DNA
DUBAI: Veteran Israeli journalist Amira Hass has warned that the political debate over Palestinian statehood is becoming increasingly theoretical, arguing that Tel Aviv’s policies are creating conditions for the mass expulsion of Palestinians.
In an opinion piece published by Haaretz, Hass said the position of Gadi Eisenkot, the former army general and current leader of the Yashar party, on Palestinian statehood, was ultimately irrelevant as policies across Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself were making Palestinian life increasingly difficult.
Hass argued that military operations, settlement expansion, economic restrictions and attacks by Israeli settlers were working together to undermine Palestinians’ ability to remain economically and socially rooted in their communities.
She said the devastation in Gaza, restrictions on Palestinian economic activity in the West Bank and longstanding discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel were part of a broader process she described as the “erasure” of the Palestinian people.
Hass also warned that growing settler violence and the normalization of expulsion rhetoric were creating what she called the “material, ideological and psychological infrastructure” for another mass expulsion of Palestinians, potentially accompanied by mass killing.
Her comments come amid what the UN has described as unprecedented levels of settler violence in the occupied West Bank, with more than 1,430 incidents documented so far this year.
She criticized Israel’s political opposition and the international community for failing to adequately confront what she described as a growing danger, arguing that the debate over a one-state or two-state solution had become increasingly theoretical as conditions on the ground continued to change.
