Israel votes for fascism and racism... and the required Palestinian response

Written by: Mustafa Al-Barghouti

We had no illusions about the Israeli elections that took place on the first of November, as it was clear that the competition was taking place between a racist right and another racist right. But what happened was worse than the worst expectations, as the rise of fascism to power represented the most dangerous characteristic of those elections, and this does not mean that Israeli governments have not carried out fascist practices before, but the rise of the Smotrich and Ben Gvir parties and their obtaining 14 seats in the Israeli Parliament to become the third The biggest force in it, and their assured entry into the government, represented a dangerous turn towards institutionalized fascism, represented by the party whose leaders follow the ideas of Kahane and the Kach party, which had previously been banned even in Israel, and classified as a terrorist movement in the United States.

Itamar Ben Gvir, who was prosecuted many times for his crimes, declared that he was emulating the perpetrator of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in Hebron, Baruch Goldstein, and that his goal was to expel the Palestinians, that is, to repeat what happened in the 1948 Nakba of ethnic cleansing, and calls for the annexation of the West Bank, the complete Judaization of Jerusalem and the establishment of existence The Jew inside Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Incidentally, the fascist party assembly also includes more extreme leaders than Ben Gvir and Smotrich, including the leaders of the "hilltop boys" gangs of colonial settlers who specialize in assaulting Palestinians and their property, and among them are those who burned alive Palestinians, such as the Dawabsha family, and the martyr Muhammad Abu Khudair. In addition, the group calling for the alleged building of the Temple on the rubble of Al-Aqsa Mosque now has 26 members in the Israeli Parliament.

The second thing that distinguished the Israeli elections was the rise of extremist Jewish religious fundamentalism represented by fascist Zionist Judaism and the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties. These religious parties equaled the extremist Likud in obtaining the highest votes, with an average of 32 Knesset members each. The expected ruling coalition will consist of these parties and the Likud, unless Gantz presents himself as a fig leaf for the next fascist rule.

The third and very important development is that the Zionist settler settlers who live illegally according to international law in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and whose number reaches 750 thousand settlers, have become a political force determined in the Israeli government and politics, and they will have nine members in the Knesset, and a number of ministers, including in That is Ben Gvir, who lives in the settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron, and Smotrich, who lives in the settlement of Kedumim, near the village of Kafr Qaddum.

As for the fourth development, it is the collapse of the so-called “Zionist left”, despite our conviction that left-wing and Zionism cannot be combined, since every Zionist party is right-wing by nature, but the failure of the Meretz party to pass the electoral threshold and the decline in seats of the Labor Party that ruled Israel for decades to the minimum means The end of an era of illusion of the "Zionist left".

What the Israeli elections also proved was the failure of the approach to flatter the Zionist movement, an approach used by Mansour Abbas and his party, which considers itself an Islamic party, with its support for the extremist government of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, and its recognition of the Jewishness of the "State of Israel". As this adulation only increased the Israelis to extremism, and what also failed was the appeasement approach of the Zionist movement, the current of dialogue with it, and the betting on negotiations and a compromise. What the majority of Israeli Jews said with their voices, hands, and feet, was clear without ambiguity, that they were not, and are not at all interested in a compromise with the Palestinians, and did not, and will not, allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

There are very serious political implications of what is happening, as Netanyahu, who is being prosecuted in corruption cases, has obtained a mandate to establish a stable government for the next four years, and this means the death of the so-called “two-state solution”, the burial of the Oslo agreement after Netanyahu killed him, and the consecration of the reality of “one state with a system.” racist apartheid", and the return of the ill-fated deal of the century, as an integrated plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause, and Netanyahu began this by announcing that he would expand normalization with the Arab environment at the expense of the Palestinians until they "come to their senses," as he said, that is, until they surrender to him!!

Before referring here to what is required from the Palestinians to face these serious challenges, it must be said that the turn of Israeli society towards extreme right-wing racism and fascism would not have taken place in this way, had it not been for the international community’s silence on Israel’s crimes, and allowing it to be above international law and above accountability. And the insistence of many Western countries on double international standards when it comes to Palestine.

There are five things that are required of the Palestinians to respond to this dangerous development: First, ending the internal division immediately, abandoning the illusions of compromise and negotiations, and the entire Oslo approach, and unifying the Palestinians in a unified national leadership based on a national approach and strategy of resistance struggle, whose aim is to change the imbalance of power in favor of Israel. This means a complete cessation of security coordination, the implementation of the decisions of the Central Council taken seven years ago, and a dissolution of the Oslo Accords and its commitments, which is the only thing that can save the crumbling authority from total collapse.


Secondly, revising the overarching Palestinian national goal, so that it is not only an end to the occupation, but also the overthrow of the colonial and apartheid regime in all of historic Palestine. It must send a clear message to the Zionist movement that the Palestinian people and its leaders will never surrender to the system of "one apartheid state" and that the Palestinians will never accept to be slaves to the apartheid regime, and that the alternative to this state will be nothing but the one democratic state.

And third, the immediate implementation of the Algiers Agreement, and giving the Palestinian people the opportunity to choose their leaders freely, through democratic elections for the National Council of the Liberation Organization, its internal part (the Legislative Council) and for the Palestinian presidency. And stop persecuting the Palestinians who demand their legitimate right to democratic elections. The Israelis have held five elections in four years, and the Palestinians have been denied any elections for 16 years. Extremist Israeli popular opinion can only be repelled by a resistance Palestinian popular opinion through the ballot box. Democracy in this case will be a tool of empowerment and strengthening of the resistance, and an opportunity to open the doors for the younger generations to advance towards positions of leadership.

Fourth, and these are the most important tasks, to put all energies and capabilities to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their survival in their homeland in the face of attempts to displace and ethnic cleansing.

And fifth, to start immediately a global and Arab campaign to isolate the Israeli apartheid regime, and to classify the fascist party represented by Ben Gvir and Smotrich as a terrorist movement, and this is a completely achievable goal.

The results of the Israeli elections confirmed the transformation of the occupying power from extreme right-wing racism into criminal racism, and this is what must be confronted without hesitation.
About "The New Arab"