Palestine Update 637
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Israel/USA fall out over Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul judicial system
“Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, claimed Netanyahu, while accusing the US President while accusing the U.S. president of meddling in Israeli politics. It was a public outbreak, the kind of which usually takes place behind the curtains. But there were other factors at work that had been brewing for many years. President Biden bluntly warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he “cannot continue down this road” of overhauling his country’s judiciary. This fracture in relations will have consequences, but it is doubtful that the lobbies will allow relations to falter beyond the Rubicon.
There is no love lost between the two leaders, despite their polite facade when it comes to their decades-long relationship and their common commitment to Israel’s defense. Mr. Netanyahu made no particular effort to hide his backing for President Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election, making clear his preference for an incumbent who gave him everything he asked for, including moving the United States Embassy to Jerusalem and paying little attention to the Palestinians while siding with Israel on its claims over Palestinian territory in the West Bank.
Despite the pause in his government’s incredibly controversial efforts to overhaul the judicial system, members of his coalition have been quietly moving ahead with a push of six equally radical legislative measures. These include bills allowing public servants to accept gifts and the police to search private homes without a warrant; legalizing the death penalty for terrorists; banning bread from hospitals over the Passover holiday; and significantly expanding the jurisdiction of Israeli rabbinical courts.”
Middle East Eye reports how “what started with 37 pilots, who changed the track and mood of the protest, is now turning into an avalanche of hundreds. Reservists from other units, including Unit 8200, an Israeli intelligence corps unit, have also threatened to not turn up for duty. Netanyahu will need more than his normal defiance and resilience to come out of this landslide of anger and resentment against his policies and politics.
Netanyahu stops at nothing. The Israeli right is planning to ban Palestinian parties. If the Netanyahu government secures a forever majority, it will bolster the argument that an apartheid regime reigns between the river and the sea. International human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – that in Israel there exists a regime of apartheid against Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.” Netanyahu may just fall into a hole that he is digging without thinking too much about the consequences.
These are challenging times and opportunities for those who are at the resistance of apartheid Israel.
On behalf of MLN Palestine Updates
Ranjan Solomon
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Biden’s Confrontation with Netanyahu brewing for Years
“When President Biden bluntly warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he “cannot continue down this road” of overhauling his country’s judiciary, he touched off the kind of response usually expressed by America’s adversaries rather than its allies. “Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Wednesday, accusing the U.S. president of meddling in another country’s politics — which is exactly what Mr. Biden was intending to do. It was a remarkably public outbreak of the kind of disagreement that usually takes place in private. But there were other factors at work that had been brewing for many years.”
Read more in New York Times
Liberal Israelis and the US empowered the settler right. Now it’s out of control
“Itamar Ben Gvir, a serial racist who leads the Jewish Power party and serves as national security minister, was promised by Netanyahu that the state would move forward with creating a national guard under Ben Gvir’s authority – dubbed by some commentators as his “private militia”. This deal speaks volumes to the intimate connection between the two crises simultaneously gripping Israel: the internal polarisation around judicial reforms, and the government-empowered escalation of extremism against Palestinians. That connection is glaringly obvious, but rarely acknowledged in Israeli political circles…Israeli society is experiencing what French-Martinique anti-colonial author and politician Aime Cesaire called the “boomerang effect of colonisation”. The work of Cesaire and others looked at how policies used on the colonised by colonial states could then be brought back to the imperial metropole and deployed against citizens.” … Huwwara is the present, but it also offers a link to the past and a glimpse of a potential future. A second Nakba is something that Israeli right-wing politicians openly threaten with increased frequency, and for which settler militias under Israeli military cover are testing the ground. The insipid politics of the Zionist centre and centre-left cannot reverse these trends. For outside powers, the choice is between complicity in apartheid or holding Israel accountable. And while Palestinians have always paid the price for Israel’s impunity, many Israelis are now discovering that it carries costs for them too.” “Itamar Ben Gvir, a serial racist who leads the Jewish Power party and serves as national security minister, was promised by Netanyahu that the state would move forward with creating a national guard under Ben Gvir’s authority – dubbed by some commentators as his “private militia”. This deal speaks volumes to the intimate connection between the two crises simultaneously gripping Israel: the internal polarisation around judicial reforms, and the government-empowered escalation of extremism against Palestinians. That connection is glaringly obvious, but rarely acknowledged in Israeli political circles…Israeli society is experiencing what French-Martinique anti-colonial author and politician Aime Cesaire called the “boomerang effect of colonisation”. The work of Cesaire and others looked at how policies used on the colonised by colonial states could then be brought back to the imperial metropole and deployed against citizens.” … Huwwara is the present, but it also offers a link to the past and a glimpse of a potential future. A second Nakba is something that Israeli right-wing politicians openly threaten with increased frequency, and for which settler militias under Israeli military cover are testing the ground. The insipid politics of the Zionist centre and centre-left cannot reverse these trends. For outside powers, the choice is between complicity in apartheid or holding Israel accountable. And while Palestinians have always paid the price for Israel’s impunity, many Israelis are now discovering that it carries costs for them too.”
Read more in Middle East Eye
No air force, no Israel: Why the fighter pilots’ protest is an existential issue
“What started with 37 pilots, who changed the track and mood of the protest, is now turning into an avalanche of hundreds. Reservists from other units, including Unit 8200, an Israeli intelligence corps unit, have also threatened to not turn up for duty. Meanwhile, reservists and veterans from the Golani combat infantry brigade have announced their refusal to serve as long as the “dictatorship legislation” continues. Reservists from other elite formations, such as the Flotilla 13 naval commandos and the air force’s Shaldag special forces unit have also said they will either refuse call-up orders or cease volunteering extra time…Neri Yarkoni, a retired colonel and combat pilot for over 30 years, told Middle East Eye that the actions of the 37 pilots were a major turning point for the protest movement. “Israel does not have that many fighter pilots. Unlike in other Israeli army units, almost all of the pilots are reservists and not young soldiers performing a mandatory service,” he said…Everybody understands that without them, there is no air force and without the air force, there is no Israel.
Read more in Middle East Eye
The Israeli right is planning to ban Palestinian parties. Here’s how
If the Netanyahu government secures a forever majority, it will bolster the argument that an apartheid regime reigns between the river and the sea.
“The fundamental motivation for the proposed law is not just to decrease the number of Arab representatives in the Knesset, but to eliminate that representation altogether. The political participation of Arab citizens of Israel in the Knesset is contingent on unequal grounds for disqualification and is founded on a constitutional framework that requires them to abstain from all activity that could be interpreted as rejection of the Jewish character of the State of Israel, which has already led to statements from various bodies — such as the international human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – that in Israel there exists a regime of apartheid against Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.”
Read more in 972 Mag.com
Palestinians expect new intifada to erupt, according to polling
“According to a survey carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 61 percent of Palestinians expect a new uprising, while 68 percent support the formation of armed groups, such as the Nablus-based Lions’ Den, who do not take orders from the Palestinian Authority. While 52 percent said they were worried that the formation of such groups could lead to armed clashes with the PA security services, 52 percent also said that “the Palestinian people’s interest lies in the collapse or dissolution of the PA”.|
Read more in Middle East Eye
1 April 2023
Source: nakbaliberation.com