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Fred Hidvegi

West Bank annexation is in sight

It is. With the government as radical as it is, it was essentially imminent, if not unavoidable. It’s no surprise that people like Smotrich or Ben-Gvir want to continue to lead Israel down the path of oppression. Yet, it’s still horrifying news for long-time inhabitants of the land lying to the east of Israel, who’ll probably see their lives take a turn for the even worse. 

It’s impossibly sad to have leaders such as we do, who’d tramp over just about anything to accomplish their ideologically and religiously blinded goals of conquering the entirety of this land they lay such a holy claim to. But it’s not anything our dear politicians are willing to tramp over, but people. Real, breathing, flesh and blood people who want to live unbothered lives just like anyone else. 

But that, right now, seems impossible. 

Because as of now, annexation is coming. I previously thought that annexing the Palestinian territories wouldn’t make sense for an Israeli government, given that those living there would have to be granted citizenship. But as things stand, I’m not so sure that that would have to happen. There really isn’t such cruelty that this government, and plenty of others, wouldn’t put Palestinians through if they’d decided to annex their land. 

Worse, this comes when the number of murders in Israeli Arab communities this year exceeds 100. 

Israel can’t even take care of its own Arab citizens and now it wants to have even more of a say in even more Arab lives? It’s obvious that it is not capable of such things. 

For racists, ‘Arab-on-Arab’ crime is much like what was called black-on-black crime in the United States, where an argument of inherent violent behavior was made to explain crimes committed by Black people. Many Israelis, more than one thinks, consider Israeli Arabs to be violent, even while separating them from Palestinians in their minds; Palestinians are considered to be subhuman by even more people. 

Many citizens of the US and Israel would indeed say that there is something fundamentally different between White and Black Americans, or Jewish and Arab Israelis, and that makes the respective minorities behave differently. But of course, that’s not true in either of the countries, and a clear-thinking person would know that economic disparities and backgrounds are what’s causing tension. 

Many of Israel’s ministers, namely Itamar Ben-Gvir’s and Bezalel Smotrich’s aims are clear, they want to be the landlords of the land. However, their desperate ambitions are clouded by feelings of hatred, inferiority, and a lack of self-confidence. They are as incompetent as they are religious and are incapable of anything other than inciting violence on our society’s most vulnerable. 

Incompetency is widespread in this government, and even if annexation, which equals the end of the Palestinians as a legitimate ethnic group, was a good policy, which, again, it isn’t, this government wouldn’t be able to accomplish it successfully. 

A weakening of the Shekel followed Smotrich as Finance Minister, and a rise in violent crime followed Ben-Gvir as Minister of Public Security. 

Annexation is coming and it’ll simply be a disaster for everyone involved, but the real victims will plainly be the most marginalized, the Palestinians. 

But that doesn’t interest this or frankly most Israeli governments. So, if not for them, an imminent weakening of their political standing should be a sufficient repellent for our ministers to take a more human-guided approach to the conflict and instead of annexation, detach from the West Bank, indefinitely. 

About the Author
Fred is an 18-year-old writer sharing his many thoughts about American and Israeli politics. He was born in Budapest and since he was 11, he is also an Israeli citizen.
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