Nablus“Everything that passes through Hamas ends in ruin. This printing press supports Hamas, and Hamas is equal to ISIS.” With these phrases written on the wall of the “Al-Manahil” printing press the moment it was stormed a few days ago in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, the occupation forces used a pretext to justify its complete sabotage and confiscation of its tools. .
In late December, the Israeli occupation army launched a campaign against a number of money exchange shops in various cities of the West Bank, and confiscated, according to a statement, 10 million shekels (a dollar equals 3.7 shekels), claiming that they finance and serve, in one way or another, “terrorism,” as it described it. In reference to the Palestinian factions, especially the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
On the other hand, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club accused the occupation authorities of stealing and confiscating the prisoners’ money and property during the storming of their homes, and said in a statement reached Tel Aviv Tribune Net that they had escalated this since the war on the Gaza Strip.
He stressed that this falls within the framework of the policies of exploitative colonialism, which aims to “raise the cost of the Palestinian struggle, impose mass acts of revenge, and target the Palestinian presence.”
The owners of the institutions completely deny the occupation’s allegations, and confirm that they are subject to the supervision of the Palestinian Authority and adhere to its various procedures and in accordance with the licenses granted, which was also confirmed by the Palestine Monetary Authority.
Out of revenge and vengeance
But what happened at Al-Manahil Printing Press, as its owner Moaz Dhouqan told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, confirms “the occupation’s lies and false accusations, and that it intends to incite against them.” The sabotage operation also targeted the machines and reflected a desire for “revenge.”
Dhouqan says that the occupation deliberately destroyed and ended their source of livelihood based on fantasies that reflected its confusion and bankruptcy in proving any charges against them. He revealed that the storming of the printing press coincided with the storming of the house and continued for hours. They sabotaged the electricity networks, wreaked havoc on the house and destroyed its contents, allegedly searching for money, and confiscated his private vehicle.
The occupation did not warn the printing press before that it violated its laws or military procedures, and did not bring any charges against those in charge of it, and although it stormed and destroyed it last November, it did not confiscate its machines as it did this time.
The owner of the printing press stated that in early November, the occupation arrested his father and transferred him to administrative detention “because they did not prove any accusation against him, and the occupation army summoned me in 2020 to the “Huwara” interrogation camp south of Nablus, and the same officer assured me that he knows that I do not issue publications for any From the Palestinian factions, especially Hamas, and he knows that my work is purely commercial.”
Dhouqan adds that the occupation also did not close the printing press, as it did with dozens of printing presses in other cities in the West Bank after October 7.
But the occupation did not convince itself of all of this, and it attacked the printing press – as Thouqan says – “out of revenge and vengeance.” It destroyed the collectibles, including tribute shields and models depicting the map of Palestine or the Dome of the Rock, and wrote on the walls in Hebrew the phrase “The people of Israel are alive” with the slogan David’s star.
“Does not deter resistance”
Bilal Al-Shobaki, an analyst and researcher on resistance movements, says that Israel’s first reason for its actions is not to “dry up terrorism” as it claims, but rather to impose sanctions on those who support specific factions.
In an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, he said that part of Israel’s tools to try to discourage the Palestinian from joining any militant action is no longer limited to killing and arrest, but there are other tools, including targeting his economic interests.
The second reason, according to Al-Shoubaki, is that the occupation may actually have security information about facilitating some of the activities of the resistance factions through these facilities or companies, and thus it targets them to prevent them from serving those factions.
The analyst, Al-Shobaki, prefers the first option, because Israel carries out its persecution, confiscation, and closure campaigns sometimes in an emotional manner, and deals with them as reactions to major events and not in a regular and sequential manner, similar to its campaign after October 7. He says, “If Israel had security information that these facilities pose a danger, it would have closed them immediately.”
Al-Shoubaki does not believe that what Israel is doing can curb or limit the resistance, citing the “Raanana commando operation” that took place two days ago without relying on financial or military capabilities.
Israel’s targeting of the financial, military, or security infrastructure of the Palestinian factions does not achieve security for them. The issue is related to the behavior of the occupation and the amount of pressure it exerts on the Palestinians and deprives them of their most basic economic and political rights, according to the Palestinian researcher.
Actions that generate explosion
Israeli media reported, on Wednesday, that Likud Party Member of Knesset Dan Illouz submitted a draft law imposing “sanctions” on banks and exchange offices in the West Bank and Gaza that transfer salaries from the Palestinian Authority to freed prisoners and families of martyrs.
In this regard, Israeli affairs analyst Khaldoun Barghouthi believes that Israel deals with the Palestinians as a whole from a security perspective based on the idea of the necessity of getting rid of them with security and military tools “because their survival constitutes a security threat and a burden on it.”
Al-Barghouti adds to Al-Jazeera Net: “The problem with the Israeli mentality is that it thinks of the theory of ‘cauterization of consciousness’, which has been proven to fail, and in every attempt in this direction, years later, more extreme results towards Israel come.”
For this reason, according to the political analyst, the occupation’s confiscation of money, property, and other things comes in a “retaliatory” context, and instead of deterring it, a state of anger will accumulate and the moment of explosion may draw near, an explosion that Israel itself expects to occur but does not know when or how.