Published: 8 June 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU'S ruling out of citizenship for local Palestinians after Israel annexes the occupied West Bank's Jordan Valley area amounts to an open proclamation that Israel is officially becoming an apartheid state, critics of the move say.
Netanyahu, who has repeatedly described annexation as a historic opportunity for Israel, addressed for the first time the fate of an estimated 13,500 Jordan Valley Palestinians living in 12 villages during a May 28 interview with Yisrael Hayom.
Asked whether the Palestinians would be granted citizenship, he replied: "No. They will remain in Palestinian enclaves. You don't annex Jericho. There are one or two clusters [of villages]. You don't have to place sovereignty on them, they will remain Palestinian subjects, if you will. But [our] security control will be over this too."
The remarks appeared to rule out the Palestinians being accorded Israeli residency rights like residents of illegally annexed East Jerusalem who have Israeli health insurance and social security. By contrast, the 14,000 Israelis living in the Jordan Valley in 27 settlements have full citizenship rights and their status will be consolidated by the annexation, if it is carried out.
Although Netanyahu’s statements seem to cast the annexation as a done deal, some observers believe it may still be mitigated or not go forward if the US shifts its stance to opposition.
Nachum Barnea, from Yedioth Ahronot, one of Israel's most respected columnists, commented on the Netanyahu interview by invoking the South Africa comparison, writing that the Palestinians "will be in Bantustans like in the old South Africa. It would be more correct to say Bibistans."
Alon Liel, former director-general of the foreign ministry, said: "Netanyahu is proclaiming 'we are an apartheid state and we are not ashamed'.
Netanyahu is proclaiming 'we are an apartheid state and we are not ashamed' - ALON LIEL, former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry
"You exercise institutionalised racism and put a projector on it by the prime minister," added Liel, who was ambassador to South Africa when it transitioned from apartheid to democracy.
"Apartheid today in political science is official state racism. It does not have to mean minority rule over a majority."
But Yossi Kuperwasser, former director-general of the ministry for strategic affairs and a supporter of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, dismissed apartheid and annexation as inaccurate labels. "We are not annexing anything. We are applying sovereignty over territory that belongs to the Jewish people historically."
He stressed that only a "very small number" of Palestinians would be impacted and that planning on the matter is still being formulated. "This is an issue that needs to be worked out in detail."
We are not annexing anything. We are applying sovereignty over territory that belongs to the Jewish people historically - YOSSI KUPERWASSER, former director-general of the ministry for strategic affairs
Of the annexation as a whole, he said: "The sky won't fall. There's gonna be a negative reaction from the usual suspects. We shall see some violence for a while. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas will encourage it. There will be tensions with Jordan.
“They will have to do something because a big part of their population is Palestinian. The rest of the Arab world will say ‘oy yoy yoy, that's terrible’ but not do anything more than that."
Nabil Shaath, foreign policy adviser to PA president Mahmoud Abbas, told The Jewish Independent that annexation "is of course creating an apartheid situation. To a great extent what is happening already is a shape of apartheid.
“We are living neither as equal citizens of one state or as two states in peace together. Netanyahu has ignored both solutions. Therefore, whatever he does smells, tastes and looks like apartheid."
He declined to say whether the PA would provide services to the Palestinian villages after annexation, something Shaul Arieli, an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict who writes for the Israeli Policy Forum, says will be difficult in practice because if Israel implements its sovereignty on the ground, the villages will become fenced-off enclaves accessible only by army gates.
He also envisions much land being expropriated from Palestinians. "Maybe they will disappear or there will be an intifada," Arieli says of the Palestinians. "Anything can happen."
Palestinian human rights lawyer Dalia Qumsieh stressed that the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley are already "subjected to arbitrary and discriminatory Israeli measures and policies that aim to forcibly displace them and take permanent control over their lands".
De jure annexation would impose an everlasting discriminatory rule where Palestinian rights are not only denied but cannot be claimed - Palestinian human rights lawyer DALIA QUMSIEH
She cited demolitions of homes and other structures and what she termed as vast limits on freedom of movement. These, she says "diminish any Palestinian possibility to exist in and develop their lands and impose a situation of Israeli superiority in geography and demography over occupied Palestinian lands.
"This means that Palestinians are already living in an extremely difficult reality where their most fundamental rights are being violated as a matter of a state policy, on a daily basis, extending to every aspect of Palestinian life to the extent where it is entirely R
"Although it is hard to imagine how this grim reality could become even more abusive, it is expected that forcible transfer policies will be accelerating even at a higher rate."
De jure annexation would, Qumsieh says, ''impose an everlasting discriminatory rule where Palestinian rights are not only denied but cannot be claimed."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat responded: "The Palestinians are shooting accusations all over and I don't want to respond. The main obstacle is their refusal to negotiate with Israel. Their main problem is they don't want to end the conflict which is the essence of their existence. They have to take a decision to end the conflict."
In the view of Dror Etkes, director of the Kerem Navot organisation that monitors Israeli land practices in the West Bank, there is much at stake in terms of how the international community reacts if annexation goes forward.
"If there is a harsh reaction to the annexation than it will be clear the international community in 2020 does not accept an official apartheid system. If however it is tolerated, than it will be another signal that the world political system we knew over the last 75 years is over, including the UN charter and the human rights agreements and conventions that were accepted as lessons of the second world war."
READ MORE
Israel's West Bank plans condemned by leading British Jewish figures (Guardian)
COLIN SHINDLER: Annexation means young Jews may need a new way to identify with Israel (Jewish Chronicle)
Over 40 leading British Jewish figures sign 'unprecedented' open letter condemning annexation (Jewish Chronicle)
Prominent British Jews urge Israel not to annex West Bank lands (Times of Israel)
Annexation will mean apartheid, warns Mandela ally who always fought comparison (Times of Israel)
Palestinians in the Jordan Valley not concerned by annexation plans (Ynet)
Photo: Netanyahu announcing plans to annex the Jordan Valley, September 2019 (Amir Cohen/Reuters)
