Israel is embroiled in large-scale protests against the country’s new far-right government, led by veteran prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. At the center of these is a government plan to increase its control over the appointment of judges and limit the ability of the High Court of Justice to strike down legislation it deems contrary to Israel’s basic laws (its quasi-Constitution). Anti-liberalism has long characterized the State of Israel’s relations with the Palestinians. Now the Israeli far right is targeting Jewish Israelis as well.
In recent weeks, tension between the citizens of Palestine and Israel has escalated into violence. Between airstrikes and military actions, Israeli troops killed 11 civilians in an attack in the West Bank. But the attacks did not stop there. settlers on palestinian soil burned the houses of the locals because of a double murder. In this context, the pressure in the area is increasing as protests sweep through the country’s capital.
EFE
The new government, elected in November, is the most extremist in the country’s history. In addition to Netanyahu’s Likud, it includes two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), the anti-LGBT Noam, and the anti-Palestinian Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power)—the ideological descendant of the Kach party that Israel, the Union EEurope and the United States have labeled as a terrorist group—. Supporters of judicial reform justify it as necessary to rein in an increasingly interventionist court and return power to elected representatives. But her detractors consider her a threat to Israeli democracy and an attempt by Netanyahu to block the trial that he is being pursued for fraud and bribery while holding public office.
The coalition appears determined to use its parliamentary majority to push through its legislation despite escalating protests by Israeli Jews across the country. civil war warnings including those of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, are alarmist. But the internal polarization of the country seems destined to deepen. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has called for compromise and is trying to mediate. He may he get it. But this would not mean that the threat to Israel’s democratic prospects is over.
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Palestinian citizens of Israel (who make up 20% of the population) they have largely avoided joining the protests. Although they are often the first to suffer the consequences of right-wing policies, many of them have little interest in an Israeli system that formally grants more rights to its Jewish citizens. It has also been conspicuous by its absence in the pro-democratic protests, the issue of the occupation and the Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.
In recent decades, successive Israeli governments have heroded the territorial basis for a future two-state solution by expanding Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. This de facto annexation of Palestinian territory has been accompanied by a systematic campaign of demolition of houses, revocation of residences and displacement of the Palestinian population. Today some five million Palestinians are under indefinite Israeli military rule, without a state of their own or the same rights as their settler neighbors who are Israeli citizens. The EU has warned that Israel is consolidating a reality of a single State with inequality of rights, perpetual occupation and conflict. The main human rights organizations have described this situation as modern apartheid.
EC
The ruling coalition, dominated by the settler movement, has made accelerating and expanding these policies one of its top priorities. In the first two months of this year it has announced the construction of more illegal settlements than in the last two years combined. The decision taken last week to build 10,000 new settlements and legalize retroactively nine unauthorized settlements prompted a rare reprimand by members of the United Nations Security Council, including the United States. Undeterred, the Israeli government is about to announce the construction of thousands of new settlements, possibly in the E1 area of the West Bank, which the EU has warned would jeopardize the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state. Meanwhile, pro-settler ministers continue to push for the formal annexation of West Bank territory.
The far-right coalition is also taking a tougher approach with the Palestinians themselves, broadening the legal basis for revoking the citizenship or permanent residency — and possibly that of their families — of those convicted of disloyalty and terrorism. The most threatened are the Palestinians residing in occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel illegally annexed in 1980.
On the other side of what remains of the Green Line — which divides Israel from the territories it occupied in 1967 — the situation is rapidly deteriorating, prompting the CIA director to warn of a new Palestinian intifada. Last year was the deadliest for Palestinians since the end of the second intifada in 2005. This year is set to be even bloodier, with more than 50 Palestinians killed to date at the hands of Israeli forces. In the past 14 months, 36 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks.
In response to the Palestinian attacks, Israeli Homeland Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has imposed a policy of collective punishment against Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, who in turn have started a campaign of civil disobedience. In the West Bank, the intensification of Israeli military incursions into northern cities such as Nablus and Jenin since last spring’s wave of Palestinian attacks on Israel is further stoking the fire. Palestinians are also facing increased attacks by Israeli settlers, emboldened by Israeli ministers and benefiting from the protection of the Israeli army. All of this is helping to fuel the resurgence of previously inactive Palestinian armed groups with ties to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the ruling Fatah party itself.
PJ Armengou. Jerusalem
The remilitarization of large parts of the West Bank highlights the weakness of President Mahmud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, which many Palestinians accuse of collaborating with Israel to suppress resistance to its occupation. With dwindling popular legitimacy from the absence of national elections for nearly two decades and a moribund peace process, Abbas is struggling to reassert control. In these circumstances, the US plan to strengthen the capacity of Palestinian security to combat armed groups will exacerbate internal Palestinian tensions. All of this is taking place against a background of intensifying rivalries between Fatah leaders to succeed Abbas as Palestinian leader, and a growing distancing of grassroots activists from their leaders in Ramallah. These Palestinian dynamics point to a broader unraveling of the Oslo peace process in the Middle East. Although there are internal factors at play, this is ultimately the culmination of decades of Israeli settlement policy aimed at blocking the creation of an independent Palestinian state. The arrival of a more extremist Israeli government now risks prompting a complete collapse of the Oslo paradigm.
The confidential
To date, European governments have been reluctant to address head-on the consequences of Israeli actions, let alone hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. States such as Germany and the United Kingdom have long opposed Palestinians resorting to international legal mechanisms such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. In the face of efforts to enlist the “global south” in defending the international order in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this has exposed European countries and the EU to accusations of double standards that damage their international credibility.
European concern for the future of Israeli democracy it may force a moment of reckoning with the Israeli government. But any effective response must recognize that the current democratic backsliding in Israel is a corollary of the illiberal policies pursued against the Palestinians for decades. If not confronted, the settler movement will continue to dominate Israeli politics. If Europe really wants to reverse Israel’s illiberal turn, it must also address its roots in the settlements in the occupied territories.
*Published analysis originally in English at the European Council on Foreign Relations por Hugh Lovatt y titulado ‘Tipping point: What Israel’s illiberal turn means for Palestinians’
Israel is embroiled in large-scale protests against the country’s new far-right government, led by veteran prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. At the center of these is a government plan to increase its control over the appointment of judges and limit the ability of the High Court of Justice to strike down legislation it deems contrary to Israel’s basic laws (its quasi-Constitution). Anti-liberalism has long characterized the State of Israel’s relations with the Palestinians. Now the Israeli far right is targeting Jewish Israelis as well.