'Dangerous development'

DW: Three young Israeli settlers have just been murdered in the West Bank. How did this happen?

Shir Hever: It is not surprising that in a situation of occupation and violence, there is not only the violence of the occupier against the native population of the land, but also cases of violence of Palestinians against their oppressors. This could be expected. And it's not the first time Palestinians have murdered Israelis, but there are more cases of Israelis murdering Palestinians.

After the disappearance of the three teenagers, the Israeli army advanced into the West Bank. Was Israel not obliged to save the lives of its citizens?

The Israeli state is obliged to protect its citizens. And it's for this reason that international law prohibits an occupying power from settling civilians in its occupied areas. A few months ago, the head of the Israeli secret police spoke of his fear that Israeli citizens in the West Bank could be kidnapped. And yet, the Israeli government refused to release Palestinian prisoners. The [army's] advance in the West Bank was not a systematic search for the three missing Israelis, but an act of punishment. The military moved into all the major cities. Hundreds of Palestinians were arrested, their property was damaged and seven people were killed. If the Israeli government wanted to protect its citizens, why did they use the disappearance as an excuse to attack the Palestinian Authority?

Can this really been called an act of aggression? After all, three people were killed.

After the three Israelis went missing, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the alleged kidnapping and expressed his hope that the young people would soon be found. Nonetheless, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to attack the West Bank. After the seven Palestinians were killed, Abbas called on Netanyahu to speak out against the deaths. But Netanyahu refused, on the grounds that they had been killed during an act of Israeli self-defense. This proved that it was all about Israeli aggression against the Palestinians.

In addition, there has yet to be any evidence linking the crime back to Hamas. This accusation is serving the purpose of preparing Israel and the international community for a military strike against the Gaza Strip. At the same time, Netanyahu is using the accusation to undo the formation of the Palestinian unity government. He wants an escalation of violence to tarnish the image of Palestinians in the international community. He has done all this, even though Hamas has still not claimed responsibility for the murders. On the contrary, it denies having anything to do with the deaths.

You mentioned the Palestinian unity government. Why has Israel rejected it?

This is a very old Israeli strategy of "divide and conquer." The situation in Gaza, where the Palestinians are basically being kept in prison, where even the amount of food they can eat is controlled by the Israeli government on a daily basis - there is always a threat to the people in the West Bank that if they will not obey the Israeli occupation and behave themselves under Israeli domination, their situation could be like that of Gaza. The same thing happens with Palestinians who are citizens, who live inside Israel. There are 1.2 million Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, and they are also being threatened. This kind of "divide and conquer" strategy allows Israel to pressure and create fear among Palestinians. But if Palestinians try to unify and work together with the common goal of ending the occupation and winning their freedom, then Israel becomes very worried. That's what they are trying very strongly to prevent.

How do you see the recent Israeli action? Are there any differences to past operations?

The Israeli government has always been willing to use violence against Palestinians, and threats and incitement, like what Netanyahu is doing with Hamas, accusing them of something without any evidence. But now it has been getting worse because the government is really escalating the level of incitement and the level of violence to the point where it could get out of control. Just today (01.07.2014), Palestinians who live in Jerusalem were attacked by bands of violent young Israelis who beat them up on the street. The police don't really care about that and the government is allowing this sort of violence to continue to escalate because it makes them popular, but [as a result] they also lose the ability to make policies.

How so?

If you look at the recent two bills that the government has been trying to promote on the issue of prisoners, you'll see that they limit the Israeli government from taking action. One of them is the issue of force feeding the hunger strikers, and the other is a law which would make it impossible for the Israeli government to release prisoners if they are considered security prisoners, which means of course Palestinian prisoners. And that is in order to prevent a possible prisoner exchange deal. So when the government is voluntarily tying its own hands in order to escalate the level of the conflict, it's a very dangerous development and I think it can lead to further deterioration in Israel's international standing, but more importantly it can lead to many deaths and more incarcerations.

How can the Palestinians respond?

The Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas has been criticized a lot by Palestinians for collaborating with the occupation, with Israel, while they are actually supposed to be resisting the occupation. In the last months, especially with the collapse of the peace negotiations, Mahmoud Abbas has acted very wisely. He has made a public condemnation of the Holocaust on the occasion of the Israeli Holocaust memorial day, which is something that as far as I know no prominent Palestinian leader of the occupied territory [has done].

[Abbas] has acted very smartly and got a lot of international support, but now he's in a very difficult position because when Israeli forces invaded the West Bank, they actually demanded cooperation from the Palestinian Authority. Abbas was in a position where he had to help the Israeli army attack his own people. At the same time, the Israeli Cabinet has been accusing Abbas himself, saying he himself is to blame for the kidnapping […] and murder. That puts him in an impossible situation. The smart tactic now [would] be to engage the international community, because this is the only thing that can protect Palestinians.

Shir Hever is an economist and Israeli activist. He specializes mainly in the economic aspects of the Israeli occupation and works for the Alternative Information Center, a joint Palestinian-Israeli organization.