MECACS Student Essay Prize – Postgraduate Category Winner
Alex Giannos is completing an MLitt in Middle East, Central Asia and Caucasus Security Studies in the School of International Relations. This news analysis was awarded First Prize in the Postgraduate section of the 2023 MECACS Student Essay Competition.
An additional note from the MECACS team: This essay was written in Spring 2023. This ought to be taken into consideration when reading this piece.
Analysis of Israeli raids in the West Bank in 2022
Introduction
Four Palestinians were killed and a further 44 injured in a raid carried out by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in the West Bank city of Jenin on September 28, 2022.[1] The original targets of the raid were two Palestinian men suspected of taking part in recent shootings. However, following violent resistance from Palestinians who were not the intended targets of the raid, two other Palestinians were killed. This event is the latest in a long series of violent clashes which have caused the deaths of over 90 West Bank Palestinians and 18 Israelis since the beginning of 2022,[2] indicating that clashes are unlikely to diminish in the near future.
This article will argue that the latest wave of clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants signals a loss of Israeli control over an increasingly insurrectionist West Bank culminating in a return to indiscriminate violence which will inevitably lead to further violent clashes.
Emboldened resistance and loss of control of the West Bank
The West Bank, where the number of raids has steadily increased, is surrounded by Israeli territory and significantly outgunned by the IDF, yet remains a thorn in Israel’s side. Jenin, the city in which the raid was carried out, was once described by Yasser Arafat as “Jeningrad”, and has long played a vital role in “shaping the refugee population’s collective identity”.[3] More recently, the city has been described by Al Jazeera as a “symbol of Palestinian resistance.”[4]
It is not just a breeding ground for dissent against the State of Israel, but a spiritual home of intifāda for Palestinians. It is here, where even under watchful Israeli occupation, Palestinian identity and the spirit of sumūd, or steadfastness to remain in Palestine (by passive or active means),[5] remain strong. Indeed, it has been theorised that cultural structures (comprising ethnic, linguistic, religious, sectarian, and tribal identities) and political structures (comprising interests, ideologies and identities) are two of the four main cornerstones of social fields upon which legitimate sovereign states are built.[6] The West Bank’s cultural background – Levantine Arab and predominantly Muslim – and political stance – irredentist in nature, with the goal of emancipating the Palestinian people and establishing a sovereign Palestinian state – clearly remain direct threats to the State of Israel, which seeks to unify what it claims to be its rightful territory.
The initial targets of the raid on 28 September were members of the increasingly active Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.[7] Rising insurrectionist activity amongst these groups triggered raids by the IDF, and it appears that the West Bank is experiencing a renaissance in “active” or martial sumūd, which poses a militaristic challenge to the Israeli order. The practice of collective violence against the state is a manifestation of political contestation[8] in the ongoing Israel–Palestine conflict. Collective violence, in this case between the militias based in the West Bank and the IDF, is symptomatic of a struggle between competing authorities, and suggests that violent conflict in contentious politics between an aspiring Palestinian State and Israel is actually “a bridge between… being ‘in authority’ or being ‘an authority.’”[9]
This reminds us of Weber’s assertion that the fundamental structures and processes that make government “a ‘ruling organisation’” include “a monopoly of legitimate physical force in the execution of its orders.”[10] An increasingly active Palestinian militia organisation engaged in violent conflict with Israel inherently undermines any claim to Israeli monopoly over the means of coercive control and threatens the legitimacy of the state itself. If the Israeli government is truly able to govern its supposed territory, then its coercive apparatus should, according to Tilly, comfortably dominate all other such organisations within the geographical confines of the state it seeks to unify (and to an extent within the West Bank and Gaza).[11]
The Palestinian threat to Israeli state sovereignty and order, in broad terms, can be understood by the IDF’s use of increasingly indiscriminate violence in the West Bank. The claim by the IDF’s Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi that the “complex operation in the Jenin refugee camp… was executed resolutely and professionally”,[12] does not bear scrutiny in light of the facts which subsequently emerged.
The collateral damage comprising 44 injured protestors and two fatalities indicates a loss of absolute control by the IDF, similar to the loss of control experienced during the First and Second Intifadas. During the First Intifada, Israeli soldiers would beat large numbers of uncooperative Palestinian prisoners despite official orders not to cause undue harm, in a desperate effort to restore law and order.[13] During the Second Intifada, the use of indiscriminate attacks in Gaza by Israeli forces was far greater than in the West Bank (where assassinations were carried out more often), since Gaza was significantly beyond the reach of Israeli control.[14]
However, during the Second Intifada, the Israeli public feared attacks emanating from the West Bank more than those from Gaza because militants from the West Bank were more likely to carry out suicide missions targeting the general public – hence the use of precise, targeted assassinations was greater in this area.[15] The assassination of identified hostile individuals by the Israeli coercive apparatus in the West Bank therefore makes far more sense from a state security perspective, since successful assassination ensures the neutralisation of a target. This is precisely why the latest wave of indiscriminate violent IDF raids in the West Bank should worry the public. Brym and Maoz–Shai note that during the Second Intifada, Gaza seemed to be a separate entity – almost a sovereign country within defined borders – whereas the West Bank was seen as an Israeli “ghetto” in which the IDF could orchestrate ruthlessly efficient targeted assassinations.[16] This current transition of the West Bank from Israeli ghetto to separate entity signals a loss of territorial control by the state.
Indiscriminate violence has long been associated with significant power imbalances and a paucity of information about the target, yet Kalyvas’s macroscopic analysis of conflicts finds that it is often used because it is an inexpensive option, requiring less planning and information.[17] For a small country that boasts the 15th largest state military budget in the world,[18] it would be surprising for the government to choose indiscriminate violence due to budgetary constraints. Perhaps what Kalyvas’s analysis points to, when applied to Israel, is a lack of resources to deal quickly and efficiently with the sheer number of threats originating in the West Bank, not necessarily in monetary terms, but in terms of orchestration of raids and gathering the necessary intelligence and manpower required to conduct successful assassination missions. This would explain Kochavi’s recent visit to the United States with the aim of significantly expanding IDF–US Central Command activity to deal with Israel’s future regional challenges[19] – perhaps the looming militant insurgency in the West Bank is far greater than the state wishes to be known.
Establishing norms and shaping discourse
We are reminded that the “public transcript is… the self-portrait of dominant elites as they would have themselves seen.”[20] Israel has resorted to using normative language in its narrative, to establish a sense of total control over the situation but also to emphasise the danger posed by militias, which allows for further intervention in the West Bank in the near future. This is consistent with Halliday and Rogan’s research on modern political movements in the Middle East, which aim to use their influence to “reproduce the idea and identity of the nation, through education, official culture, military service, law, [and] a good dose of coercion”.[21] Johnston notes that “many of the procedural constraints, work habits, and standard operating procedures, including discursive practices, that actors develop to minimally [sic] function inside an institution come from mimicking the behavior [sic] of others in the group.”[22] In the process of establishing socio-political norms, adherence to normative language can help create a sense of order, and hence those wishing to demonstrate control over events in the West Bank adhere to these norms.
When carrying out a side-by-side comparison of the articles by Haaretz and the BBC, it is evident that adherence to norms relating to government control has permeated through to Israeli media. While Tel Aviv-based Haaretz makes no mention of the number of troops sent into Jenin to conduct the raid, the BBC reports that “dozens of Israeli military vehicles” were deployed to deal with the raid.[23] For a raid intended to neutralise two targets this could indicate gross inefficiency on the part of the state’s coercive control apparatus, or a virulent insurgency, more difficult to control, emerging in the West Bank.
Returning to Kochavi’s statement, it becomes clear why the IDF’s Chief of Staff would want to underscore the supposed professionalism and efficiency of the raid, and maintain that the IDF will “continue preparing for the entire spectrum of scenarios, and… operate as needed anywhere, anytime to ensure Israelis’ security.”[24] In terms of allaying the fears of the Israeli public, it is very important that the IDF is seen to have total control of the situation in the West Bank, where the potential threat from armed militias and lone actors has historically been greatest.
An increase in militant activity provides an opportunity for the state to capitalise upon its wide-ranging influence in the public eye. Dominating the narrative of events has long been a weapon of the state, from covering up the massacre in Tantura during the Nakba,[25] to Netanyahu’s often cited claim that the Arab World’s defining characteristic is violence,[26] to the digital age manipulation of social media websites which de-platform Palestinian Twitter accounts criticising the Israeli regime whilst protecting the freedom of speech of anti-Palestinian Israeli accounts.[27] Additionally, with the bombing of the Associated Press offices in Gaza in 2021, and the killing of Shireen Abu Aqleh in May 2022 (just the latest in a long line of killings of journalists and media workers covering the conflict[28]), the threat to impartial journalism has never been greater.
Haaretz, reporting on Kochavi’s speech, focused on the statement that “[the raid’s] purpose was to thwart a concrete threat.”[29] The speech was drafted to restore confidence in the State but also to establish a tangible threat emanating from Palestinian Territories. According to research conducted by Maoz and McCauley, the public perception of threats emanating from the West Bank leads to far-right Zionists and even moderate Israelis becoming increasingly hawkish in their outlook, thus sanctioning increasingly violent retaliations by the State to reimpose a normative order.[30]
The knock-on effect of this can be seen in the latest developments which suggest that Netanyahu is set to return to power by forming a coalition with the far-right Religious Zionism Party.[31] Such a coalition would see an increase in brutal retaliations in the West Bank.
The heightened tensions which have sparked the most recent Israeli–Palestinian interaction in the West Bank have resulted from emboldened Palestinian militias and acts of indiscriminate violence by the IDF against the wider community. These events challenge the balance of power and could lead to further insurrection and an Israeli shift to the militant political right, culminating in endless Arendtian cycles of violence to maintain or establish a new status quo.
Bibliography
Ahronheim, Anna. ‘Joint IDF-US Military Activity to Be “Significantly Expanded” – Kohavi’. The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com, 24 November 2022. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-723303.
Brym, Robert J., and Yael Maoz-Shai. ‘Israeli State Violence during the Second Intifada: Combining New Institutionalist and Rational Choice Approaches’. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 32, no. 7 (29 July 2009): 611–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100902961797.
Committee to Protect Journalists. ‘Journalists Killed between 1992 and 2022’. Committee to Protect Journalists. Accessed 4 December 2022. https://cpj.org/.
BBC News. ‘Four Palestinians Killed during Israeli Raid in West Bank’, 28 September 2022, sec. Middle East. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63058094.
Halliday, Fred, and Eugene L. Rogan. ‘Modern Ideologies: Political and Religious’. In The Middle East in International Relations: Power, Politics and Ideology, 193–228. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Ibrahim, Arwa. ‘Jenin: How the City Became a Symbol of Palestinian Resistance’. Accessed 2 December 2022. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/30/jenin-why-the-palestinian-city-became-a-symbol-of-the-resistance.
Johnston, Alastair Iain. ‘Conclusions and Extensions: Toward Mid-Range Theorizing and Beyond Europe’. International Organization 59, no. 4 (2005): 1013–44. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818305050344.
Jones, Marc Owen. ‘The Deception Order and Pseudo-Reality Industries’. In Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Deception, Disinformation and Social Media, 47–72. London: Hurst, 2022.
Kalyvas, Stathis N., ed. ‘A Logic of Indiscriminate Violence’. In The Logic of Violence in Civil War, 146–72. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818462.008.
Khoury, Jack, Josh Breiner, Yaniv Kubovich, and Ben Samuels. ‘Four Killed, 44 Wounded in Israeli Army West Bank Raid, Palestinians Report’. Haaretz, 28 September 2022. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-09-28/ty-article/palestinians-report-four-wounded-in-exchanges-of-fire-with-israeli-army/00000183-82bc-d786-a9f3-f6bfa5e70000.
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Shotter, James. ‘Netanyahu Strikes Deal with Far-Right Religious Zionism Party in Push to Seal Power’. Financial Times. 1 December 2022.
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[1] Khoury et al., ‘Four Killed, 44 Wounded in Israeli Army West Bank Raid, Palestinians Report’.
[2] ‘Four Palestinians Killed during Israeli Raid in West Bank’.
[3] Tartir, ‘Criminalizing Resistance’.
[4] Ibrahim, ‘Jenin’.
[5] Rijka and Van Teeffelen, ‘To Exist Is To Resist: Sumud, Heroism, and the Everyday’.
[6] Saouli, ‘States and Social Fields’.
[7] ‘Four Palestinians Killed during Israeli Raid in West Bank’.
[8] Tilly, ‘Violence as Politics’.
[9] Lang, ‘Violence and International Political Theory’.
[10] Weber, Economy and Society.
[11] Tilly, ‘How Regimes Work’.
[12] Khoury et al., ‘Four Killed, 44 Wounded in Israeli Army West Bank Raid, Palestinians Report’.
[13] Ron, ‘Frontiers and Ghettos’.
[14] Brym and Maoz-Shai, ‘Israeli State Violence during the Second Intifada’.
[15] Brym and Maoz-Shai.
[16] Brym and Maoz-Shai.
[17] Kalyvas, ‘A Logic of Indiscriminate Violence’.
[18] World Bank, ‘Military Expenditure (Current USD)’.
[19] Ahronheim, ‘Joint IDF-US Military Activity to Be “Significantly Expanded” – Kohavi’.
[20] Scott, ‘Domination and the Arts of Resistance’.
[21] Halliday and Rogan, ‘Modern Ideologies: Political and Religious’.
[22] Johnston, ‘Conclusions and Extensions’.
[23] ‘Four Palestinians Killed during Israeli Raid in West Bank’.
[24] Khoury et al., ‘Four Killed, 44 Wounded in Israeli Army West Bank Raid, Palestinians Report’.
[25] Pappé, ‘The Tantura Case in Israel: The Katz Research and Trial’.
[26] Shlaim, ‘Israel, Palestine, and the Arab Uprisings’. Excerpts from Netanyahu’s A Place among the Nations: Israel and the World quoted within.
[27] Jones, ‘Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East’.
[28] Committee to Protect Journalists, ‘Journalists Killed between 1992 and 2022’.
[29] Khoury et al., ‘Four Killed, 44 Wounded in Israeli Army West Bank Raid, Palestinians Report’.
[30] Maoz and McCauley, ‘Threat, Dehumanization, and Support for Retaliatory Aggressive Policies in Asymmetric Conflict’.
[31] Shotter, ‘Netanyahu Strikes Deal with Far-Right Religious Zionism Party in Push to Seal Power’.