APPEAL: This blog and my Twitter account are some of the main sources of eyewitness accounts of the horrors perpetrated by Judeo-terrorists against Huwara. I am translating these accounts for my readers; and also providing alternative coverage of the anti-government protests you will not see in western media. PLEASE donate to support this critical journalism. Fill out the Mightycause form in the right sidebar. Click on the Paypal icon to make a gift. If you share my outrage. If you believe in the importance of documenting such crimes, do the right thing and give. And help grow my audience: tell a friend! And if you can do some of this translation, find stories that are important for English language readers and send them to me.
There can be no doubt that Israel’s fascist government poses an existential crisis for the nation. Its legislative agenda echoes that of the Polish and Hungarian far-right, which have essentially taken over their respective societies and imposed a totalitarian system on a captive population. Israel is, without doubt, far along the road to absolute, possibly permanent fascism.
In that sense, Israel’s anti-government protest movement is laudable and the 400,000 Israelis who rallied this past weekend for the ninth week in a row are fighting the good fight. Such a broad movement incorporates many different political factions from right to left. But the thousands of Israeli flags waving throughout the crowds demonstrate that this is not a movement of all the nation’s citizens. Rather, it is by and for Israeli Jews. Palestinian citizens aren’t excluded (except in this egregious case), but they aren’t welcomed, Nor are any of their interests represented. Just like in everyday Israeli politics.
There is too much self-congratulation among the Israelis marching in the streets. Too many Israeli flags. As if Zionist patriotism will save their country. Western media have covered the bare surface of events. Its reporting also has an air of being of the side of the angels. Rooting for the righteous.
Among the protestors, there are a few Palestinian flags. These demonstrators are, in effect, protesting the protestors. They are reminding them that they are deliberately avoiding the 900-pound gorilla in the room:
Then there is the issue of occupation. The majority of protesters still insist on divorcing the future of democracy from the basic question of 57 years of occupation.
Many really don’t see the link. Others divorce the issue for tactical reasons, fearing that they could antagonise potential partners-in-arms.
The solution has been a territorial separation. One big rally takes place every Saturday evening on Habima Square in central Tel Aviv: Israeli flags only, consensual speakers only.
Another begins on Kaplan Street, near the government compound in Tel Aviv. This is where the radical, anti-occupation bloc finds its place.
Under the slogan “There is no democracy with occupation”, movements like Combatants for Peace, Machsom Watch, Peace Now and A Land for All mingle in the huge crowd and connect the current situation to the ongoing occupation.
The self-evident truth about occupation is still seen as a defiant statement. Even when it is accepted, it is not yet internalised.
But no, I’m not talking about Occupation. Though there are far more anti-Occupation placards than Palestinian flags. Opposing the Occupation is a consensus of the Zionist left, which is about as “left” as Hakeem Jeffries or Joe Biden. Occupation is, of course, one of the chief ills of Israeli society. But it is the tip of the iceberg.
The real issue is apartheid. Not just a racist policy of physical separation between Jew and Palestinian. But an ethnocratic regime which privileges Jews and derogates Palestinians. In other words, this movement is not saving democracy, as many of the placards and slogans that were chanted claim. It is saving what these demonstrators are calling “democracy” for themselves. This movement not only has nothing to do with its Palestinian fellow citizens, it has nothing to do with real democracy. It is far from a “state for all its citizens,” the memorable slogan coined (I believe–correct me if I’m wrong) by Azmi Bishara, who was hounded into exile by the Shin Bet.
Ending the Occupation is only the first step in a process that could lead to real democracy. But it would have to be followed by offering full rights and equality to everyone from the river to the sea, which would include Palestinian citizens and those living under Occupation.
The protest movement seeks to save Israel from fascism. While it may be a commendable goal in itself, it doesn’t come close to addressing the real, fundamental issue at the heart of Israel’s disjunction: it is a deeply and fundamentally flawed state. And many of its injustices, inequities, savagery, militarism, corruption and other ills derive from this.
Why aren’t more Palestinian Israelis protesting? After all. they’d be the first to feel the heat if the Right’s judicial reforms are enacted.
PS. Now that you and I are in agreement on this, and other issues, can you please rescind my ‘one comment’ restriction?
@ Jay:
What should Palestinians protest? What has the system ever offered them? What have the courts offered them? When have they ever won their rights or changed any discriminatory policy via the courts? What makes you think that an enfeebled court would be any worse for Palestinians than the current one?
You may publish 2 comments in a thread. Let’s see how that goes.
“the main reason that Arabs are absent from the demonstrations is that Arab society has been disappointed by the state too many times, and has become indifferent”
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-08/ty-article-magazine/.premium/arabs-explain-why-they-arent-or-are-joining-the-protests-against-the-judicial-coup/00000186-c0fb-d739-a9cf-d4fbfdf80000?lts=1678283840641
Two comments! See, that wasn’t so bad.
@ Jay: Not exactly sure what you meant with the link. But the liberal Zionist Haaretz wants to have it both ways: admit that Israeli Palestinians are largely boycotting the protests; while attempting to argue that Israelis Palestinians (at least the few it interviewed) are good citizens who want to join with their Jewish brethren. When it does this, Haaretz sickens me. It’s the sort of liberal “even-handedness” the NYT specializes in.
Agreed…But I thought it was a good thing that so many are waking up. The protests are about the surface layer, what Israel has come to because of the refusal to accept Palestinians on what most, now seemingly all, Jewish Israeli’s claim as solely their land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.
@Potter
Likewise, Palestinian Arabs claim the land is theirs, ‘from the River to the Sea’.
Therein, lies the rub.–Hamlet
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/2018-12-16/ty-article-opinion/.premium/hamas-owes-its-from-the-river-to-the-sea-slogan-to-zionists/0000017f-deef-d3ff-a7ff-ffef96ca0000
@ Punch:
Actually, that’s not what Israeli Palestinians believe. And it’s not even what Palestinians under Occupation believe. Until the past few years, when Israeli governments rejected two states, opinion polls shows the majority of Palestinians supported two states over one-state. But that has changed as Israel has moved to the extreme right.
But even a one-state solution contradicts your claim. All Palestinians, even those in Hamas, understand that under one-state there will be democratic elections in which Jews and Palestinians will compete, and even form multi-ethnic coalitions. It will be a state of all its citizens and not a state owned by one people or another.
You know what I don’t like about your posts, that you are constantly asking for money. It’s like begging. It really turns me off. Why not just stick to the news?
@ Barbara:
No, but ask me if I care.
You clearly do not understand the Jewish concept of tzedakah. It is a sacred commitment to financially support worthy causes which make the world a better place. All of the hundreds of donors who’ve given to support my journalism over the past 20 years understand and appreciate that. The fact that you do not understand the importance of offering such support speaks much more to your cluelessness than to me.
Further, you pay for your internet, TV, newspaper. All of them provide you “the news” which you visit here to read. Yet what I offer here is somehow a different, lesser category. You are a hypocrite. But if you don’t value the reporting here, I suggest you find a different media outlet to provide the news coverage you find here.
Not really. But if people like you actually donated, I wouldn’t have to ask for donations. They would pour in without my request. I consider what I do here a calling. Something important to me and my readers. I ask them to support it and show they value it.
There are hundreds of thousands of blog which request donations. If what I do bothers you, I suggest you go to a site which doesn’t demand you pay a subscription or ask for donations.
Do not respond to this comment.