The Wild West Bank: Where Palestinian Lives Are Cheap and Israel Reigns Supreme
Haaretz Editorial •
The West Bank has become a wild and lawless area, with no accountability for what transpires there. The lives of Palestinian inhabitants, with the responsibility for their security, according to the law, lying squarely with the occupying force, which is the State of Israel, have been abandoned to reckless behavior – even when they are children.
The Palestinian health authorities reported that a 13-year-old girl was shot and killed on Friday by Israel Defense Forces fire in the village of Qaryut, in the central West Bank. Amjad, the child’s father, said Bana Laboum was hit while inside their home.
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Even before October 7, Israelis were, as a rule, indifferent to the lives of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Apathy is the fertile ground on which violence flourishes, whether committed by IDF soldiers or by settlers. Who in Israel cares if a 13-year-old girl who was sitting in her room was shot to death, allegedly by the IDF?
Since October 7, chaos has been reigning in the West Bank. Settlers come to a village throwing stones, torching agricultural lands, and a 13-year-old allegedly dies from IDF gunfire in her home.
In IDF “spokesmanese”: “Forces that were called to handle clashes between dozens of Palestinians and dozens of settlers, which included stone throwing, acted to disperse the people creating public disorder in the area, among other ways by shooting in the air.” Of course, we can’t avoid the empty promise that “the army is investigating the circumstances leading to the girl’s death.” So it’s investigating.
Bana Laboum.
The circumstances aren’t yet clear, but the script is well known: Settlers come to a village, and when the IDF intervenes – if it does – it shoots Palestinians. The soldiers opened fire in a residential area, even the army admits that. Sometimes there’s no avoiding combat in residential areas, but then exceptional caution is required. When a girl is shot dead in her home, it’s clear that not enough caution was exercised.
Along with the public apathy to what is happening in the West Bank, which allows chaos to run rampant, the light penalties imposed on soldiers harming Palestinians contribute to their sense that anything goes. Even the defense minister, the only responsible adult in the cabinet, isn’t instructing the army to treat rogue soldiers severely, and isn’t presenting a well-ordered position regarding the West Bank.
A direct line connects the killing of Bana Laboom and the killing of human rights activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a young Turkish-American woman who apparently was shot dead by soldiers while participating in a demonstration in Beita, near Nablus. In her case, a seemingly serious investigation will be launched. She was American – not just a Palestinian girl living under an occupation.
The truth regarding the circumstances of these cases is clear: When human lives are not valued, you shoot indiscriminately, even at human rights activists. Security officials will continue to warn of an escalation and the opening of an additional front and the government will continue to ignore and occasionally encourage Jewish terror. Everything continues as usual, with no one to stop Israel on its way to the abyss.
The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
