Wave of Violence Destabilizes Israel’s Disparate Coalition Government | International

For the first time since the 2015-2016 Knife Intifada, the Army has returned to patrol this week in the center of Jerusalem and in the main cities of Israel, this time after a wave of attacks that has caused 11 deaths in less of two weeks. Hundreds of civilians ostensibly carry rifles and pistols through those same streets, following the recommendation of the Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett. The largest chain of shooting attacks in urban areas, committed by Arabs of Israeli nationality and Palestinians from the West Bank, is also highlighting the fragility of the coalition of disparate political forces that the ultra-nationalist Bennett brought together just 10 months ago to remove from power the Conservative Benjamin Netanyahu.

Composed of eight parties usually faced, in the frankenstein coalition that governs Israel also includes two other conservative forces, two centrists and two more from the left, as well as an Islamist movement of the Arab minority. The messages issued by its members are heterogeneous. The Telecommunications Minister, the conservative Yoaz Hendel, has suggested that Israel should launch a large-scale military offensive, such as Operation Defensive Shield, which in 2002, in the midst of the Second Intifada, led the Army to occupy the cities of West Bank that were under control of the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, the centrist Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the former general who led a war in Gaza in 2014, has halted the construction of 4,000 homes in Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory to prevent tension from escalating.

Instead of closing off the Palestinian territories, the Israeli Cabinet has preferred to strengthen security by deploying 14 battalions (some 4,000 soldiers) on the borders of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It has also promised to maintain the status quo during the month of Ramadan, which began last weekend, so that Palestinians can flock to pray at the Temple Mount in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Muslim holy month was marked last year by violent riots in East Jerusalem, which preceded an open war in Gaza.

As Yossi Verter, a political analyst for the daily Ha’aretz, the opposition led by Netanyahu together with ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties, is taking advantage of the wave of attacks to torpedo the waterline of a government that it has branded as a “traitor” and associated with the “Islamist movement”. “Terrorist attacks have caught the government off guard,” says this veteran commentator, “and it has been confused by the unknown phenomenon of Israeli Arabs murdering in the name of the Islamic State.”

The first two attacks of the current wave surprised the intelligence services in Beersheva (south, four dead) and Hadera (north, two dead) at the end of March, due to the unexpected participation of Arabs with Israeli citizenship who had already been sentenced in the past for its links to jihadism. The third and deadliest, which claimed the lives of five people in Bnei Brak (an ultra-religious district of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area), was committed last Tuesday by a Palestinian who infiltrated from Jenin (north of the West Bank), and who had He has also been imprisoned for his affiliation with Islamic Jihad.

Israel’s intelligence services now have to face a clear threat on both sides of the Green Line, the border that marked the separation of the Palestinian territories until the Six Day War in 1967. “The security barrier [muros, tapias y vallas] of the West Bank has hundreds of gaps”, recalls Yossi Yehoshua, correspondent for military affairs of the daily Yediot Ahronot, “And some 30,000 Palestinians pass through it clandestinely, the vast majority to work without permission in Israel.” The repair of the barrier erected since 2004, however, does not seem to have been a priority of the Jewish state in recent years. Its final termination would be equivalent to recognizing limits for the future Palestinian State.

Despite the apparent policy of moderation declared by the Executive, the response of the security forces after the attacks has been forceful. Two armed Palestinians were killed last Friday in a shootout in the Jenin area. Troops had stormed a refugee camp to arrest several suspects. A protester died the same day from a shot to the head during riots in Hebron (southern West Bank).

Also near Jenin, security forces shot dead three Palestinian youths on Saturday as they were reportedly on their way to commit a new attack. Four Israeli officers were wounded in the exchange of fire. According to police, the suspects had an M-16 assault rifle like the one used by the Bnei Brak attacker and hand grenades. One of the young people had recorded a video to be broadcast on social networks, as a farewell, after having perpetrated an attack. “To restore security to citizens, the joint effort of all security forces is necessary,” emphasized the prime minister after the operation in the West Bank, in which anti-terrorist units of the Border Police, the Shin Bet (internal intelligence) participated. and the Armed Forces.

Ayelet Shaked, Minister of the Interior and leader of the ultra-conservative Yamina party, led by Bennett, is reluctant about the official policy of maintaining the status quo that allows the entry into Israel of 150,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank and up to 20,000 more from the Gaza Strip, as well as the process of family reunification of Israeli Arabs with their partners from the Palestinian territories. The Hebrew press anticipates that the departure of this deputy from the coalition to join an alternative majority led by Netanyahu could bring down the government, which has a single seat advantage in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.

The convergence of the month of Ramadan with Jewish Passover (which this year coincides with Holy Week) makes the authorities fear that violence will escalate in the West Bank and, above all, in East Jerusalem. The Old City has lived in the nights from Saturday to Monday the first clashes at the beginning of the Muslim holy month. Following last year’s riots, security forces have been massively deployed in East Jerusalem. The Border Police, a militarized body, controls the Damascus Gate, the main access to the Muslim neighborhood through the walled area, which was the scene of the most violent clashes in 2021.

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