By James Sunderland
The death in custody on May 2 of Khader Adnan, the first Palestinian to die of a hunger strike for more than 30 years, sparked mass protests in Gaza and an exchange of fire between Israel and armed Palestinian groups. It was later announced that a ceasefire had been agreed, but the situation remains febrile.
It’s another headache for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He’s already struggling to hold together his fractious coalition in the face of mass protests over his government’s plans to overhaul the country’s judiciary to make it effectively subordinate to the Knesset, or parliament. Netanyahu was forced to shelve the plan in April after four months of street protests in Israel’s cities.
But there is also significant support on the right – both within Netanyahu’s coalition and on the streets. On April 28 an estimated 200,000 pro-overhaul protesters gathered in Jerusalem for a mass rally ahead of the reopening of the Knesset after Passover.
They were addressed by figures including the justice minister, Yariv Levin, who said the government remained committed to the planned overhaul. He also attacked opposition parties for refusing to compromise over the legislation as part of a mediation process being led by Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog.
Netanyahu’s promise in April to seek a compromise plan has been met with scepticism by many opposition figures and ordinary Israelis. This is at least partly due to promises from government ministers to plough on with the measures one way or another and their hostile rhetoric against the supreme court and the millions of Israelis who want to prevent the reform.
On April 15, the number two at the justice ministry, David Amsalem, called for an investigation into the protests and for the current supreme court president, Esther Hayut, to be charged with “an attempted coup”.
Tens of thousands took to the streets again last weekend, the 17th consecutive week that Israelis have turned out for mass demonstrations against what many see as a plan that would undermine Israeli democracy.
Challenges on multiple fronts
Meanwhile, clashes between Muslims and Israeli police during Passover and Ramadan led to heightened tensions with the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states. After Israeli Defence Force troops twice stormed al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, arresting hundreds of worshippers and injuring several, it drew an immediate response from what are believed to be Hamas members based in Lebanon.
A barrage of 34 rockets was launched into Israel over the following weekend, but were mainly intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system.
Warming relations with the Gulf states, meanwhile, have also turned progressively chillier in recent months due to inflammatory language regarding Palestinians from far-right coalition members and heightened settler violence in the West Bank.
These are dangerous times for Israel as it marks the 75th anniversary of its statehood. Israeli society is fractured – and external enemies of Israel know this. But so too does Netanyahu.
He is an inveterate political survivor, who understands that the current situation is untenable. The decision to prevent Jewish worshipers from entering the Temple Mount, where Al Aqsa is located, until the end of Ramadan seems to have been designed to de-escalate tensions.
Meanwhile, after firing his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for speaking out against the overhaul, Netanyahu has awkwardly rescinded that decision – another sign of how serious the situation has become. But given the language being used by various hard-right government ministers and the violence they are whipping up, it’s unclear how long any relative calm can last.
The path ahead
Facing unfavourable conditions at home and abroad, Netanyahu will probably attempt to focus on preparing and passing the budget in the coming weeks. This, he may hope, will distract hardliners in his coalition from the judicial reform and secure some political breathing space.
Yet it’s far from certain that many ministers will be so easily diverted. Even as Israeli society tears itself apart and investors pull their money from the country in response to the proposed overhaul, many members of the government remain ideologically committed to neutering the courts – no matter the cost.
This could unleash more trouble. Many protesters feel Netanyahu, a man renowned for stabbing even his allies in the back, cannot be trusted. Even if he attempts to defuse the situation, the attitude of many of Netanyahu’s ministers is likely to make many people even more sceptical of his real intentions. Protesters are unlikely to disappear from Israeli streets any time soon.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, has already shown he is willing to bend to the demands of the far-right in order to keep them behind him – though cracks in the relationship are beginning to show with several members of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party threatening to resign.
Lost in much of the coverage in the west as Netanyahu announced his plans to pause the judicial overhaul, was the price the security minister Itamar Ben Gvir – a convicted supporter of a Jewish terrorist organisation – managed to elicit from the premier in return for support for the legislative pause: an armed “national guard” under his command.
The force has not come into being yet. But despite Netanyahu’ efforts to water down the force’s powers and Ben Gvir’s grip on the organisation, the decision to hand the extremist minister such a force demonstrates the hold hardline and far-right ministers have over this government.
All signs point to continued chaos as ministers continue to call to push through the deeply divisive overhaul legislation and the far-right continues to profit from its intransigence. Ben Gvir’s national guard could further ignite tensions with the Palestinians and by extension armed Islamic groups in the Middle East. Although Passover provided a welcome break in Israel’s political drama, more unrest is on the cards.
James Sunderland is a doctoral candidate in Global History at the University of Oxford.
Deborah Coffey says
Are you watching, America? We’re in the same boat. I can’t understand why millions of Americans who say they love democracy aren’t in the streets protesting the Fascist forces spreading like wildfire through our nation. Those evil forces are killing us with racist, bigoted laws. They’re taking away American freedoms. They’re spreading the worst kind of lies in order to create chaos. They’re killing our educational system and trying to kill our best institutions. And, the latest, they’re coming after the Jews. According to Rachel Maddow last night, many of Trump’s former officials are meeting at one of his hotels in Florida where a prominent Hitler-loving speaker is scheduled to speak. This guy has said that Hitler fought exactly the right enemy and we need to finish the job.
William Moya says
I agree with your comments, but getting back to Israel, Palestine and the Middle East, the culprit for Israel’s continuous unchecked behavior is us, the US, which find itself in a bind because of Israel being the only ally in the neighborhood, and our recurring, pesky, domestic politics.
Pierre Tristam says
Israel is not the only ally in the neighborhood. It is surrounded by American allies but for the Hezbollah and Hamas enclaves in Lebanon and occupied Gaza. The idea that Israel is America’s only ally, let alone its only reliable ally, is a myth staunchly cultivated by the Israel lobby in the U.S. It doesn’t match up with reality, and masks to what extent treating Israel as the 51st state has harmed American foreign policy in the region, and human rights, since we willingly support, finance and arm an occupying, apartheid regime. I’m not saying that the Egyptians or Saudis are any better. They’re abject tyrannies. But that only further proves to what extent the U.S. will support the despotic regimes of North Africa and the Arab peninsula, no matter how repressive or violent toward their own people–or, in Israel’s case, more violent by far, than any regime in the Middle East, toward the Palestinians. In Lebanon, in Jordan, in Syria, Palestinian refugees are unforgivably treated like subhumans. But they’re not routinely massacred and erased, as they are in Israel. Ergo, the other powder keg.
ASF says
Arabs are not being “erased” in Israel, Mr. Tristam. a full 22% of Israel’s total population is Arab. You just gave your self away with that one.
About 800,000 Jews were summarily kicked out of their homes and exiled from their lands throughout the Middle East as soon as Israel’s statehood was declared in 1948. When do they and all their descendents get THEIR “Right of Return”?
Bill C says
To your 51st state point, average annual wage (2021) for an individual in Flagler County $41,800. For Israel, average annual wage (2022) $42,360. Israel is the #1 recipient of US military aid in the world at $3.3 Billion.
ASF says
Palestinians living in most Arab countrues are treated as secocnd class citizens, often living in poor condtions in penned off refugee camps; most not granted citizenship rights. In Syria and Lebanon, the Palestinian refugee camps are especially squalid, paling in comparison to the camps located in the Palestinian territories. Syria and Lebanon, by law, both forbid the Palestinians the right to apply for citizenship in those countries. They are denied government benefits and barred from professional status. THAT is apartheid, unquestionably.’
Palestinians were once referred to as “Trans-Jordanians”–in fact, the first and best statehood offer the Palestinians received was offered to them under the proposed auspices of Jordan. But Jordan and the Arab league leaned on the Palestinians to turn down that two state offer and, afterwards, Jordan appropriated into its own borders, much of the land mass that was supposed to comprise that first proposed state of Palestine. Perhaps the Paestinians should amass on the borders of Jordan everyday and demand their “Right of Return” to that land. In the meantime, more than 600,000 Pakesitnians living in Jordan do not hold citizenship and 370,000 live in refugee camps there.
Following the 1991 Gulf War, during which Yassar Arafat supported Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, the Kuwaiti government expelled 200,ooo Palestinians.
By contrast, Arab Israeli citizens qualify for full government benefits that are equal to those of their Jewish Israeli brethren. They hold high offices in Israel, including judgeships and other official government positions and enjoy representation in the Knesset.
Perhaps more should be done to stop the Arab world from exploiting the plight of their own, including the Palestinians who they seem to use as pawns in their own political battles, not only with Israel (and Jews in general) but also with Democracy/The West.
Pierre Tristam says
There’s no defense for the treatment of Palestinians in Arab countries. But defending the second-class citizen treatment of Arabs in Israel by pointing to Arabs’ abuse of Palestinians at least recognizes that Israel is no more or less special than those Arab countries: they’re all on the same standard, though again, Palestinians aren’t getting massacred in other countries. They are in Israel.
FlaglerLive says
Of course they are, in Israel and the occupied territories: when you have a different set of rights–or no rights, in the case of the occupied territories–it’s erasure. Jim Crow was not exactly celebrations of black history months all those years. It’s not as obscene in Israel, but the lesser obscenity is in degrees. There are no equal rights for Arab Israelis. But I see we’re getting back into the tiresome cycle of pretending that Israel’s shit doesn’t stink, and it really is tiresome, especially these days of gore and outright democratic devolution, as this article argues. I have other things to do that debate whether the sun rises in the east with an Arab-denier.
The dude says
We send Israel $3.3b a year because our fine MAGA xtians wish to kick off Armageddon there and forcefully convert all the jews before the rapture.
Foresee says
Israel is moving in the direction of a Fascist state. It’s baffling considering their history. Israel is using the same rational as the Russians are using for their invasion of Ukraine, that Ukraine is historically a part of Russia, the same as Israel claims Palestine is historically a part of Israel. Operation “Cast Lead” is the same philosophy of war as Russia’s indiscriminate use of force against Ukraine.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/mde150212009eng.pdf
ASF says
The Defensive Aid that the US gives to Israel is conditioned upon their spending a majority of it employing American businesses to dvelop technologies, intelligence and other advances that they then share with the United States. That benefits our economic and security interests as well as their’s.
By contrast, what do we get in return from all the aid we continue to lavish–with few if any cindtions or accountability attached to it at all, despite the passage of The Taylor Force Act by Cingress—to the Palestinians, as well as host of other majority Muslim countries?
As a matter of fact, what are we doing still maintaining US Tax payer funded military bases in EU countries that should be expending their own funds for their own defensive purposes?
It seems that some people have a little problem with “differentially” applied standards and judgements here.
ASF says
Israeli Arabs receive most of the same citizen benefits that Jewish citizens of Israel do. They have representation in the Knesset. They hold high government offices and judgeships, attend and teach in Israeli universities and practice professions that Palestinian citizens living in many Majority Muslim countries are NOT allowed to practice. In fact, many Palestinians are forbidden from ever applying for citizenship at all in many Arab countries–ever. Sharia Law is not exactly non-discrimnatory and non-restrictive. So, let’s keep things in perspective when judging Israel by standards that are much more punishing than those applied to the Arab countries that surround them.
Arab Israelis make free use of the Israeli court sytem which not only hears their grievances but also prosecutes Israelis who who commit crimes against Arabs.
Israeli Arabs also receive the same heath and educaitonal benefits that Non-Arab Israelis do.
By contrast, Mr Tristam, how many Jews are free to live in the Gaza Strip at all? Is it not legally forbidden by both the PA and Hamas for Palestinians living in the territories to sell their own deeded land to a Jew–on pain of being incarcerated or executed?
ASF says
How many Palestinians have died in Syria, Mr Tristam?
Foresee says
From Congressional Research Service March 2023:
“To date, the United States has provided Israel $158 billion (current, or non inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding. At present, almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance; from 1971 to 2007, Israel also received significant economic assistance.
In 2016, the U.S. and Israeli governments signed their third 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on military aid, covering FY2019 to FY2028. Under the terms of the MOU, the United States pledged to provide—subject to congressional appropriation—$38 billion in military aid ($33 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grants plus $5 billion in missile defense appropriations) to Israel.”
Pierre Tristam says
Here, little Arab. Here’s a bone for you. Good doggy. Good doggy. [Memo to Google’s derogatory-comment searching bot: I’m being sarcastic in answer to the comment above. I am a good doggy myself.]
Ray W. says
ASF tells a consistent story. Here are a few snippets stated by leading Israeli politicians:
Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister and former mayor of Jerusalem. “[T]he condition of infrastructure in most neighborhoods of east Jerusalem is terrible, and for the past thirty years, Israeli governments have done too little about it.”
Another former mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, replied to a reporter, who stated Kollek had done a great deal for East Jerusalem’s Israeli Arabs: “Nonsense! Fairy tales! The mayor nurtured nothing and built nothing. For Jewish Jerusalem I did something for the past twenty-five years. For East Jerusalem? Nothing! What did I do? Nothing! Sidewalks? Nothing. Cultural institutions? Not one. Yes, we installed a sewage system for them and improved the water supply. Do you know why? Do you think it was for their own good, for their welfare? Forget it! There were some cases of cholera there, and the Jews were afraid they would catch it, so we installed a sewerage system and a water system [to protect] against cholera.”
ASF sees reality as an enemy to be defeated and works very hard to justify his or her efforts to defeat reality. Western rational thought, Socratic in origin, has rules. Justifying the horrible way that Israeli Arabs are treated by Israeli government officials, not to mention how Palestinians in the occupied territories are treated by the IDF, by comparing their plight to the plight of Palestinians who live elsewhere in the Arab world, simply makes their horrible plight slightly less horrible. Never good. Never acceptable. Never humane.