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Israel is meticulously following a textbook model of instigating unrest in the West Bank. The latest provocation consisted of stripping the Palestinian-run Hebron municipality of its administrative powers over the venerable Ibrahimi Mosque. Worse, according to Israel Hayom, it these powers to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement, an extremist settler body.

Though all Jewish settlers in the Occupied Territories can be qualified as extremists, the approximately 7,500 inhabitants of Kiryat Arba represent a more virulent category. This settlement, established in 1972, serves as a strategic foothold to justify subjecting Hebron to stricter military control than virtually any other part of the West Bank.

Kiryat Arba is infamously linked to Baruch Goldstein, the US-Israeli settler who, in February 1994, unleashed a horrific attack. He opened fire at Muslim worshippers as they knelt for dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque, mercilessly killing 29. This bloodbath was swiftly followed by another, with the Israeli army brutally cracking down on Palestinian protesters in Hebron and across the West Bank, murdering an additional 25 Palestinians.

In 1994, Israel decided that the Palestinian mosque, a site of profound religious significance, should be grotesquely divided: 63 percent allocated to Jewish worshippers and a mere 37 percent to Palestinian Muslims.

Since that calamitous decision, oppressive restrictions have been systematically imposed. These include pervasive surveillance and, at times, unjustifiable, extended closures of the site, leaving it solely for settler use.

The Ibrahimi Mosque is a microcosm of something far more sinister that is underway across the West Bank

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

The latest decision, described by Israel Hayom as “historic and unprecedented,” is profoundly dangerous. It places the fate of this historic Palestinian mosque directly in the hands of those fanatically keen on acquiring the holy site in its entirety.

But the Ibrahimi Mosque is merely a microcosm of something far more sinister that is underway across the West Bank. Israel has exploited its war in Gaza to dramatically escalate its violence, carry out mass arrests, confiscate vast tracts of land, systematically destroy Palestinian farms and orchards, and aggressively expand illegal settlements.

Though the West Bank, previously largely subdued by joint Israeli military pressure and Palestinian Authority crackdowns, was not a direct party to the Oct. 7, 2023, assault or the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, it has inexplicably become a major focus for Israeli military measures.

In the first year of the war, more than 10,400 Palestinians were in Israeli army crackdowns, with thousands held without charge. Furthermore, hundreds of Palestinians have been forcibly , largely from the northern West Bank, where entire refugee camps and towns have been in protracted military campaigns.

Israel’s overarching aim remains the strangulation of the West Bank. This is achieved by severing communities using ubiquitous military checkpoints, imposing total closures of vast regions and cruelly for Palestinian laborers, who are almost entirely dependent on the Israeli jobs market for survival.

This insidious plan also explicitly targets all Palestinian holy sites, including the revered compound in East Jerusalem and the Ibrahimi Mosque. Even when these shrines were nominally accessible, age restrictions and suffocating military checkpoints make it difficult, at times utterly impossible, for Palestinians to worship there.

In August 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his relentless violent campaign against the West Bank was part of Israel’s confrontation of the “broader Iran terror axis.” Practically, this statement served as a green light for the Israeli army to treat the West Bank as an extension of its ongoing genocide in Gaza. By the middle of this month, more than 900 Palestinians had been by the Israeli army in the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, with at least another 15 murdered by settlers.

Israel’s actions are not a sudden deviation but are consistent with a long-standing, insidious scheme

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

As Palestinians were pushed further against the wall, with no centralized strategy by their leadership to meaningfully resist, Israel its illegal settlement construction and brazen legalization of numerous outposts, many built illegally even by Israeli government standards.

Israel’s actions in the West Bank are not a sudden deviation but are consistent with a long-standing, insidious scheme. This includes a plan by the Knesset in 2020 that “allows” Israel to officially annex the West Bank. Israel’s ultimate goal has always been to confine the majority of Palestinians to Bantustan-like enclaves, while asserting over the vast majority of the region.

In August 2023, extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir this sinister vision: “My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs.”

More coercive measures swiftly followed, including Knesset laws to significantly UNRWA operations and further legislation to entrench de facto annexation. In May, Smotrich audaciously 22 more settlements. On July 2, 14 Israeli ministers made a public call on Netanyahu to immediately the West Bank.

In fact, every action Israel has undertaken, especially since the commencement of its devastating genocide in Gaza, has been carefully calculated to culminate in the irreversible annexation of the West Bank — a process that would inevitably be followed by declaring native inhabitants personae non gratae in their own homeland.

This level of systemic pressure and oppression will ultimately lead to a popular explosion. Though suppressed by the brutality of the Israeli army, the terror of armed settlers and the suppressive actions of the PA, the breaking point is fast approaching.

Those in the West who preach hollow calls for calm and de-escalation must understand that the region is hurtling toward the brink. Neither diplomatic platitudes nor sterile press releases will avert the catastrophe. They are advised to act decisively against Israel’s destructive policies — and they must act immediately.

• Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappe, is ‘Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out.’ His website is www.ramzybaroud.net. X: @RamzyBaroud