Qalandia Attack Insult to Peace Talks

One of the most repeated questions that was asked by many following the Israeli attack on Palestinians in the Qalandia refugee camp on Aug. 26 — which left three killed — was why? Why does the powerful Israeli army need to carry out a raid inside a Palestinian refugee camp at a time of relative quiet? More perplexing is why this was done during ongoing peace talks aimed at bringing an end to the 46-year Israeli occupation?

The official Israeli narrative has been very simple. The widely circulated Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that — according to the Israeli army's preliminary investigation — the Israeli army and Border Guard forces “felt threatened and began to fire live rounds of ammunition in self-defense despite the fact the Palestinians had not fired on them.”

Self-defense usually applies to a person being attacked by an armed perpetrator. Is this what happened in the Qalandia refugee camp?

Anyone familiar with the Qalandia refugee camp knows that it falls way beyond the checkpoint that bears the same name on the Ramallah side of the 10-meter-high cement wall. Israeli daily Maariv revealed that the killings occurred when an undercover Israeli unit known as Mistaaribin, disguised as Arabs, was discovered entering the Qalandia refugee camp at 3 a.m. in an attempt to arrest a Palestinian activist — who had recently been released from jail — apparently from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ own Fatah movement.