Israel in crisis – business as usual for Palestinians

JVL Introduction

The unprecedented level of protests about this Israeli government, not only in Israel but also from Jewish communities around the world has mainly excluded the needs, rights and participation of Palestinians and those opposed to the Occupation.  It is a time of crisis for the State of Israel and the protests have had some success in that decisions on the Supreme Court have, at least, been delayed.  However, presumably in an attempt to keep the Coalition together, further concessions have been made to the Far Right members such as Ben Gvir and Smotrich, most worryingly perhaps the creation of  a new militia

This new government that has so many in the mainstream Jewish communities so worried plans more oppression and dispossession of Palestinians, more incarceration, more denial of residency for Palestinian Jerusalemites and more.  However, they do not need new laws to do this, they will just go faster and deeper building on the policies and the actions that have been occurring since 1947.  It is true that there is an anti occupation and pro Palestinian group at all the protests but they are drowned out by those whose concern is that it will no longer be possible to call Israel a democracy if the proposals about the Supreme Court go through. But there has been n o democracy for Palestinians, certainly not in the West Bank, Gaza, Golan and East Jerusalem where different but dreadful privations and restrictions on daily life are in place and rigorously enforced by the agents of the State.

As the protest against the Israeli government was taking place in London, the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was shaking hands with Netanyahu over a new trade deal.  There is little coming from the PM’s office condemning the antidemocratic direction of the government, let alone the ongoing dispossession and occupation for Palestinians; and certainly nothing to suggest anything but “business as usual”, with business being the operative word.  For Palestinians, this new government is also “business as usual”.

Glyn Secker was one of the speakers at the rally that day when the ashes of the Huwara pogrom were still warm.  This is the powerful speech he gave on behalf of  Jews for Justice for Palestinians highlighting the situation for Palestinians and the attitude of Israeli leaders from the foundation of the State to the present.

Glyn Secker at 2019 Rally for Palestine Photo: Paul Scott

“What’s different about this Israeli government that has sent the Jewish establishments into panic?
Nothing has changed, the Huwara pogrom has a lineage:

The 19 Deir Yassins in 1948The Sabra and Shatila and Jenin massacres,
The Summer Rains, Autumn Clouds, Cast Lead, Protective Edge
bombardments of Gaza,
The March of Return assassinations,
The Jerusalem Day Kristallnachts,
The 60,000 home demolitions,
The Palestinian child prisoners, many in solitary confinement.

What’s different is that the civil rights of Jewish Israelis are now at risk. But no one’s noticed the abolition of Palestinian civil rights under Occupation for over half a century, certainly not the Israeli Supreme Court.

The Israeli Finance Minister, Smotrich, describes himself as a fascist homophobe, and publicly called for Huwara to be “wiped out”,
Ben Gvir, Security Minister, was a member of Kach, banned in Israel for its racism, while he was convicted by an Israeli court of terrorism.

But these are not aberrations, they follow Israel’s founders:

Weitz, Head of the Jewish Agency said: “There is no other way than to transfer the Arabs….not one village, not one tribe should be left”,

Weizman, Head of the World Zionist Organisation: “There is a fundamental difference in quality between Jew and native” and
Ben Gurion, 1st Prime Minister, “The cleansing of Palestine remains the prime objective”.

More recently:
Shaked, Justice Minister, during Operation Cast Lead:  “The entire Palestinian people is the enemy…. its elderly, its women, its cities, its villages, its property, its infrastructure” and Lieberman, Defence Minister, said of Arab Israeli parliament members:
“The fate of the collaborators in the Knesset will be identical to those who collaborated with the Nazis….they were executed after Nuremberg”.

What’s new is that neo-fascists now lead the Israeli government by the nose, and have burst the figment that Israel is a democracy,
Hence the panic.

The Palestinians have a question: Democracy for whom? A democratic apartheid state is no one’s definition of democracy.

And Netanyahu is in No.10 doing a treacherous deal with Sunak to expand trade with illegal settlements, when he should be indicted alongside Putin.

Jews for Justice for Palestinians did not join the Jewish demonstration to the Israeli embassy because we reject the call for back to normal.  We will not associate with a racist endeavour, only with a democracy with human and civil rights for for all.

To adapt a famous quote, my freedom, our freedom as Jews is not complete until the Palestinians are free.

Palestine, not this Israel, is at the core of my being.

Long live Palestine.”