Why have Palestinians with Israeli citizenship remained generally silent during the Gaza genocide? The answer is not only Israel’s forceful intimidation, but also the limits by which this community has sought to challenge Zionism in the Jewish state.
The Balad-Tajammu’ party says the current Israeli protest movement is fighting for a fake democracy for Jews only. How sobering it is that this view is considered so radical it is beyond the pale for Israeli politics.
My friend the late writer Yossi Gurvitz was an apikoros in the best sense of the word, the Jewish term for a freethinker. His heresy led him to support BDS. Educated in yeshivas, he broke out as a teen when he discovered Plutarch, reading real not bible history. That independence led him in time to become “Israel’s first serious anti-occupation blogger” and to point out the vicious ethnocentrism in the basement of Jewish religiosity that Israel was awakening– “and every demon that was pushed into the basement is up and has an M16.”
The racist mobs who lynched Palestinians in May 2021 are now a major political force in Israel. The mask is off for Israeli apartheid.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attacked publicly the possibility of a minority government of his rival Blue-White that would be dependent on the Joint List of Palestinians parties, crying that Blue White leadership “has lost its mind, stop this madness.” He reportedly told followers “Burn it all down,” if such a government is formed,
The Israeli High Court ruled yesterday that the leader of the Jewish Power Party, Michael Ben Ari, is barred from running in the upcoming Israeli elections due his racism. But Jonathan Ofir asks what about the racism of the whole party he is part of, that is still permitted to run? “One less racist potential lawmaker in the Israeli parliament, such as Ben Ari, is no doubt a welcome absence,” Ofir writes, “But this does not root out Israeli Zionist racism – that one is a completely mainstream and permanent feature.”
After a half-year suspension and a row to remove from office Arab member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi, right-wing parties succeeded in disqualifying her from participating in Israeli elections next month. Yesterday the Central Election Committee in the Knesset voted Zoabi and hardline candidate Baruch Marzel could not run. The two were accused of incitement against Israel. Both cases will now be reviewed by Israel’s high court.