Israeli military official warns of West Bank instability in 2017

A senior Israeli military official has warned of instability in the occupied West Bank in 2017, speaking in a closed talk in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

According to Haaretz, citing participants in the gathering, a key focus of Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi’s remarks “dealt with the implications of power struggles in the Palestinian Authority over the question of the ‘day after’ the end of [Mahmoud] Abbas’ term in office.”

“2017 won’t be a stable year for the Palestinian Authority”, Halevi claimed. “There will be many factors that undermine Abu Mazen’s [Abbas’] leadership and Hamas wants to make gains. The result will be a very challenging reality in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].”

Haaretz reported that Halevi said “the decline in the number of terror attacks over the past few months is due to a combination of the high cost of such attacks to the Palestinians themselves and Israel’s fighting the attacks while avoiding collective punishment of the civilian population.”

The newspaper did not say whether Halevi clarified the seeming contradiction between a “high cost” being exacted on “the Palestinians themselves”, and the official’s claim that “collective punishment” had been avoided.

Numerous Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups have condemned a variety of Israeli policies as illegal collective punishment, including blanket movement restrictions and punitive home demolitions.