On a pause from genocide, Israel turns its focus to ethnic cleansing

After slaughtering tens of thousands in Gaza, Israel embarked on a forced displacement campaign in the West Bank. The thoroughly illegal scheme may also soon be receiving an explicit endorsement from United States President Donald Trump, who remarked in early February: “People do like the idea, but we haven’t taken a position on it yet.” On Monday – one day after Israel’s deployment of tanks in the West Bank and Katz’s de facto ethnic cleansing announcement – the European Union and Israel held the 13th meeting in Brussels of the EU-Israel Association Council, attended by representatives of all 27 EU states and co-chaired by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. In the official pre-meeting “note” regarding the EU position, the General Secretariat of the EU-Israel Association Council started by emphasizing that “the EU attaches great significance to its close relations with the State of Israel.” A lot more kissing of Israel’s backside ensues throughout the remainder of the 28-page PDF document, with the EU alternately expressing “its full solidarity and support to Israel and its people” and identifying Israel as a “key partner for cooperation” in numerous areas. Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Israeli Foreign Minister Sa’ar defended Israel’s current campaign of forced displacement in the West Bank, which has entailed widespread killing by the army and illegal settlers as well as house demolitions: “It’s military operations taking place there against terrorists, and no other objectives but that.” To be sure, the good old anti-terror excuse never fails to justify Israel’s perpetual terrorisation of Palestinians. At the start of Israel’s West Bank escalation in January, Defense Minister Katz also trotted out the T-word to explain how Israel was now applying “the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza” by subjecting Jenin to “a powerful operation to eliminate terrorists and terror infrastructure in the camp, ensuring that terrorism does not return to the camp after the operation is over”.