This year is likely to be the “deadliest” for West Bank Palestinians since 2005, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said as he called for calm and restoration of a peace process.
“So far, 2022 is on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since [the UN] began systematically tracking Palestinian fatalities in 2005,” Wennesland said.
“I am alarmed by the intensity of violence in the occupied West Bank, including the high number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces, numerous armed attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, including killings, and settler violence,” Wennesland told the UN Security Council on Friday, as it met in New York for its monthly meeting on the conflict.
"I am alarmed by the intensity of violence in the occupied West Bank, including the high number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces, numerous armed attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, including killings, and settler violence,"
Tor Wennesland
In the last month, he explained, “32 Palestinians, including six children, were killed by Israeli security forces during demonstrations, clashes, search-and-arrest operations, attacks and alleged attacks against Israelis, and other incidents.” In addition, he said, “311 Palestinians, including one woman and eight children, were injured.”
Separately, he explained, “Israeli settlers or other civilians perpetrated 106 attacks against Palestinians resulting in 63 injuries and/or damage to Palestinian property.”
According to the UN, at least 101 Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem were killed by Israeli security forces this year, compared to 78 in 2021 and 24 in 2020. Many of the fatalities occurred during violence clauses with the IDF, which is engaged in a protracted military campaign against Palestinian terror cells in the West Bank known as Breaking the Wave.
Increased Palestinian attacks against Israelis
Wennesland also pointed to the increased Palestinian attacks against Israelis, noting that in the last month, “two Israeli security forces personnel were killed, and 25 Israeli civilians, including five women and three children, and 13 Israeli security forces personnel were injured by Palestinians in shooting and ramming attacks, clashes, the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails, and other incidents.”
He added that “in total, Palestinians perpetrated some 115 attacks against Israeli civilians, 100 of which were stone-throwing incidents, resulting in injuries and/or damage to Israeli property.”
According to the Foreign Ministry and the IDF, 15 Israelis and two Ukrainian civilians have been killed in terror attacks this year both within sovereign Israel and in the West Bank. Six security personnel were also killed.
Wennesland said that “mounting hopelessness, anger and tension have once again erupted into a deadly cycle of violence that is increasingly difficult to contain.”
He blamed the lack of a peace process on the increased violence as well as the “failure to resolve the key issues fueling the conflict” that have created fertile ground for the worsening “explosive situation.”
Wennesland said, “I see clearly the mounting frustration and anger of Palestinians in the face of decades of Israeli occupation.”
PA Ambassador call for International protection for Palestinians
Palestinian Authority Ambassador Riyad Mansour renewed his call for international protection for Palestinians against the IDF, “a protection they are entitled to.
“If this protection is not afforded and if the aggression against our people continues. What is the expected result? Israel kills, maims, displace demolishes, humiliates and then wonders how young Palestinians turn into lions,” Mansour said. The use of the word “lion” appeared to be a reference to the Palestinian terror group from Jenin, called the Lion’s Den.
“Where does Israel’s right to security end? Israel claims it in our cities, villages, schools, universities, mosques, churches and in our homes. Where does our right to security start,” he asked.
“What does Israel need to do to finally be called what it truly is, the aggressor?” Mansour asked.
He urged the Security Council to take action, including against Israel’s crimes of “apartheid” against Palestinians. “Do not fear the word apartheid, fear what that reality means for Palestinians today and for everyone else tomorrow. So many say it behind closed doors and deny it in public,” Mansour said.
“If you can not say it, how can you fight it?” he asked.
Mansour also picked up the proposal issued by the Commission of Inquiry on Israel, that the United Nations General Assembly seek an advisory option from the International Court of Justice on the illegality of Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian territory.
“Light a candle now, before darkness takes over,” Mansour said. “Trust a man who has been here for a long while. We are at the end of the road. Once we cross this threshold, there is no turning back. It’s a leap into the unknown, except for one fact, more bloodshed awaits us,” he said.
Gilad Erdan retorts accusations
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan accused Mansour of painting a “false picture of reality.” Israel is not a “colonial power” given that it is located on its ancient ancestral territory, Erdan explained.
He noted that in 1947, the UN accepted a partition plan for the region that established both an Arab and a Jewish state, with the Jews accepting the plan and the Arabs rejecting it.
Palestinian terror existed from before the creation of the State of Israel, Erdan said, adding that this terror has grown exponentially. It didn’t grow on its own, it’s the result of decades of hate and incitement fostered by the Palestinian Authority, Erdan said.
The PA might play the victim at the UN but on the street it praises terrorists, and it pays out monthly stipends to those jailed for such acts of terror, Erdain said, adding it also rejected each peace plan that has been put forward.
The US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield called on both Israelis and Palestinians to take steps to halt the spiraling violence.
“We call on Israeli and Palestinian authorities to do everything in their power to prevent such violence. This means security forces on both sides must refrain from taking uncoordinated actions that degrade the cooperation that had endured difficult times.
“Just as we have called on the Palestinian Authority to do more to prevent attacks, we also call on Israel to apply equal resources and equal vigor to prevent and investigate all violent attacks against Palestinians.”
“All perpetrators must be held accountable for their outrageous attacks. The world must see that arrests, convictions, and punishments are carried out without bias,” Thomas-Greenfield said.