Since the end of January, the ebbing intifada has found renewed frustrations, with Palestinians strained between their right to self-determination and the reality of international hegemony more acutely than any time previous. Palestinian election results somewhat leveled the extremism of the political playing-field, and rhetoric between Israeli officials and the newly-elected Hamas legislators correspondingly heightened. But while Hamas remains stringent on refusing to recognize Israel, renounce violence, and recognize past agreements, it is the internationally-backed Israeli government that is transforming the politically tense situation into an outright violent one.
Trampling the international agreement on Jericho, on March 14, Israel brazenly invaded the Palestinian prison located there, laying siege to the government compound only moments after American and British observers abandoned their posts. Backed by tanks, jeeps, and helicopters, Israeli military forces bulldozed the prison walls, killed two Palestinians, arrested over 170 prisoners after forcing them to strip to their underwear, and shelled the compound well into the night. Ahmad Sa'adat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and elected member to the Palestinian Legislative Council, in the end surrendered, and now sits in Israeli custody.
Two days later, military forces invaded the northern city of Jenin, surrounding a Palestinian home housing militants, while completely closing not just the city, but the entire surrounding area and all Palestinians attempting to move within it. During the military operations, Israeli soldiers disguised as Palestinians fired upon a civilian car en route to the hospital. Ten year old Ikbar Abdelhiman Zaid was shot in the head and instantly killed, while her uncle was shot in the hand and arrested.
Gaza remains under agricultural siege, with the Karni crossing opening for forty minutes on March 20, and now operating under imminent threat of another closure. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, food supply levels reached a crisis point on March 19, and John Ging, the director of Gaza's UN refugee relief agency, has stated that the situation has only deteriorated with the sporadic openings. Sugar and rice sell at twice their average price, while prices for locally-grown vegetables have plummeted. Bread, a basic staple, is now rationed out to those who wait for hours in line.
Forty percent of Gazan children already suffer from malnutrition. Continual closures hurt not only the Gazan economy—which is losing an estimated $500,000 daily—but the formation of the next generation. Israeli officials and all English media have so far blamed Palestinians for inflating the drastic situation by refusing to open the Kerem Sholom crossing, but OCHA contends along with the PA that the crossing is inadequate for handling the necessary cargo shipments.
Behind the overtly violent veneer lies an institutionally violent strategy. On the same day the Israeli troops captured Ahmad Sa'adat, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited the illegal settlement of Ariel, promising its occupiers that they would forever remain a part of Israel. This is part of Olmert's stated campaign to unilaterally draw Israel's permanent borders by 2010. While he labels this move a ‘withdrawal,’ it is in actuality a fulfillment of Sharon's imposed controls over the West Bank .
The plan garners as much Palestinian land as it can with the fewest amount of Palestinians. Hence we see the outright annexation of Israel 's main settlement blocks: Ma'aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion, which together block Jerusalem from the east and south, and Ariel, which sinks deep into central West Bank territory. All of Jerusalem and the areas that surround it closely would also become part of the Jewish state, as would the fertile bottom of the Jordan Valley, which has already been de facto annexed through a complex system of closures and permits. The route of Israel's separation wall will become the basis for the international border, officially finalizing the theft of 35,000 dunums of Palestinian land, according to the latest OCHA figures.
Since the announcement of the plan, construction has already begun in the E1 zone lying between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, cutting Palestinians from their social, economic and cultural capital. Member of Knesset Yossi Beilin, who supports Israeli control over Ma'aleh Adumim, told Israeli radio, ‘Whoever proposes building up E-1 is essentially preventing a permanent Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Whoever builds up E-1 is preventing a contiguous Palestinian state.’
On the eve of its parliamentary elections, official Israel has initiated an all-out attack on Palestine, and any future state arising within it. The economic closure of the Gaza Strip further isolates the area from its occupied West Bank sister, implementing Olmert's unilateral vision before it has even been approved by the Israeli electorate. Israeli invasions demonstrate the weakness of the Palestinian Authority and the extent of full Israeli control of the territories. This tight squeezing, just as Palestinians situate themselves in their new democracy, only tempts renewed violence.