By Staff Writer
27:09:2021

Israeli Occupation forces on Sunday killed 5 Palestinians in the towns of Beit Anan and Burqin, near Jenin and Jerusalem. Further, Tel Aviv is reportedly holding the bodies of 4 of the five killed, which it argues were planning imminent attacks, a fact which Palestinians have denied.

A one-day strike was declared in the city of Beit Anan in response, with Abu Mazan criticising the killings as a ‘heinous crime.’ However, the mother of Ahmad Zahran, who was killed in the latest instance, blamed the Palestinian Authority for being complicit, stating that other family members had been interrogated and harassed in the preceding weeks.

Israel continues to maintain settlements in the West Bank, in contravention of International and Humanitarian laws, and acts with impunity in occupied Palestinian territory, with no real consequence. The UN reports that over 500 Palestinians were injured in the West Bank at the hand of Israel in September alone, with around 70 being children.

Speaking to Radio Islam International, Ebrahim Moosa Noted the increased intensification in violence and impunity in the West Bank, arguing that something was festering under the surface. “with so much activity in the West Bank, [this] definitely indicates that something is unwell in the West Bank.

The nature of clashes between Palestinians and Israelis [especially] does indicate to us that something definitely seems to be simmering in the West bank beneath the surface after a very long time.”

Meanwhile, in a recent poll conducted by the Palestine Centre for Surveys and Policy Research, around 80% of Palestinians survey wanted President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, up from 70% two months earlier.

The survey, which saw around 1200 Palestinians interviewed, also saw a slight drop in support for Hamas from 53% to 45%. Still, Fattah’s spiral continues, with only 19% supporting the party and around 63% arguing that senior figures within the movement ordered the killing of prominent activist Nazir Banat.

Moreover, Abbas’s postponement of elections and his failures in the peace process has led to this situation, with most now arguing that Hamas should lead the struggle for Palestinian independence.

“This is the highest [unpopularity] number ever for Abu Mazan since 2005. Some of the reasons that have been cited for this is the fact that Abbas has extended his term, which was supposed to end in 2009… on top of that, there’s a crackdown against critics.”

Moosa noted that if elections were held now; however, this could be altered if Marwan Barghouti were put forward as a candidate, which is unlikely.

During his pre-recorded speech at the UN General Assembly, Abbas supposedly provided an ultimatum to Israel to end the occupation in a year or risk completing the Oslo process. However, the Palestinian Authority is dependent on the process for its legitimacy. Further, the PA has continuously maintained security cooperation with Israel, even after stating that it wouldn’t. Abbas’s legitimacy is now really only a result of international and Israeli backing, with some in Israel seeking to strengthen the PA as a bulwark against Hamas.

Last, in important news, the son of Israel’s Second Prime Minister, Mosh Sharett, Yaakov, has denounced Zionism and the Zionist project.

“The State of Israel and the Zionist enterprise were born in sin,” Sharett argued, criticising the process of Aliya, where Jews from anywhere in the world can immigrate to Israel and receive citizenship, even though the more than 6 million Palestinian refugees continue to languish in camps in Lebanon, Syria and be discriminated against in Jordan.

Sharett also argued that no majority would willingly accept a minority claiming the land in the presence of historical right, arguing that he was now an unwilling collaborator in the state.

Sharett was a former member of the Israeli Shin Bet, worked in the Israeli Embassy in the Soviet Union, and assisted emigration from Eastern Europe.

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