Operation Breakwater and Israel’s Far-Right Government

Shereen recaps some events in Palestine in 2022 that led to it being the deadliest year in the West Bank in decades. She also discusses Israel’s far-right government and the recently-appointed ultranationalist ministers who will only take it further in that direction.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, this is it could happen here, and I am Sharine,
and today it's just me. It's me and I am alone,
So that means I am probably going to tell you
about some fucked up shit that happened in the Middle East,
which is exactly what I'm about to do. I just
think some things are purposely underreported, and even when they

(00:27):
are seldom reported about, it's always a bit skewed and biased.
So I just try to draw attention to certain countries
and their people as best as I can because of this,
and today I think we're due for an update on Palestine.
Israel continues to do humanize Palestinians daily and blatantly, and
it's not just through murdering them. Last year, under new

(00:49):
Israeli restrictions on foreign entry into the West Bank, foreigners
romantically involved with Palestinians must declare their relationship to the
occupying Israeli government. You have to tell them if you
are involved the Palestinian Why. I don't know, because they're
treated as less than human. And this is one of
many laws that deny Palestinians of basic human rights and

(01:11):
keep them under apartheid rule. I want to talk about
all that's happened in just these first few months of
twenty twenty three, because this cycle of violence in Jerusalem
and the West Bank in particular has suddenly surged to
levels that we have not seen in years. As of
this recording on March seventh, at least sixty six Palestinians

(01:32):
have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since the
start of twenty twenty three, and at least seventeen of
those killed have been children. For comparison, in twenty twenty two,
which was the deadliest year in the West Bank in decades,
forty eight Palestinians were killed in the combined months of January, February,
March and April. The deaths are increasing day by day,

(01:56):
and there is a scene to be a stop to
them at all. Twenty twenty two saw the highest number
of civilians killed by Israeli security forces in the past
seventeen years, and the highest number of Israelis killed since
twenty sixteen. Renewed violence flared up between Palestine and Israel
and January of this year for many reasons, and it
continues to build and intensify. After a cascade of concerning events,

(02:21):
and before we jump into those events that happened in
January and onward. I think we need to look back
on twenty twenty two in order to understand this a
bit better and to hopefully provide some context. So let's
take a look at twenty twenty two and how we
got here. We are going to be focusing on the
West Bank with the majority of the data in this episode.

(02:42):
In particular, the one tomorrow will be more broad. I'm
going to explain a little bit about what the West
Bank even is, just for some more context. The West
Bank is a landlocked territory near the coast of a
Mediterranean in western Asia that forms the main bulk of
the Palestinian territories. It is ordered by Jordan and the
Dead Sea to the east, and by Israel to the

(03:03):
southwest and north. The West Bank includes East Jerusalem. It's
been under Israeli military occupation since nineteen sixty seven, and
its area is split into one hundred and sixty five
Palestinian quote unquote islands. These islands are under total or
partial civil administration by the Palestinian National Authority or the

(03:24):
PNA or PA. There are also two hundred and thirty
Israeli settlements into which Israel law is being pipelined. The
West Bank initially emerged as a Jordanian occupied territory after
the nineteen forty eight Arab Israeli War before being in
xed outright by Jordan in nineteen fifty, and it was
given its name during this time based on its location

(03:46):
on the western bank of the Jordan River. This annexation
was widely considered to be illegal and was only recognized
by Iraq, Pakistan and the UK. The territory remained under
Jordanian rule until nineteen six seven, when it was captured
and occupied by Israel during the Sixth Day War. The
Oslo Accords, which were signed in nineteen ninety three between

(04:08):
the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel, created administrative districts with
varying levels of Palestinian authority. In specific areas. In the
West Bank, there was Area A, which is administered exclusively
by the PA, there is Area B, which is administered
by both the p and A and Israel, and then
there's Area C, which is administered exclusively by Israel. And

(04:29):
this Area C, which is controlled exclusively by Israel, accounts
for over sixty percent of the West Bank's territory. Twenty
twenty two was the deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians
in nearly two decades. Israeli forces killed more Palestinians in
the West Bank in twenty twenty two than in any
other year. The United Nations began systematically recording Palestinian fatalities

(04:53):
in two thousand and five, and they started doing this
after the last major Palestinian uprising aka these get Intifada
that lasted five years. And knowing that, I want you
to keep in mind that, unfortunately, the number of Palestinians
that have been killed by the IDF is far greater
than some of the numbers I'm going to say in
this episode. And again that is because I am focusing

(05:15):
particularly on the West Bank. I want to talk about
Israel's twelve month crackdown that has been happening in the
West Bank. Nearly twelve months ago, Israel begana has become
a year long violent crackdown in the West Bank. Israel
last year prompted a sweeping Israeli military campaign that they
called Operation Breakwater beginning March of two and twenty two.

(05:37):
It was created after attacks occurred by Palestinians against Israeli
settlers Since then, Operation Breakwater has conducted nearly nightly IDF
raids in the West Bank, which of course causes heightened
friction between the IDF and the Palestinian population. So far,
Israeli security forces have made over two thousand arrests, and

(06:00):
that's way too big of a number, just to give
you an idea of the terrifying scale of this operation.
Operation Breakwater is the biggest IDF operation in the West
Bank since the Second Instifaba that I mentioned earlier that
lasted from two thousand to two thousand and five. Since
the start of this operation last year, nearly every day

(06:20):
Israel has conducted raids in the West Bank, which is
part of the Palestinian territory which encompasses the Gothas Strip
in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. And this whole
territory has been illegally occupied by Israel since nineteen sixty seven.
In spite of this, because Israel does whatever the fuck
it wants, because it's already founded upon existing illegally in

(06:40):
the first place, thousands of Palestinians, many of them young,
have been arrested, and nearly every week more Palestinians are
being killed. Last year, this all resulted in the highest
cumulative death toll in the West Bank since two thousand
and four. Palestinian rights groups and UN experts have said
that the bloodshed is due to Israel's excessive use of

(07:01):
force and open fire rules during near daily military operations,
as well as rising assaults by settlers in the West Bank,
where again Palestinians are living under illegal Israeli occupation. Israel
justified their intensifying violence because of the fatal attacks on
Israelis by Palestinian militants, which also spiked last year, which

(07:21):
is also very bad. But blaming the people you've been
oppressing for nearly a century for being angry and fighting
back people without an army faced against one of the
most powerful armies in the world, it just does not
sit right with me. In twenty twenty two, Israeli security
forces killed at least one hundred and fifty two Palestinians

(07:43):
in the West Bank and predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem, compared
with seventy five Palestinians in twenty twenty one. These are
figures provided by the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs or OTCHA. Four Palestinians in the West Bank
were killed by Israeli settlers, not soldiers. Settlers, settlers that

(08:03):
have been emboldened and even encouraged in their hate and
violence by the Israeli far right, and the Israeli far
right is basically the Israeli government at this point. And
we're going to get into some of the extremes that
these settlers go through in their hate and their violence
more tomorrow, but for now, let's focus on twenty twenty two.

(08:25):
Most of the Palestinian deaths occurred during Israeli military raids
and clashes in the West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus.
More than half of the Palestinians who were murdered were
under the age of twenty five. They never even had
a chance to live their lives with their families and
their loved ones. Each one of these individuals that were

(08:45):
killed have people mourning them and missing them every day,
and I never want anyone to forget that. Among those
killed last year were also US citizens El Jazeero, journalists
Sharina Buakle, and seventy eight year old Omaas and because
of their US citizenship, their deaths gained rare worldwide attention

(09:05):
and briefly sharpened international criticism of Israel. Sharine, if you remember,
was shot in the head while wearing a press vest.
She was there as a reporter doing her job. No
violence was taking place around her. She was targeted and killed.
Israel says she was probably killed by a soldier's gun
fire unintentionally, and that was that. The world moved on.

(09:30):
I did an episode last year about Sharin Abuachhm and
how Israel murdered her in broad daylight, So if you
guys want to revisit that, that is there. Back to
the episode. I don't want us to forget that this
data is regarding the West Bank. Only hundreds of Palestinians
die at the hands of Israel's terrorist organization that they
call an army every year. In May of twenty twenty one,

(09:53):
if you can remember that far back, at least two
hundred Palestinians were killed in a week of israel The airstrikes,
just one week, and the deaths included fifty nine children
and thirty five women, with nearly thirteen hundred people wounded.
Women and children made up nearly half of the casualties.
Fifty nine children fifty nine children that were just taken

(10:17):
with families that will never be the same. I just
want people to remember these things. When I mentioned numbers,
that each number is an actual living child or person.
In twenty twenty two, in a statement to The Washington Post,
Israel's military said that Israeli soldiers used live fire when
quote necessary during counter terrorism activities in response to quote

(10:40):
violent riots, which often include explosive devices, molotov cocktails, and
rocks hurled at the IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians. Are
you kidding me? One of the most powerful and supported
armies in the world is saying that it's killing people
in response to rocks being thrown at them armed and

(11:01):
protected soldiers covered in swat gear with all the weapons
they could ever fucking dream of fighting against to people
without an army at all, blaming them in an official
statement to the Washington Post for throwing rocks, I mean,
just just get the fuck out of here. The IDF
are all fucking clowns. And maybe I shouldn't be cursing

(11:22):
and I should pretend to be professional, but they make
me fucking mad, and I think we should all be
fucking mad because I don't think it's fair, and I
know life isn't built to be fair, but to terrorize
and genocided population, drive them into a corner, and then
blame them for having the audacity for fighting back and
the only ways accessible to them is fucking ludicrous. You

(11:44):
can't both sides a conflict when one of those sides
has one of the most advanced and supported armies in
the world that oppresses the other side that has no
army and no support of any kind, a side who
has rocks in their hands, resorting to violence because absolutely
no thing and no one is helping them. A total
of two hundred and twenty four Palestinians were killed in

(12:05):
twenty twenty two, including the forty nine people that I
mentioned earlier that were murdered during a three day Israeli
assault on the besieged Gaza Strip. Seventeen were children, and
I'm emphasizing this because Palestinian children have started keeping goodbye
letters in their pockets in case they're killed by the
Israeli army. No child should have to live in fear

(12:27):
that they might be killed at any moment, but that's
the reality for Palestinian children. Nearly every day, Palestinians wake
up to news that the Israeli military has killed yet
another Palestinian. This daily violence against Palestinians has traumatized generations
of Palestinian children, and their parents have no way to
protect them. Many of the casualties in the West Bank

(12:49):
in twenty twenty two were young Palestinians who have only
ever known military occupation and the oppression of the Israeli government.
The West Bank also has to deal with the repressive
politics the Romala based Palestinian Authority the PA, which was
set up as a caretaker government three decades ago and
is now widely unpopular among Palestinians. And I'll get into

(13:10):
this more after a quick break, so brb Okay, we're back.
As I mentioned earlier, the West Bank has to deal
with repressive politics of the Romala based Palestinian Authority, which

(13:34):
was set up three decades ago and is now widely
unpopular among Palestinians. A spokesperson from the Palestinian rights group
Al Huck said people are very, very fed up, whether
it's in Jerusalem or Jenin or Nablus. The last twenty
years have not shown any improvements in the situation. This
spokesperson spoke only on the condition of anonymity. For fear

(13:56):
of reprisal by Israeli security forces, because the Israeli security
forces raided the organization's headquarters in Romola last August. The
spokesperson explained that quote the near daily raids in areas
under control of the PA showed that the sovereignty of
the PA does not exist. So they're saying that the
Palestinian Authority is basically useless. If these Israeli raids are

(14:20):
happening in areas that are supposedly under control or quote
care of the PA, then what the fuck are they
even there for. Tour Wensland, the UN Special Coordinator for
the Middle East Peace Process, told the Washington Post last year,
quote we have a new dynamic in the West Bank
and around Jerusalem, with a quote new generation of Israelis

(14:41):
and Palestinians in conflict. There is an urgent need to
de escalate. He also cited the quote growing tension and
so called friction zones, which are areas Whereasraeli settlements continue
to encroach on Palestinian lands and where violence is mounting,
probably in part due to the frust ration with the
lack of action by the Palestinian authority. Twenty twenty two,

(15:04):
also saw the emergence of two new Palestinian militant groups,
the Genin Battalion and the Lions Den, both led by
disaffected young men with local support networks. Meanwhile, Israel's military
has repeatedly declined to provide the number of internal investigations
they supposedly opened last year regarding their misconduct related to

(15:24):
the Palestinian deaths. In September of last year, Israel announced
the results of its inquiry into the death of Charine
Abu Akhle, who again was shot in the head while
covering a military raid near Jenin last May. The IDF
said that a quote found a high possibility that Miss
Abu Akhle was accidentally killed by IDF gunfire towards suspects

(15:47):
identified as armed Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire,
though it has not released any evidence whatsoever showing the
presence of gunmen in the area. An investigation by The
Post contradicted the i's claim that there was an exchange
of fire in the minutes before Abu Aklei was killed
and surprising absolutely no one. The IDF said it would

(16:08):
not pursue criminal charges against its soldiers. No one is
being held accountable for the killing of Palestinian life, including
Palestinian children. Israel has continued to operate as though they
have immunity, which in a way they do thanks to
the United States, who does nothing but give Israel more
money and weapons and good press. Even more concerning, far

(16:31):
right politician at Tamar Ben Gvid, who was Israel's new
National security minister, has proposed giving police and soldiers wider
latitude to use live ammunition and putting laws in place
that would shield them from criminal prosecution for killing or
injuring Palestinians. And this should be a red flag for everybody.

(16:52):
The other Hawk spokesperson said that many of those killed
in Israeli raids last year appeared to be either bystanders
or victim of excessive force. Let's not forget that they
also killed members of the press who clearly wear press
vests in a moment where no violence was ever taking place,
just a camera and reporters trying to raise awareness that

(17:13):
the crimes that Israel commits. An early December Israeli fire
killed a teenage girl in Jenin who was on her
roof as a raid unfolded nearby. Days earlier, Israeli forces
fatally shot a sixteen year old boy who was throwing
stones at a checkpoint outside Ramula. We're getting to the
end here, so let's take our last little break and

(17:36):
we'll be right back. And we're back talking about how
the IDF shoots Palestinians as though they're basically playing a
video game. They had shot a teenage girl and then

(17:58):
a sixteen year old boy, and there are many disturbing
videos of idea of soldiers shooting Palestinians like they are
playing a video game. There's one video in particular that
I'm thinking about that is so fucking disgusting, where one
soldier is crouching down and aiming his gun at a
Palestinian who was hiding behind a dumpster. I know that

(18:19):
the Palestinian is hiding behind a dumpster because the soldier
says something to the effect of what does he think
he's doing behind that dumpster? And then the soldier shoots
and jumps up in pure elation, cheering for himself because
he shot this person. There's another soldier in the frame
next to him who seems to be more aware of
the camera that is recording them, who keeps telling his

(18:41):
annoying murderer friend to we professional instead of jumping up
and down like he just scored a point in a game,
because that is all this is to them. There is
much more evidence of this infuriating and horrific attitude and
culture of the IDF and Abbey Martin's two nineteen film
Gaza Fights for Freedom, which I've probably already recommended a

(19:02):
million times and will continue to recommend. It is free
on YouTube Tour Wensland. We mentioned earlier, the UN Special
Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process said, quote, the
continued killings of Palestinians by Israeli security forces and incidents
where they did not appear to present an eminent threat
to life are disturbing. He went on to say that quote,

(19:25):
I am increasingly concerned by the fragility of the current
political and security dynamics, particularly in the occupied West Bank,
including East Jerusalem. Vulker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights, said, for this violence to end, the occupation
must end on all sides. There are people who know this.

(19:45):
The violence of last year reflects a dangerous mix of
on the ground and generational changes, and this could only
escalate further as Israel's mostly far right government becomes more
far right because jewe supremacists who have incited violence against
Palestinians were recently sworn into office, including Israel's aforementioned new

(20:08):
Minister of National Security. And he's just one of the
many cogs in the machine of Israel being controlled by
far right terrorists. And yes, to me, they are terrorists
because literally everything they do was either a crime or
a crime against humanity regardless. At the end of last year,
Israel's new government was sworn into office. It's nationalist, exclusionist,

(20:33):
and far far right. It's the most extreme Israeli government
in the nation's history. Benjamin and Yahoo, who's already the
country's longest serving prime minister, is at the helm of
the country for the sixth time, and this time he's
assembled the most far right cabinet in Israel's history, with

(20:53):
the most notable posts given to ultra nationalists, one of
them being the person we mentioned at Tamar ben Gvide,
the new Minister National aka, a position that oversees the police.
There's also Bezalel Simotric, who will have significant power over
Israeli settlements in addition to his role as Finance Minister.
The government has promised to expand those settlements those already

(21:14):
illegal settlements. The members of this new coalition have also
made extensive comments denigrating the queer community. They've also called
for stricter definitions of who even qualifies as Jewish. In
making its vision abundantly clear, the government released policy guidelines
at the end of September, announcing the Jewish people's quote
exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the land

(21:38):
of Israel. Toward the end of January, the policies in
the Enyaho's newly sorting government coalition brought out about eighty
thousand protesters in Tel Aviv. The protesters were largely focused
on the government's proposals to overhaul the judicial system, which
could weaken the country's democracy and separation of powers quote
unquote democracy yet right. But the effects of the policies

(22:00):
the one point six million Palestinian citizens of Israel and
the five point two million Palestinians living in the occupied territories,
all of these effects are going to be catastrophic and
only building upon years of policies that Israeli human rights
organizations say constitute crimes against humanity. The human rights defenders
and experts in Israeli politics. Emphasize that this government is

(22:21):
not a departure from the previous ones, and yes, it
is Netanyahu's sixth time leading the country, but instead of
being a new government, it's instead a culmination of Israeli
politics that are only drifting farther and farther to the right,
and then decades longer of policies that amount to defacto
annexation of the occupied West Bank and policies of Jewish supremacy.

(22:44):
What's different now, however, is how clearly these ideas are
stated in the new government's coalition guidelines by prominent ministers
of the fundamentals of how the country runs. This time,
it is clear it is written in the guidelines. There's
no longer subtlety to the hate it is in writing.
The new Israeli government is somewhat of a turn from
the brief centrist government of last year, but it's still

(23:07):
seeking to implement policies that are anti Palestinian and anti liberal.
But again, it is certainly not the first Israeli government
to do these things. The executive director of the Israeli
watchdog Bit Salem again apologize probably mispronounced that said it's
key not to pretend, as many seem to already be
doing that it'll somehow be a sudden departure from Israeli

(23:30):
quote unquote democracy. What worries me is that even this
level of clarity will not be sufficient to trigger an
adequate international response. And the new Israeli government is shaping
up just to be extreme as we anticipated. Israel's parliamentary
system is made up of many fragmented parties, and it's
slowly been collapsing, and there's been turmoil and whatever, because

(23:53):
there have been five national elections since twenty nineteen. The
quote unquote Change government in twenty twenty one brought together
opposing parties last year to Auston and Yahoo finally once
and for all, right, But that fell apart last summer,
and in the ensuing elections Nan Yahoo built a coalition
of ultra orthodox and religious Zionist parties that returned him

(24:14):
to power, leading to an even more extreme government. So
even they tried to get rid of him, but he
came back worse than ever. And so this extreme government
is already acting in extreme ways. And again the new
government's ministers have made long standing attacks on the queer
community as well as religious freedom and Israeli and Palestinian

(24:36):
civil society, as well as who can call themselves Jewish.
Above all, there are going to be drastic implications for
Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and for the
civil liberties of Israeli citizens, mostly because then Yahoo's internal
coalition negotiations have brought settlers into key ministerial posts, and
only days into the government being sworn in, there have

(24:59):
been already multip science and signals of how these personalities
are going to rule. Justice Minister Yarev Levin has introduced
legislation that would weaken judicial review and the power of
israel Supreme Court to strike down legislation. Another proposal would
revamp and politicize the country's longstanding process for selecting judges.

(25:19):
And of course we can't forget about the fucking new
National Security Minister aka to Marvin Gavide, who is part
of the Jewish Power Party. His political ideas are inspired
by the late radical iconoclass. Rabbi Mayor Kahane Bengavie has
stepped into a role that is basically tailor made to
oversee the police both within Israel and the occupied West Bank,

(25:41):
and in early January he on somehow legal grounds directed
the police to tear down any Palestinian flag in public spaces.
And then there's also Finance Minister Bezalel Sumatric. He is
the head of the Religious Zionism Party, and he's also
a settler whose anti gay rhetoric is prolific, to say

(26:03):
the least. He has already sees customs revenues that belong
to the Palestinian Authority, and he's called the Palestinian Authority
a terror abetting body that he thinks should fall. He
also holds newly created authorities that give him oversight of
the West Bank occupation through a role crafted for him
in the Defense Ministry. So they're essentially just creating these

(26:23):
roles and creating these rules that only allow them to
have more control the corruption one oh one, I suppose
we can also see clearly howna en Yahoo and his
partners are going to govern. And the coalitions agreement that
sets out the new government's guidelines. It's not legally binding,
but it states plainly in its ideology that quote, the
Jewish people have an exclusive and in aalegal right over

(26:46):
all areas of the land of Israel. The government will
promote and develop the settlement of all parts of the
Land of Israel, and this includes to them the Occupied
West Bank. Israeli Human Rights organization A dull La wrote
and in report this goes further than any previous agreements.
The government has made explicit the coalition's party's long standing

(27:07):
intent to further entrench Jewish supremacy in Palestinian repression throughout
the State of Israel and the occupied West Bank through
a two tiered system of governance on all levels. The
new government's approach to the occupied West Bank revolves around
the illegal annexation of Palestinian land. The government plans to
legalize the illegal outposts that are built on private Palestinian land,

(27:32):
and the likely result of that is Palestinians being stripped
of rights and protections and left even more vulnerable to
violence and the hardships they're already enduring. The Israeli Rights
Organization of the LUG goes on to say that these
changes to the judicial system and bestowing ministers like Symatric
with new authorities over the occupation threatened civil rights and

(27:54):
individual rights in Israel, but it is mainly going to
be a big, big issue against the national minority. The
Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about twenty percent
of the country, They are going to be the first
and most severely damaged by those changes. And clearly the
Israeli government even before all of this, but now it
is clearly stated it has all the components of fascism.

(28:15):
And yet the US still appears to beholding out hope
that it can somehow work with and Yahoo and his
fucking government and its fucking ministers. Even now politics are
all a scam. Everyone fucking sucks. Israel has been violating
Palestinians human rights with impunity for decades, but this new

(28:36):
government again just illustrates the most brutal intentions with greater clarity.
Bits Salem, another human rights group, said the hypocrisy is
denying that Palestinians have already been living for many years
under extreme, organized criminal Israeli state violence underwritten by the US,
and the lack of accountability and the acquiescence of the

(28:57):
international community is to a great stent responsible for driving this.
And as we mentioned in this episode, last year twenty
twenty two was the most deadly year for Palestinians living
in the occupied West Bank since the UN began recording
the deaths in two thousand and five, it was also
the year that the most Palestinians have been held in
administrative detention, and the attacks on Palestinians throughout the center

(29:22):
right government leading up to all of this, the governments
of Ya Lapide and Nefatali Benett cannot be understated. It's
always been bad. That it's just extremely bad. And in sharpie,
the US has a role here too, because it continues
to supply Israel with billions of dollars of military aid,
and it has also failed to publicly criticize the en
Yahoo's new political allies. An analyst covering Israel and Palestine

(29:46):
for International Crisis Group said, there's no way that the
n Yahoo, as desperate as he is, would have gone
to form this kind of coalition if it wasn't for
years and years of US abdication of responsibility for what
happens here. He just wouldn't have felt that he could
do it. It would have been too outlandish. And all
of this brings us to twenty twenty three, which we

(30:09):
will talk about tomorrow because I like short episodes, so
I'll see you there. It could happen here as a
production of Cool Zone Media well more podcasts from cool
Zone Media. Visit our website cool zonemedia dot com, or
check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to podcasts, you can find sources for

(30:31):
It could happen here, updated monthly at cool zonemedia dot
com slash sources. Thanks for listening.