The Horror to Come

Israel is slowly implementing the Gaza playbook on the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters march through the streets of Jenin in September. Source: Quds News Network

On Sunday night, members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad paraded through the streets of Jenin. While many of the fighters wore masks, many of the PIJ dignitaries present did not feel such measures necessary. Even with faces hidden, fighters of the organization’s Jenin brigade proudly showed off machine guns, adorned themselves with headbands of their group’s emblem, and chanted loudly for the city to hear. One PIJ official stood atop steps, flanked by fighters on either side of him, grabbed one of their rifles and yelled, “We will not retreat until the last Zionist is defeated from this holy country!”

If there was any indication that the largest Israeli invasion of the West Bank in 20 years had shattered the organization, it wasn’t to be seen.

For 10 days straight beginning in late August, Jenin had been subject to a non-stop assault by the Israel Defense Forces, beginning simultaneously with other attacks on the cities of Tulkarm and Tubas, attacks which would soon spread out into nearby refugee camps, with troops being sent out of the far north to near Ramallah, the administrative center of the Palestinian Authority to harass, to threaten, and to serve as an omen.

These areas in the northern West Bank were once part of what the British during the Mandate period called the “Triangle of Terror”, a cradle of resistance to colonial rule centered around Jenin, Tulkarm and Nablus. Through the Nakba, the beginning of the occupation of the West Bank, and both intifadas, these places have retained and increased their reputation as a thorn in Israel’s side, a hotbed of opposition to Israeli occupation and settlement, opposition which contributed to Ariel Sharon’s decision to disengage from the northern West Bank in the mid-2000s, just as that same phenomenon in the Gaza Strip contributed to the decision to disengage from there during that same period.

The loss of the settlements in the Strip, known as Gush Katif, has been an eternal grievance for the Israeli far-right ever since. Many soldiers involved in the current war against Gaza have been more than happy to carry that desire for vengeance back into the Strip, considering it their return to land that always belonged to them, that was stolen from them in 2005. Videos have streamed out of the area for months now of IDF soldiers proudly declaring their hopes for revenge against the Arab populace, to destroy any evidence of Arab existence in the land, and to reestablish the settlements on the pulverized ruins.

While the disengagement from the northern West Bank, deemed “northern Samaria” in official Israeli parlance, may not be as oft-referred, it is still very much a grievance, one that Israeli government ministers, those that Netanyahu relies on to stay in power, are just as eager to address.