u/Humble-Boss2296

I already wrote in this subreddit about the absolute lawlessness in the West Bank, and a lot of it has to do with settlers wreaking havoc all over the place. But I don’t think people talk enough about how much IDF soldiers contribute to that lawlessness too.

The IDF is basically totally unrestrained. There are a lot of horrible things that we have to deal with from the soldiers like random military raids, checkpoints at every corner, casual beatings for no reason, arbitrary detentions followed by humiliation and abuse, and soldiers siding with violent settlers when settlers attack Palestinians. But if there’s one thing I hear people complain about over and over again more than anything I just listed it’s the theft of money by soldiers.

It’s widespread. It happens everyday. And there’s basically nothing people can do to stop it.

People here are already struggling financially for a thousand different reasons. Im going to sound like a broken record because I keep talking about it but here I go again. The Laborers who worked in Israel lost their jobs. The PA’s tax revenues are being withheld, so the PA itself is barely functioning. Public sector workers aren’t getting paid. Aid money has dropped. Agriculture has taken a massive hit because of settler attacks and land restrictions. Since the war started, the economy has been in shambles.

So the fact that soldiers are stealing money from people who have no money makes the situation worse.

I personally know more than ten people this has happened to. Here are two recent examples:

A group of soldiers raided a house down the street from me. The officer told the woman living there that she should “be careful” because some soldiers might steal her money, and that she should give the cash to him for safekeeping. She complied. He stole 4,000 shekels from her.

Another older man from the area was driving to Ramallah when soldiers stopped him and asked how much money he had on him. After he answered, they robbed him of 900 shekels. This is actually one of the most common ways it happens.

I could share ten more stories like this.

This is probably a long shot, but maybe someone reading this who has any influence over the situation might help put an end to it. More realistically this Reddit post will do nothing except let me vent for a minute.

The “Emirates Solution” basically means breaking Palestinians in the West Bank down into clans that run their own cities. If that sounds oddly familiar, it’s because it’s been tried before.

Israel attempted something similar in the 1980s with the “Village Leagues” which was local leaders meant to sideline the PLO and operate under Israeli oversight. It ended with First Intifada which wasn’t just an uprising against the occupation it was also a revolt against the CLANS.

A little context on clans in Palestine:

For about two decades after the Six-Day War, clans were at one of their weakest points. Young Palestinians started working inside Israel and become more independent. At the same time, Israeli military rule ignored traditional clan leadership, which weakened them even further. But in the 1980s the occupation began working through clans again. Then came the First Intifada, which dealt the biggest blow to clans. Palestinians weren’t just rebelling against Israeli rule they were also pushing back against the old families, who were seen as corrupt, out of touch, and too close to the occupation.Then came the Oslo Accords and a government was forming, institutions were being built, and the clans basically faded into the background. But that didn’t last. By the time the Second Intifada hit, the idea of centralized authority had collapsed. Institutions weakened, and clans came back stronger than ever.

Today clans are strongest in Hebron and basically run the show and clans are weakest In Ramallah. (it’s why when Cory from the ask project went to Ramallah and asked if they would marry someone from Hebron they all said no)

I’m not even saying it couldn’t work under different conditions. Just that historically, the Bantustans model that buys our silence for economic incentives hasn’t worked very well in the past.

Quick background on me: I’m Palestinian, from a town halfway between Ramallah and Nablus. It’s not close to either and kind of in the middle of nowhere which has made us vulnerable to settler attacks. We experience a level of violence that many other parts of the West Bank don’t. My friends in the major cities for have never even encountered settlers. In my town, settlers are running wild. They’ve physically assaulted and killed people from my town. They burn homes, cars, and olive trees. They take over Palestinian land and houses and occupy them indefinitely and put up israeli flags everywhere. And there’s absolutely nothing we can do to stop it.

My town is also different in that It has a large population of American citizens and green card holders. When things started getting bad, many of them left and as the situation has continued to deteriorate they haven’t come back. The town is wealthier than most Palestinian towns, filled with large homes and mansions. But now, most of those mansions sit empty. We’ve gone from a population of around 12,000 to barely 2,000 in less than a decade.

It’s sad because it feels like this is exactly what the settlers want which is to push people out and in my town, it’s working. In much of the West Bank, it’s not working (so if you’re a settler reading this don’t get too excited ) because people simply don’t have the option to leave. I feel for those who are stuck and can’t escape the violence, but I also hate when people leave and it makes me sad to watch my town turn into a ghost town.