Was this a case of “mowing the lawn,” a case of Israel maintaining its grip on Palestinians by resorting to occasional violence? Likely, but here’s the official justification:
According to local sources, the special forces were targeting the apartment of Alaa Sabbagh, a former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Fatah’s armed wing, who was killed by Israeli forces in the camp in 2002.
Sabbagh’s home was reportedly being used by a number of fighters affiliated with the Jenin Brigade, an armed resistance group from the camp composed of fighters from various political factions.
A problem with the story of neutral professionals just doing their jobs is:
Minister of Health Mai al-Kaileh said in a statement that Israeli forces “hampered” ambulances from evacuating the wounded from the camp during the raid and restricted the access of medics to the camp. Local media reported that some ambulances were shot at.
Also, a video reported by the French and apparently no mainstream news media shows a group or armed and armored troops tackling and subduing and dragging off a 12-year old girl. No idea what she might have done to provoke the assault.
Israeli politicians Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid formed the previous government. The governing coalition did not adopt any changes to policies concerning Palestinians, but it included as Deputy Prime Minister Mansour Abbas, a Palestinian who generally agreed with Bennett, but wished to spend a lot of money supporting Palestinians. Abbas had to balance his actions to stay in the good graces of both the Israeli coalition government and Palestinians generally, but he certainly gained material improvements for his countrymen. Abbas represented about a fifth of Israel’s population. In parliamentary terms, that translated into four party members in the 61-59 Israeli Parliament.
Binyamin Netanyahu took over at the beginning of this year and promptly made it clear that his coalition was going to take a hard-line approach to the Palestinians.
Critics have warned that the ultra-nationalists in Religious Zionism could also use government power to strip Arab citizens of their rights and ratchet up societal divisions and tensions with Palestinians, as well as with Israel’s allies abroad.
The attack on the Jenin camp appears to be the beginning of that policy.
On January 28th, Jewish people outside a synagogue were attacked and seven were killed. The attacker was killed by Israeli security forces very shortly afterward. Very interestingly, the Jerusalem Post treats the attack in Jerusalem as an isolated incident, whereas Al Jazeera draws a very explicit connection between the two incidents, as well as listing several other incidents around the same time and place (Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad both deny they had anything to do with the Jerusalem shooting). Also, shortly afterwards, “Palestinian women of Mattar family cry in pain as Israeli occupation bulldozers demolish their home” in the very same city.
The Global Imams Council condemned that attack near the synagogue. They also very strongly condemned Palestinians who celebrated the attack.
