Four reasons why Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the West Bank is being accepted by the world
Residents evacuate Al-Faraa refugee camp, West Bank, February 2025
Qassam Muaddi writes in Mondoweiss on 21 March 2025 :
Earlier this week, while Israeli warplanes were resuming their carpet bombing campaign in Gaza, Israel also expanded its offensive on the West Bank, this time reaching the al-Ain refugee camp west of Nablus. Israeli forces entered the camp in the early hours of Wednesday morning when an undercover Israeli force opened fire on a vehicle, killing its driver, Odai Qatouni, and confiscated his body.
Israeli forces took over several houses and used them as military positions for 14 hours, forcing some 10 Palestinian families to leave their homes. Ameer Said, 32, a resident of al-Ain camp, told the Palestinian daily al-Ayyam that Israeli soldiers entered the three-story building where he lives and forced all 20 residents to leave. According to Said, Israeli soldiers didn’t allow him or his family and neighbors any time to take their belongings.
The Nablus director for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Ameed Ahmad, said that the Red Crescent crews evacuated several ill Palestinians, including multiple dialysis patients and a newborn baby who were taking shelter in the camp’s mosque during the raid. Eventually, Israeli forces withdrew from al-Ain after arresting 30 Palestinians and dropping leaflets threatening residents with the same fate as the refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarem if they “allow” Palestinian militants to operate in the camp. According to local testimonies reported by Palestinian media, the displaced families returned to their homes following the Israeli army’s withdrawal. Contrary to Jenin and Tulkarem, there is no known Palestinian resistance group in al-Ain refugee camp like the Jenin Brigade or the Tulkarem Brigade.
Meanwhile, in Jenin, the Israeli army published a map highlighting up to 100 houses set to be demolished in the refugee camp. Displaced Palestinians began to file requests to the Israeli army through the Jenin camp’s Popular Services Committee to be permitted to return to their homes one last time and recover what they can of their belongings. Some 95% of residents have been forced out of the camp, with around 18,000 Palestinians from the camp being housed in several shelters and private apartments in Jenin City, according to the Jenin governorate.
Only three months ago, nobody anticipated that soon 40,000 Palestinians would be displaced from their homes with no return in sight. Even more unexpected was Israel’s continued widening of its campaign to new parts of the West Bank. But what was the least expected of all was that it would happen with little or no reaction — locally, regionally, and internationally.
Only three months ago, as Israel was negotiating the last details of the ceasefire deal in Gaza, nobody anticipated that soon 40,000 Palestinians would be displaced from their homes with no return in sight. Even more unexpected was Israel’s continued widening of its campaign to new parts of the West Bank, with threats of engulfing the entire territory. But what was the least expected of all was that it would happen with little or no reaction — locally, regionally, and internationally.
When U.S. President Donald Trump said that the U.S. planned to “own” Gaza, expel its population, and build a Middle East “Riviera” on top of their destroyed homes, the uproar was unanimous. The Arab states to which Trump suggested Gazans would be shipped off, unequivocally opposed the plan. European states, including Germany, who, throughout the 15 months of genocide, backed Israel’s actions every step of the way, rejected Trump’s proposal outright.
Yet, when Israel began to do the exact same thing in the West Bank, the reaction was and continues to be terrifyingly modest. The effect is that Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has become normalized to the point that it is now accepted as commonplace.
But the normalization of an ethnic cleansing operation taken out of an eighteenth-century playbook is perfectly explicable — and for the following reasons:
I. The world has already accepted the ongoing Nakba
The world has already normalized the continuous state of displacement that the Palestinian people have experienced since 1948 — continuous because the Palestinians who were expelled from their homes 76 years ago continue to be banned from returning for no reason other than the fact that they do not fit within Israel’s ethnic supremacist makeup. Yet the world decided to reconcile with this fact and admit it as an exception to the post-WWII global order, which was ostensibly built on human rights and international law. There should be no expectation that this same world would have opposed ethnic cleansing in the 21st century’s third decade.
II. The world has already accepted slow-motion ethnic cleansing