Violence in Israel flares up dangerously after Netanyahu takes office | Abroad

Even US Secretary of State Antony Blinken didn’t know what positive to say at the beginning of this week. The representative of Israel’s main ally visited Jerusalem, and got no further than a call for calm, a statement that this is “an important moment” and a plea for preserving “our shared values.”

In the month leading up to his visit, more than 30 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed by violence. For example, a major clash took place in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. This is especially painful for the Palestinians, because in 2002 (at the nadir of the Second Intifada) dozens of people were killed in a major military action. And last Friday, seven Israelis were shot dead at a synagogue in East Jerusalem. During Blinken’s presence, a Palestinian died at a military checkpoint in Hebron. And after the minister left, the Israeli army launched attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip early yesterday morning. Violence is, of course, no stranger to this volatile area, but it has been a long time since it was this violent.

The revival has not come out of the blue. In fact, it is exactly what many people feared when Benjamin Netanyahu’s new cabinet took office. The record prime minister (already six terms) won last November’s elections. That in itself was a shock, because he had to leave the field in 2021 after suspicions of corruption. He has always continued to deny and got his revenge when his successor Naftali Bennett also failed to make it. But things got worse when he presented his new partners and cabinet.

The coalition that now rules Israel is the most religious and uncompromising in the country’s history. Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party pales in comparison to the religious Zionists, ultra-Orthodox and far-right nationalists in the rest of the group. Their main message, in literal terms: “The Jewish people have the exclusive and inalienable right to all areas in Israel.” That actually means that there is no place for Palestinians, and that in turn means that the so-called two-state solution (a Palestinian and a Jewish state in the former Palestine mandate) has disappeared from sight.

This is bad news for the 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank. They already have to share that area with 600,000 Jewish settlers, and that will only increase if it is up to the government. The official policy is ‘to further promote and develop [Joodse] settlements in all parts of Israel,” including “Judea and Samaria” (aka the West Bank). Internationally there is strong resistance to expanding the settlements, even from the Americans, but that does not seem to bother the new government. She even goes in with a straight leg.

For example, Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right coalition party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Force), has been appointed Minister of National Security. He himself lives in the West Bank, has previously been convicted of racism and support for a Jewish terrorist organization, and is now responsible for the police. He immediately announced a stricter regime for Palestinian prisoners. And the colonization of the West Bank is in the hands of Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party and secretary of the treasury. He too was once arrested for ‘Jewish terrorism’, presents himself as a ‘proud homophobe’ and thinks a gay parade is ‘worse than bestiality’.

Netanyahu’s promise of “peace and protection of civil rights” has now attracted some skepticism. In any case, many believe that his controversial coalition is essentially a move to avoid a conviction for corruption. There is already a proposal from the new majority to suspend all investigations. A plan to give parliament the option of overturning Supreme Court rulings has also unleashed a storm of criticism. There have been massive protests against this in the streets for weeks. In a short time, the new government has not only put the Palestinians on edge, but, observers warn, two camps have also emerged in Israel itself.