The Netanyahu-Nablus nexus

The nefarious example of the northern West Bank city of Nablus tells us that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu is no peacemaker.

To understand Netanyahu today, it is worth looking back to when he was first elected Likud prime minister in May 1996, around the time the Palestinians were having their first parliamentary elections.

Nablus was where the most violent repression of the Islamic 'opposition' groups took place. Torture in Nablus jails was quickly uncovered and large riots erupted in the city.

To advance the stagnating 1993 Oslo Accords, Netanyahu was meant to be meeting regularly with Arafat, but instead authorised then mayor of Occupied Jerusalem Ehud Olmert to demolish a large recreation centre for youth and the handicapped funded by France and Canada for the Palestinians in the Old City of Occupied Jerusalem.

This destruction of foreign-funded infrastructure became an increasingly common occurrence, with the international community covering the cost of reconstruction.

Netanyahu's first major order was to open the infamous tunnel underneath the Haram Al Sharif - Islam's third holiest site - in the Old City. During a visit some 10 years later, the guide explained to awed tourists how Palestinians would throw stones through the grates above.

By the time the tunnel was opened, Netanyahu was already leaving on a tour of European capitals, but the trip was cut short due to Palestinian protests in the West Bank and Gaza. Again Nablus witnessed a dire scenario: an Israeli garrison in a medieval building known as Joseph's Tomb was attacked by angry Palestinians.

When Israeli reinforcements were sent in to help, they were ambushed and there were Israeli casualties.

As usual, more losses were suffered by the Palestinians, but it was a victory for Nablus. Also as usual, the victory was short-lived: Israel negotiated an evacuation of Joseph's Tomb, and zealous Jewish colonists threatened to retaliate. Israel then threatened to invade with tanks, which it did not do at the time. But when attention was elsewhere, the tanks returned in 2002.

In the spring of 2002, Ariel Sharon responded to the Arab Peace Initiative, by launching 'Operation Defensive Shield', re-invading all West Bank cities. Nablus suffered the worst closure policy.

On a visit earlier this spring, the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus was open, but in 2005 it was still closed. Israeli Merkava tanks had rolled down the main Faisal Street and divided the city into different sectors. Nablus is also tucked between hills, which were occupied by Israel Defence Forces, cutting off all entry and exit points for Palestinians. The Israeli Army is still there.

In 2002, international media focused on the massacres in the Jenin refugee camp, but in Nablus no media were allowed to enter. People snuck across the hills to visit families or provide help. In Nablus, Israel practised its tactic of breaking down walls to hunt 'terrorists'.

Nablus used to be a commercial hub, before and during the early Oslo period, selling soaps and the famous orange kanafeh cheese sweet, but now the historical part is peppered with broken buildings and plastered on every corner with the posters of martyrs. Nablus is now the poorest Palestinian city.

The Israeli Army enters regularly, calls on people arbitrarily, and if there is no answer doorways are blasted open. During my visit this spring, young men were patching a broken doorway with cement. It had been damaged during an Israeli incursion the previous night. All Palestinian cities - Area A of the Oslo Accords - are supposed to be under Palestinian security; not subject to nightly raids by the Israeli Army.

The prospects of Netanyahu working for peace are next to nil. He will make small concessions, such as removing the Beit 'Iba checkpoint at the western entrance of Nablus. In fact, this is no concession at all: the checkpoint has been turned into a 'gate' some 200 metres away.

Around the bend, past where Arafat's 'Force 17' used to be, Israel has an off-limits military zone, highly guarded and hidden by trees, where US Patriot missiles are supposedly protecting Israel against an attack from Iran and/or Hezbollah.

And here comes Avigdor Lieberman to the rescue. Providing the tipping point for Likud's win in the February 2009 Israeli elections, thus giving Netanyahu a second term as prime minister, Lieberman was granted the position of foreign minister, after having previously created the Strategic Affairs Ministry for intelligence on Iran between 2006 and 2008. Arab dismay is understandable: Lieberman's solution is more war.

And Netanyahu's solution is to find more 'barbarians'. Israel preferred to play the Iranian security threat card, rather than commit to a two-state solution with Egypt and the US in mid-May. Due to its record and to delay nuclear parity, an Israeli strike would not be surprising. Meanwhile, Nablus is as neglected as ever.

Stuart Reigeluth is a Middle East specialist based in Madrid.