The Gaza War and its impact on the West Bank

Following the brutal Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, Israel declared a state of war. This was followed by massive air strikes, the deployment of ground troops and the sealing off of the Gaza Strip. The Gaza War between Hamas and Israel has also a strong impact on the West Bank: Since October 7, Israeli authorities have put many West Bank cities and towns under partial lockdown, restricting freedom of movement and radically affecting economic activities. Over 350 Palestinians have been killed, 91 of them children. Most were the victims of Israeli soldiers’ fire. But also the settler violence has increased – in many incidents, Israeli forces were either accompanying or actively supporting the settler militias. These recurrent attacks forced more than 1.200 Palestinians to leave their homes and villages. Arbitrary arrests spiked since October 7, about 5.000 Palestinians in the West Bank were arrested by the Israeli security forces – many of them without trial.

The ongoing war in Gaza is shaking the political landscape in the West Bank. President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) are navigating their way through the current crisis rather poorly than well, further losing credibility in the Palestinian society. While Abbas is condemning Hamas as an organisation and the killing of civilians on both sides on the international level, he does not manage to present a convincing alternative to the armed resistance of Hamas and other radical groups. On the one hand, Abbas criticizes the Israeli warfare in Gaza and the suspension of tax revenue transfers from Israel. On the other hand, however, his Palestinian Authority is continuing the security cooperation with Israel, which is seen by many Palestinians as an assistance for the implementation of the Israeli occupation.

Ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank suffer from the reality of occupation and fear a major escalation of conflict unfolding any time soon at their place. The warfare in Gaza and the rhetoric of Netanyahu's far right-wing religious government leave for them no doubt that the improvement of their situation and the fulfilment of their rights will still take long. The current situation is especially hard on the actors of progressive civil society since they are under pressure from several sides at once: They embody the counter-concept to the Hamas ideology and are committed to peaceful legal based forms of action and human rights. Still, they feel left alone by the international community and Western donors that have put their funding under scrutiny and do not give them a voice.

With this event, we want to offer analysis of the current situation in the West Bank. What is happening in the West Bank right now in the shadow of the war in Gaza? What is the situation of ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank? What role do civil society organisations play on the ground? How are the political developments in Gaza and the West Bank linked and what does this mean for the current war? What is the relation between the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas? What is at stake for a future peace processes? How can the international community and Germany in particular contribute to an improvement of the situation in the West Bank?

With:

• Dalia Qumsieh (Human rights lawyer and founder of the Balasan Initiative for Human Rights)
• Tahani Mustafa (PhD) (Senior Analyst, International Crisis Group)
• Dr. Dorthe Siegmund (Office Director Ramallah, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung)

Where? German Near and Middle East Association (Deutsches Orient-Institut), Kronenstr. 1, 10117 Berlin

Info: Bauke Baumann,
E baumann@boell.de