������Ƶ

While the eyes of the world are on the horrific scenes of killing and devastation in Gaza, Israel is ratcheting up its control over the West Bank, again using the pretext of security, while appearing to move toward annexation. There are many ugly faces to the brutality of more than 58 years of Israeli occupation, including the destruction of the landscape through the building of settlements. These are expanded by expropriating land from the local Palestinian population, erecting separation walls and, most symbolically, uprooting vegetation, especially olive trees.

Late last month the Israeli security forces uprooted 3,100 trees in the West Bank village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, after a civilian was shot and wounded a week earlier near the unauthorized Israeli outpost of Adei Ad. Thousands of olive and almond trees, many decades old, were bulldozed and disappeared from the landscape of the West Bank. At the scene of the shooting, the Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth said that all West Bank villages should “know that if they commit a terror attack, they will pay a heavy price, and they will experience a curfew and siege.” This smacks more of collective punishment than legitimate security measures.

Within the atrocious context of the situation in the West Bank, it is the task of the army to search for the culprits of attacks on Israelis, but this cannot justify what villagers described later amid claims that soldiers threw stones at cars, confiscated vehicles, searched homes, and damaged properties.

Bluth, using military jargon, was completely open that the army was engaged in “shaping actions.” Shaping, in simple terms, means leveling buildings and uprooting trees. What Israeli military commanders and the politicians who send them to sow this destruction choose to ignore is that international humanitarian law specifically prohibits the cause of “widespread, long-term, and severe damage to the natural environment.”

In this part of the world, olive trees are a symbol of the strong connection between the people and their land. Those who destroy these trees are sending a message that this is the first step toward uprooting the Palestinian people and forcing them out. Earlier in the summer, Jewish settlers uprooted almost 200 olive trees in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank, and destroyed about 180 olive and citrus trees in the town of Azzun, in the northern West Bank. By these crude acts, extremist settlers aim to instill fear among Palestinians in order to gain their full submission.

As settler terrorism worsens, it is obvious Israeli security forces have no wish to protect the Palestinian victims.

Yossi Mekelberg

Beyond the symbolism, these direct assaults on Palestinian heritage are also attacks on the main source of income for tens of thousands of farmers. The Palestine Trade Center estimates that in a good year olives and olive oil bring almost $200 million into the Palestinian economy. This year, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the combination of Israel’s policies and settler violence has stopped Palestinians from accessing vast areas of farmland and pasture, damaging the already sluggish Palestinian economy.

With Israeli forces advancing into Gaza City, the focus on the horrific situation in the enclave is understandable. However, the international community cannot afford to lose sight of developments in the West Bank, mainly because what is taking place in Gaza might turn out to be a precursor of the future in the territory — perhaps not in the scale of the killing and destruction, but nevertheless with the intention of marginalizing the Palestinian population. Judging by Israel’s desire to transfer most of Gaza’s population to other countries, there is no reason to doubt that the same playbook will not be used in the West Bank.

In the meantime, as settler terrorism worsens, it is obvious Israeli security forces have no wish to protect the Palestinian victims and are more invested in protecting the perpetrators. When Palestinians turn to Israeli courts in a bid to seek redress, delay or halt home demolitions, relocate barriers to access their lands, or obtain permits for entry into Jerusalem, the courts almost always rule in favor of the Israeli security forces, and at no point order the security forces to fulfil their duty under international law to protect the local population.

Just over a year ago, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories breached international law, and that Israel should stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the annexation of land and the use of natural resources. The court added that Israel’s legislation and measures there violate the international prohibition against racial segregation and apartheid. This landmark opinion by the ICJ was met with derision by Israel, and settlement expansion has intensified. Intimidation, violence, land dispossession, destruction of livelihoods, and the resulting forcible displacement of communities, have become the norm.

For hundreds of years Palestine has been associated with the millions of olive trees that cover much of its land, and with images of farmers and their families harvesting and producing very fine olive oil. Now the images we see are of Israeli security forces and violent settlers destroying these trees by the thousands. For the current generation this epitomizes the brutality of the Israeli occupation — its refusal to peacefully coexist and respect Palestinians’ national and human rights — while the settlers’ dream of a greater Israel is supported and advanced by the current government.

• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg