The Free

‘Silent annexation’: Settlers dispossess West Bank Bedouins amid Israel war

As the world looks towards Israel’s war on Gaza, occupied West Bank settlers attack Palestinians, take their homes.

from thefreeonline on 21st Oct 2023 by Al Jazeera Staff at Al Jazeera.

In Five Years, Four New Settler Farms Took Palestinian Land the Size of …

On the morning of October 12, the men of Wadi al-Siq were dismantling their family homes when a group of heavily armed Israelis from nearby illegal settlements – alongside army reservists – stormed the village

Their wives and most of their children had vacated the village, driving a few of the Palestinian Bedouin village’s sheep ahead of them, the day before. They were all frightened.

Kids play under a tree at the Bedouin encampment of al-Khan al-Ahmar near the West Bank city of Jericho May 30, 2018. — Kids play under a tree at the Bedouin encampment of al-Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank {File: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

Israeli peace activist Guy Hirschfeld had warned on Facebook two days prior of a rumoured call for the massacre of the Wadi al-Siq community. So the village, led by their mukhtar, Abdelrahman “Abu Bashar” Kaabneh, decided to leave.

Translation f Facebookm post: Final preparations for pogrom and deportation at Wadi Sik near Rimonim settlement. Please call the Benjamin police and ask for troops to be sent. 02-9706444Stop ethnic cleansing!

Wadi al-Siq is among the Palestinian Bedouin villages in the occupied West Bank that are being forcibly displaced in a tide that has grown these past two weeks, according to rights organisations.

Palestinian Bedouin eviction — The villagers of Wadi al-Siq had already gathered their things to leave [Al Jazeera]

Heavily armed Israelis from illegal settlements attack these communities on a daily basis – concentrated, organised attacks that go unimpeded and sometimes aided by security forces, according to witnesses and human rights organisations.

‘They injured us, no matter our age’ West Bank settlers target remote Bedouin communities,Hundreds have had to flee their historic homeland this week, as violent settlers exploit international distraction of the Gaza war

While this has happened for years, it has increased in intensity and frequency as the world looks away, focused on the horror of the Israel-Gaza war that began on October 7.

“It’s all over the West Bank,” said Hirschfeld, who was in the area four or five times since the start of the war. “[The settlers are] taking advantage of the situation and doing whatever they want.”

Leave today, or live and die this way

A north-south stretch of 20km (12.4 miles) east of Ramallah is being cleared of nearly all Palestinians, pushing an already fraught security situation for Bedouins in these remote areas to a breaking point.

Area C – a stretch of the occupied West Bank under Israeli security and civil control – has seen about 545 Palestinians forcibly displaced from at least 13 communities since October 7, according to information from the West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC) and Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din.

The land is nominally earmarked to be negotiated over in future talks, according to the Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and the PLO in 1993.

INTERACTIVE - Israeli settlers dispossess Bedouin communities-1697730217 — (Al Jazeera)

The violence stretches across Area C, including the South Hebron Hills, the area east of Ramallah towards Jericho, the Jordan Valley, and Nablus.

Witnesses and humanitarian coordinators say more communities are leaving or have begun dismantling their villages and leaving for Area B, rather than meet the same fate as Wadi al-Siq, the first village to have been entirely depopulated by settlers since October 7.

The Israeli settlement of Rimonim seen from across Wadi Al Sik. Willy Lowry / The National

How the EU disgraced itself backing revenge Genocide in Gaza, earning worldwide contempt

The European Union’s early reaction to the war raging in the Middle East only served US interests.

from thefreeonline on 20th Oct 2023 via Timur Fomenko/ South Front /Al Jazeera/

A protester holds a burning picture of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outside the Israeli Embassy in Athens on October 18, 2023 Angelos TZORTZINIS / AFP / shared with thanks

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s showboating in support of Israel in the current Middle East conflict has reportedly provoked a backlash from EU lawmakers and diplomats..

see Clare Daly’s great speech HERE… (WordPress won’t embed it) https://twitter.com/ClareDalyMEP/status/1715032236012036397

A historic crime is unfolding in Gaza & the EU is in it up to its neck. MEPs sit & watch the slaughter & cannot even condemn it, calling it a "humanitarian crisis," as if it was caused by the weather.

Infamy. EU will never live down the shame of today's resolution. #LongLiveGaza pic.twitter.com/hS9dmVN7ty
— Clare Daly (@ClareDalyMEP) October 19, 2023

When the Israel-Gaza war broke out just over a week ago, von der Leyen made the decision to offer unconditional support to West Jerusalem rather than urge for calm or mediation, having Israel’s flag projected onto the European Commission headquarters and paying a visit to Israel herself.

She clearly did so out of an inclination to appear in line with the US. But her actions have aged poorly as reports of civilian deaths and humanitarian disaster in the besieged Gaza Strip continue to mount.

Today . … Gaza death toll: The number of those killed by Israel since October 7 in the Gaza Strip has climbed to 4,127, including 1,661 children and over 2000 women

Anyone familiar with von der Leyen knows that she is an unapologetic neoconservative and transatlanticist who is single-handedly undermining the autonomy, respect, and foreign policy stature of the EU by actively working to make the bloc subordinate to the US in multiple areas, all while attempting to showcase herself as a true regional leader. If the EU sees itself in a fundamental competition with China and Russia, there could not be a worse advert to the rest of the world than her leadership, and her Israel blunders may be her most damaging decisions yet.

“The west seems happy to believe a fairytale that Hamas killed 5oo at al Ahli -So that’s ok for them- None of these people seem to be aware that even the United Nations has already published figures showing that Israel has already carried out 51 bombing attacks on hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip, killing 15 healthcare workers in the process.

The hospital had already been targeted last week, sustaining damage to the top floor of the new diagnostic centre and the ultrasound in the mammography room on the second floor.

The fact that there is no crater in the parking lot is consistent with an air burst bomb that detonates at a predetermined altitude above the ground in order to maximize damage. The evidence of this air burst is clearly visible in the tweets and videos, where the hoods and roofs of multiple vehicles are shown to be crushed by a powerful force from above.

This damage pattern is only possible with an air burst weapon, not a ground burst rocket or bomb. Notably, Jihadi forces do not possess air burst ordnance capabilities. Only Israel has that.“

Von der Leyen’s foreign policy legacy involves dragging the EU into several confrontations it could have done without. This week, she is heading to Washington DC to try to forge a deal on steel and aluminum trade targeted at China, but that will ultimately resort in throwing the EU market under the bus, again.