Qusra siege exposes shared agenda of IDF and settler extremists

As a settler siege in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra continues, an uncomfortable question intensifies: is there a genuine distinction between IDF soldiers and extremist settlers bent on ethnic cleansing?

The settler siege of three houses in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, marked its 11th day on Wednesday. It appears settlers besieging Palestinian homes are trying to oust the residents and move into their dwellings. The IDF could speedily end the siege but has not done so.

Leading Israeli analysts say that the army shares the same goal as the settlers, that of the far-right Netanyahu government: forcing Palestinians from as much of the West Bank as possible and annexing the territory.

“There is a government policy of ethnic cleansing,” says Salim Brake, a political scientist at the Open University. “Who does it? The settlers with the backing of the army.”

At the time of this writing, it remained unclear if Israel was hoping to wait out the bad publicity and keep up the siege or if some external pressure could still stop the forced removal of the Palestinians and theft of their houses.

As the siege and its accompanying Israeli public relations fiasco continued, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Friday that he had instructed the IDF to formulate a plan to transfer law enforcement involving Israeli civilians in the West Bank to the Israel Police from the IDF. This would mean a reversal of practice in effect since 1967, a violation of international law which defines the army as the occupying power, and a major annexation step.

Dalal Iriqat, a political scientist and member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, a leadership grouping of the political movement headed by Mahmoud Abbas, told The Jewish Independent that Katz’s remarks are a “green light to settlers to attack Palestinians”.