Israelis and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) made a joint pledge in Aqaba, Jordan, to halt the escalation and prevent further violence in the West Bank. This was announced by Amman’s official agency, Petra. But as for the settlements in the areas, Israel has disputed the understandings published by Petra, arguing that “there is no change.”
According to the text, alongside Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PNA), the US, Egypt and Jordan themselves attended the summit as guarantors, saying the parties had agreed to “take unilateral action for a period of 3/6 months ‘ and, by Israel, ‘to suspend any new settlement outpost for 6 months’. A reference that Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism), finance minister in the government of Benyamin Netanyahu and new head of the Israeli civil administration in the West Bank, immediately denies: “There will be no – as he denounced – the building and development of settlements, even for one Day”.
Position confirmed by National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi, who was present at the Aqaba Summit. Contrary to what has been announced, “Israel – he said – will legalize 9 outposts and approve 9,500 shelters in the West Bank in the coming months. There is no freeze or change of status quo on the Temple Mount to military activity.”
A clear reduction of what came out. According to the agreement, at least according to the official version, what has been agreed must be verified in a new phase in March – almost on the eve of the month of Ramadan – in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Now it remains to be seen what significance the next meeting will have and whether the USA will bring the agreement back on track as indicated. The fact is that the reality on the ground does not seem to be going in the direction suggested by Aqaba. In a new Palestinian terrorist attack near Nablus in the West Bank, two Israeli brothers – Hillel, 21, and Yagal, 22, Yaniv, from the settlement of Brachà – were riddled with bullets while sitting in their car. And tensions immediately flared up again: the media reported several arson attacks on cars, shops and even buildings in the Palestinian city of Huwara (Nablus), the site of the attack. And there were clashes between protesters and the army. The attack — Prime Minister Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said — hastened the government’s approval of a bill, initiated by Ben Gvir himself, that intends to legalize the death penalty for those accused of terrorism. Another piece of the sweeping judicial reform of Benyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, which has been fiercely contested in Israeli public squares for weeks.
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