The 'deal of the century' has led to more brutality against Palestinians

Over the last month, Palestinians have been faced with increasingly brutal treatment by the Occupying State. The Deal of Annexation seems to have emboldened Israeli government, citizens, and settlers alike to go forth committing atrocious acts of violence against the Palestinian people. 

Principally, this so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ has been labeled, in itself, violence against Palestinians. If we can somehow try to bypass the fact that no Palestinian was a part of the creation of the ‘pieces plan’ can we bypass Jerusalem as the ‘undivided capital of Israel’ when Israel already has a capital? 

Not only is this plan done unto Palestinians, what is done unto them dismisses any notion of dignity. The tunnel between the West Bank and Gaza highlights this metaphorical burial of Palestinian freedom. 

The second act was carried out by the plan’s mastermind, Jared Kushner, a nepotistic favourite of US President Donald Trump. The man who read 25 books on Palestine-Israel said of the Palestinians and their leadership, “If they screw up this opportunity — which again, they have a perfect track record of missing opportunities — if they screw this up, I think they will have a very hard time looking the international community in the face, saying they are victims, saying they have rights.” 

Building on this international delusion, on the International Criminal Court proceedings against Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the Canadian government revealed yesterday that in fact, Palestine cannot bring anything to court, as Palestine is not a state. This happened, certainly, under pressure from Netanyahu. 

This brings Kushner’s second-half of his statement to the discussion: “The Palestinian leadership have to ask themselves a question: Do they want to have a state? Do they want to have a better life? If they do, we have created a framework for them to have it and we’re going to treat them in a very respectful manner. If they don’t, then they’re going to screw up another opportunity like they’ve screwed up every other opportunity that they’ve ever had in their existence.”

What is this if not public, shameless, verbal viciousness against a community of some 13 million that have already been subject to varying forms of Israeli-American violence?

However, what is much, much, more problematic is direct Israeli on Palestinian violence that has taken place in the last month. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been assailants in these crimes, emboldened by the political atmosphere. Some settlers have called the plan weak and not in their interests despite Netanyahu approving another 3,500 settlements and have begun formalising the annexation with the United States already. 

It is distressing that the list of crimes since the beginning of February include the IDF killing of young individuals from Hebron, Jenin, Tulkarem, and Gaza. This includes 17-year-old Mohammad Salman al-Haddad, shot in the chest in Hebron and Bader Nidal Nafla Harsha, 19, from Jenin shot twice in his carotid artery. 

In Kufr Qaddum near the West Bank, IDF soldier shot 15-year-old Muhammad Shtewi in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet. Further to this, en-route to the hospital his transport was stopped and delayed by other IDF soldiers for 25 minutes putting him at even greater risk. 

Soldiers have also have been harassing school children with gas bombs and grenades, demanding fingerprints at random, detaining 15, and causing serious stress and anxiety to the youth of Bethlehem.

In Gaza, the IDF committed a gruesome killing of a man accused of placing a bomb on the Israeli border. If this Israeli narrative is true, rather than arrest and question, Mohammed al Naem, they shot him. They then ran over his body with a bulldozer to confirm their kill. 

The IDF soldiers operating the bulldozer then picked his limp body up and waved it around before dumping it back on the ground. This spurred two days of underreported violence on the border, now held down by a weak ceasefire agreement. 

Another incident involving the IDF operation of a bulldozer left a child, 9, and journalist injured near Qalqiliya. 

And truly sadly running over people with large vehicles speaks only of the legalised forms of violence being done unto the Palestinian population. 

Some illegal settlers feel that the deal of the century separates them geographically from the rest of Palestine – there is little need to point out the sad irony considering the severe segregation policies against Palestinians in their legal territory. 

Adding to this it is, in fact, those from the illegal Yitzhar settlement that are bringing about these complaints, bizarrely provided a platform by The New York Times. And it is the Yitzhar residents who have piloted recent violence by setting fire on a Palestinian school; as well as mosques and churches, all in January this year. 

More recently, settlers vandalised several vehicles in the west bank and tagged “In Judea and Samaria, there will be a war.”

International and local attacks are not new to Palestine or her people. What is new, is that the “peacemakers” of the century instigate hatred against a ‘stubborn’ and ‘backwards’ people. 

All the while they occupy land and raze homes and schools, kill and kidnap children, deploy snipers on peaceful protesters, apply a shoot-to-kill policy on minors, and the list goes back to 1948. There is no peace in their intent – the only non-discriminatory policy Israel seems to be able to practice is the perpetual antagonism against Palestine and the Palestinians.