered by such details. He wants to escalate the situation by threatening to resume the war on Gaza. That remains a distant option for all, including the Trump administration. The onus is now on the Arabs to come up with a realistic scenario that ends the war, removes Hamas from the present formula and ensures that a plan exists to begin the reconstruction efforts.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu sees an opportunity to use the Gaza dilemma to extend Israeli law over the West Bank. If the Trump administration goes along, then an international and an Arab outcry is to be expected. The Israeli move will be recognized as illegal. How such a move will disrupt the current geopolitical structure remains to be seen.
It will be rejected by Arab countries and the majority of the international community. It will derail Trump’s plans to expand the membership of the Abraham Accords. It will test the durability of the peace treaties signed between Egypt and Jordan, on the one hand, and Israel on the other. But more importantly, it will leave the Palestinians with nothing.
That is a recipe for regional disaster. Annexation of the West Bank will trigger a domino effect that Israel cannot control. The question is how Tel Aviv will deal with the more than 3 million Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank. Forced displacement will be opposed vociferously by Jordan — the only country Palestinians in the West Bank can go to.
Israel’s far right is playing with fire and risking peace with both Jordan and Egypt. To believe that sending tanks into an empty Palestinian camp will change the geopolitical realities on the ground is not only naive but dangerously stupid. After the destruction of more than 90 percent of Gaza, most Palestinians still refuse to leave. The West Bank will be no different.
Netanyahu’s new Middle East sees no future for the Palestinians. This is both wrong and callous. The reality is that Israel will never be accommodated into this region if it thinks it can sacrifice the rights of the Palestinians. Netanyahu and his far-right partners will do their utmost to push Palestinians to the brink, but they can never seal the deal.
In the coming days and weeks, we should brace ourselves for draconian measures to be implemented by Israel on the West Bank Palestinians. But no matter what Israel does, it will never succeed in ending the Palestinians’ resilience and the struggle to reclaim their rights.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2591562
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Closing Bookshops Will Not Make Israel Safer
Yossi Mekelberg
February 25, 2025
The Israeli occupation has many faces and they all represent different sides of ruthless oppression. However, there are those acts that make you wonder if the occupier has developed such severe paranoia that it has become a victim of its own wrongdoing. It might be the case that, deep down, the oppressor knows how wrong, immoral and unsustainable its actions are; hence it becomes afraid of the oppressed.
But in case there was any doubt that the Israeli occupation has lost its judgment and political compass, look no further than the raid by police earlier this month on two branches of an internationally renowned Palestinian bookshop, the Educational Bookshop, in East Jerusalem. They arrested owner Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmed Muna and, for good measure, seized a selection of a few dozen books — among them a children’s coloring book — a book that you can easily buy online — titled “From the River to the Sea.” Meanwhile, many on the right in Israel, in their annexationist approach, also want a dominion that stretches “from the river to the sea” but are never arrested for saying so.
In case you thought these shops were hiding underground, away from the watchful eyes of the Israeli security forces, I must disappoint you. It was more a case of Inspector Clouseau than James Bond. Both shops are in Salah Al-Din Street, which is the commercial hub of East Jerusalem, frequently visited by diplomats, activists, researchers and tourists from around the world. The Munas’ shop has been a well-known establishment for many years and has never been associated with militant organizations.
It is not that the police did not know that their raid was on very shaky legal ground. In public, they suggested that the owners kept inciteful material, but the search warrant was for disturbing public order, not for inciting. How could books and other printed material sitting in a shop disturb public order? Moreover, what possessed the judge to give the police a search warrant in the first place? After all, the books are always well organized on the shelves and both the judge and police officers could have browsed them without causing a commotion or leaving a mess behind them, as they indeed did.
This story is Kafkaesque in nature, especially for those who are familiar with the shop, with its many books in foreign languages. The Israeli security forces should probably look elsewhere to find the reasons why some young Palestinians are resorting to armed resistance — and I have very strong doubts it has anything to do with these two bookshops.
“Suspicion of causing public disturbance” can mean almost anything. It is an excuse that the police use recurrently and can be used to intimidate those against whom there is no solid evidence of any crime being committed. I cannot think of a single bookshop in Israel or anywhere else in the world that has no books on its shelves that might raise suspicion of disturbing the public peace, especially when those who define it are the security forces.
What the occupiers do, and increasingly so, is harass and intimidate the occupied with the most ridiculous accusations to keep them constantly living in fear and confusion about what will happen next. As a result, they totally obey their rulers. In the words of George Orwell, “Until they become conscious, they will never rebel,” and the books do not necessarily incite, but they make people conscious through knowledge — and this is what scares their tormentors.
The confiscation of material in which a Palestinian flag appears is of particular interest. It is worth reminding ourselves that this is the legitimate and legal symbol of the Palestinians and their right to self-determination. However, in the Israeli mind, especially those on the right, it is associated with terrorism. But this is the flag of Palestine and when Israel, in the Oslo Accords, recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, it recognized by extension the symbols of their existence, including their flag. This is not Hamas’ or Hezbollah’s flag and the claim that any printed material that contains the Palestinian flag is an incitement reflects the biases and prejudices of the Israeli security forces about the right of Palestinians to statehood and the symbols that come with that.
But this latest episode of harassment and intimidation by Israel’s security forces goes beyond a bookshop and its owners. It is being extended to individuals, to Palestinian nongovernmental organizations that are accused of being terrorist without a shred of evidence, and to the closure of media outlets and the intimidation of journalists should certain Israelis in high places disagree with their editorial line.
Arresting the owners of bookshops is a new low. But — as much as this might appeal to the oppressor as a show of strength, exploiting the asymmetry of power and of domination to keep those who are subjected to these arbitrary measures unsettled and in fear for their freedom, their livelihood and sometimes their lives, in the hope that such bullying will paralyze their resistance — it is mainly a sign of the oppressor’s weakness.
It is one thing to contain militancy and terrorism by the use of force, but something else entirely when you see civil society or those who sell or read books as your enemy whose freedom should be denied. It leads to those who resort to such measures also living in constant fear and hiding behind the excessive force they employ, as this is their familiar, almost only, modus operandi.
Those who want to perpetuate the occupation feel the need to constantly bully those who are subjected to their power because, deep down, they know that they have lost the moral and legal argument to deprive millions of people of their political and human rights, and they expect them to resist. After all, those who fought for Israel’s independence also resisted occupation, including resorting to armed resistance, and they succeeded.
There is only one way by which both Israelis and Palestinians will become unafraid of each other and cease trying to harm each other: a mutual recognition of their equal rights in a political and social arrangement that is fully agreed by both. And this will require some painful compromises. In the meantime, in the absence of such a historic compromise, those in charge of Israeli security, as those who dictate their policies, will remain unable to distinguish between friend and foe and will end up seeing the shadows of mountains as mountains — a path that only leads to more oppression and a pathetic fear of bookshops.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2591545
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URL: https://newageislam.com/middle-east-press/israel-west-bank-argentina-palestine-gaza/d/134729
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