A growing number of Israelis are rightly worried about political and social developments in Israel, with the advent of an ultra-right-wing government. In fact, a new term should be found to describe the monster to which Binyamin Netanyahu gave birth, because being on the right is not a crime, while the new Israeli government includes people who, in any other democratic country, would be in jail.
Moreover, one of the first measures that will be taken will be the rehabilitation of candidates for election to the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) found guilty of racism. It is obviously Itamar Ben-Gvir (mentioned a few weeks ago) who is behind this initiative.
The already intolerable situation for Palestinians in the West Bank, better known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), will become even worse.
Netanyahu announced the massive expansion of colonization, to the delight of the next Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, of the Religious Zionism party, who has always advocated the annexation of vast territories in the OPT, the massive acceleration of their colonization, the legalization of the constructions started by Israelis in the sector, and above all the demolition of hovels built by Palestinians in the area along the Jordan, under Israeli control for security reasons… as if Israel, the most powerful country in the region, had reason to fear for its security, when it controlled all access to its territory.
To ensure his control, Smotrich intends to monopolize the role of coordinator of the activities of the government in the territories (unit known under the acronym COGAT), which determines all that touches the civil administration in the territories.
PHOTO GIL COHEN-MAGEN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Minister of Defense will retain control over the security dimensions, which is far from being a counterweight to Smotrich’s administrative powers, especially since Netanyahu, apart from two declarations forced by Obama, has always rejected the principle of the creation of a Palestinian state.
In fact, in the long history of Israeli-Palestinian pseudo-negotiations, only two – Clinton-Barak (2000) and Olmert-Abbas (2008) – have actually put the two-state option on the table. The solution of “two independent States living side by side in peace” is a myth shaped by the international community, accompanied by countless UN resolutions never implemented due to the American veto or simply ignored by Israel even if the resolutions issued by the Security Council UN Security are binding/enforceable under international law. It is a fact that Israel has never recognized these votes.
Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister from 2001 to 2005, infamous for ignoring the massacre of Palestinians – men, women and children – in Sabra and Shatila, was the first to say that the occupation of the West Bank was legal and legitimate , as if the 1967 war, launched by Israel in response to the rantings of Gamal Abdel Nasser, allowed all exactions to the detriment of the Palestinians.
But the results of the Israeli election, legitimate in their sense and the Israeli electoral mechanics, marked by practically equal figures between the two clans, rest on the foundations of identity, both Jewish and Zionist.
More worrying for Israel in the long term is the reaction of Jews outside Israel, notably in the United States, a growing part of which no longer recognizes itself in this almost fascistic movement.
This question goes far beyond the Palestinian question, even if it will be the first to suffer. Indeed, religious Zionism, both party and ideology, does not only question the two-state solution for Palestine, but wants to literally push the Palestinians of the West Bank beyond the Jordan.
Furthermore, it attacks the LGBT community and challenges the core values that have made Israel, apart from the Palestinian question, a kin state close to Western values and ideals.
It is Judaism that is at issue, as Avi Dabush, director of the organization Rabbis for Human Rights, wonderfully wrote in the Times of Israel. Referring to the need to redefine Jewish and Zionist identity, he quoted the Torah: “You know the soul of the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,” before denouncing the occupation in the West Bank: “Leaders who speak of God and Zion make us swallow the bitter fruits of occupation while crushing the shared infrastructure of life, the only foundation capable of ensuring the prosperity of this Earth which is dear to us. »
Fortunately there are some that allow us to hope… not voices in the desert.