9 nov 2018
When Israeli troops stormed the house of Palestinian parliamentarian and lawyer Khalida Jarrar on April 2, 2015, she was engrossed in her research. For months, she had been leading a Palestinian effort to take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Her research on that very evening was related directly to the kind of behavior that allows a group of soldiers to handcuff a respected Palestinian intellectual, throw her in jail with no trial and have no accountability for their action.
Jarrar was released in June 2016 after spending more than a year in jail, only to be arrested once more, on 2 July last year. She remains in an Israeli prison to this day. On 28 October, her “administrative detention” was renewed for the fourth time.
There are thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, most of them held outside the militarily-occupied Palestinian territories, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Nearly500 of these Palestinians are held with neither charge nor trial and detained for six-month periods that are renewed, sometimes indefinitely, by Israeli military courts with no legal justification whatsoever. Jarrar is one of those “administrative detainees”.
The parliamentarian is not pleading with her jailers for her freedom. Instead, she is keeping herself busy, educating her fellow prisoners about international law, offering classes and issuing statements to the outside world that reflect not only her refined intellect but also her resolve and strength of character.
Jarrar is relentless. Despite her failing health — she suffers from multiple ischemic infarctions and hypercholesterolemia, and was hospitalized due to severe bleeding resulting from epistaxis — her commitment to the cause of her people has not, in any way, weakened or faltered.
The 55-year-old lawyer has championed a political discourse that is largely missing amid the ongoing feud between the Palestinian Authority’s largest faction, Fatah, in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas in besieged Gaza. As a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and an active member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Jarrar has advocated the kind of politics that is not disconnected from the people and, especially, from the women who she strongly and uncompromisingly represents.
According to Jarrar, no Palestinian official should engage in any form of dialogue with Israel, because such engagement helps to legitimize a state that is founded on genocide and ethnic cleansing; a state that is currently carrying out various types of war crimes, the very crimes that Jarrar tried to expose before the ICC. As such, she rejects the so-called “peace process”, a futile exercise that has no intention or mechanism aimed at “implementing international resolutions related to the Palestinian cause and recognizing the fundamental rights of the Palestinians.”
It goes without saying that a woman with such an astute, strong position vehemently rejects the “security coordination” between the PA and Israel. She sees such action as a betrayal of the struggle and sacrifices of the Palestinian people.
While PA officials continue to enjoy the perks of “leadership”, desperately breathing life into a dead political discourse called the “peace process” and the “two-state solution”, Jarrar, a female Palestinian leader with genuine vision, subsists in HaSharon Prison. There, along with dozens of other Palestinian women, she experiences daily humiliation, denial of rights and various other Israeli tactics intended to break her spirit.
Jarrar, though, is as experienced in resisting Israel as she is in her knowledge of law and human rights. In August 2014, as Israel was carrying out one of its most heinous acts of genocide in Gaza — killing and wounding thousands in its so-called “Operation Protective Edge” military offensive — Jarrar received an unwelcome visit by Israeli soldiers.
Fully aware of her work and credibility as a Palestinian lawyer with an international outreach — she is the Palestine representative in the Council of Europe — the Israeli government unleashed their campaign of harassment, which ended in her imprisonment. The soldiers delivered a military edict ordering her to leave her home in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, and go to Jericho.
The Israelis failed to silence her, so she was arrested in April the following year. Thus began an episode of suffering, as well as resistance, which is yet to end.
When the Israeli army came for Jarrar, its soldiers surrounded her home in great numbers, as if the well-spoken Palestinian activist was Israel’s greatest security threat. The scene was surreal and revealed what Israel’s real fear is: Palestinians, like Khalida Jarrar, who are able to communicate an articulate message that exposes Israel and its crimes to the rest of the world.
Indeed, the whole set-up was reminiscent of the opening sentence of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial: “Somebody must have made a false accusation against Joseph K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong.”
Administrative detention in Israel is the recreation of that Kafkaesque scene over and over again. Joseph K. is Khalida Jarrar and thousands of other Palestinians who are paying a high price merely for calling for the legitimate rights and freedom of their people.
Under international pressure, Israel was forced to put Jarrar on trial, levying against her twelve charges that included visiting a released prisoner and participating in a book fair. Her other arrest and the four renewals of her detention is a testament not just to Israel’s lack of any real evidence against her, but also to its moral bankruptcy.
Why is Israel afraid of Khalida Jarrar? The truth is that Jarrar, like many other Palestinian women, represents the antidote to the fabricated narrative which promotes Israel relentlessly as an oasis of freedom, democracy, and human rights, juxtaposed with a Palestinian society that purportedly represents the opposite of what Israel stands for.
As a lawyer, human rights activist, prominent politician, and advocate for women, Jarrar and her eloquence, courage and deep understanding of her rights and the rights of her people, demolish this Israeli house of lies. She is the quintessential feminist; her feminism, however, is not mere identity politics, a surface ideology, evoking empty rights meant to strike a chord with western audiences. Instead, Khalida Jarrar fights for Palestinian women, their freedom and their right to receive a proper education, to seek work opportunities and to better their lives, while facing tremendous obstacles like Israel’s military occupation, prison, and social pressures.
In Arabic, Khalida means “immortal”. It is a most fitting designation for a true fighter who represents the legacy of generations of strong Palestinian women whose “sumoud” — steadfastness — shall always inspire an entire nation.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara.
Jarrar was released in June 2016 after spending more than a year in jail, only to be arrested once more, on 2 July last year. She remains in an Israeli prison to this day. On 28 October, her “administrative detention” was renewed for the fourth time.
There are thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, most of them held outside the militarily-occupied Palestinian territories, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Nearly500 of these Palestinians are held with neither charge nor trial and detained for six-month periods that are renewed, sometimes indefinitely, by Israeli military courts with no legal justification whatsoever. Jarrar is one of those “administrative detainees”.
The parliamentarian is not pleading with her jailers for her freedom. Instead, she is keeping herself busy, educating her fellow prisoners about international law, offering classes and issuing statements to the outside world that reflect not only her refined intellect but also her resolve and strength of character.
Jarrar is relentless. Despite her failing health — she suffers from multiple ischemic infarctions and hypercholesterolemia, and was hospitalized due to severe bleeding resulting from epistaxis — her commitment to the cause of her people has not, in any way, weakened or faltered.
The 55-year-old lawyer has championed a political discourse that is largely missing amid the ongoing feud between the Palestinian Authority’s largest faction, Fatah, in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas in besieged Gaza. As a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and an active member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Jarrar has advocated the kind of politics that is not disconnected from the people and, especially, from the women who she strongly and uncompromisingly represents.
According to Jarrar, no Palestinian official should engage in any form of dialogue with Israel, because such engagement helps to legitimize a state that is founded on genocide and ethnic cleansing; a state that is currently carrying out various types of war crimes, the very crimes that Jarrar tried to expose before the ICC. As such, she rejects the so-called “peace process”, a futile exercise that has no intention or mechanism aimed at “implementing international resolutions related to the Palestinian cause and recognizing the fundamental rights of the Palestinians.”
It goes without saying that a woman with such an astute, strong position vehemently rejects the “security coordination” between the PA and Israel. She sees such action as a betrayal of the struggle and sacrifices of the Palestinian people.
While PA officials continue to enjoy the perks of “leadership”, desperately breathing life into a dead political discourse called the “peace process” and the “two-state solution”, Jarrar, a female Palestinian leader with genuine vision, subsists in HaSharon Prison. There, along with dozens of other Palestinian women, she experiences daily humiliation, denial of rights and various other Israeli tactics intended to break her spirit.
Jarrar, though, is as experienced in resisting Israel as she is in her knowledge of law and human rights. In August 2014, as Israel was carrying out one of its most heinous acts of genocide in Gaza — killing and wounding thousands in its so-called “Operation Protective Edge” military offensive — Jarrar received an unwelcome visit by Israeli soldiers.
Fully aware of her work and credibility as a Palestinian lawyer with an international outreach — she is the Palestine representative in the Council of Europe — the Israeli government unleashed their campaign of harassment, which ended in her imprisonment. The soldiers delivered a military edict ordering her to leave her home in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, and go to Jericho.
The Israelis failed to silence her, so she was arrested in April the following year. Thus began an episode of suffering, as well as resistance, which is yet to end.
When the Israeli army came for Jarrar, its soldiers surrounded her home in great numbers, as if the well-spoken Palestinian activist was Israel’s greatest security threat. The scene was surreal and revealed what Israel’s real fear is: Palestinians, like Khalida Jarrar, who are able to communicate an articulate message that exposes Israel and its crimes to the rest of the world.
Indeed, the whole set-up was reminiscent of the opening sentence of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial: “Somebody must have made a false accusation against Joseph K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong.”
Administrative detention in Israel is the recreation of that Kafkaesque scene over and over again. Joseph K. is Khalida Jarrar and thousands of other Palestinians who are paying a high price merely for calling for the legitimate rights and freedom of their people.
Under international pressure, Israel was forced to put Jarrar on trial, levying against her twelve charges that included visiting a released prisoner and participating in a book fair. Her other arrest and the four renewals of her detention is a testament not just to Israel’s lack of any real evidence against her, but also to its moral bankruptcy.
Why is Israel afraid of Khalida Jarrar? The truth is that Jarrar, like many other Palestinian women, represents the antidote to the fabricated narrative which promotes Israel relentlessly as an oasis of freedom, democracy, and human rights, juxtaposed with a Palestinian society that purportedly represents the opposite of what Israel stands for.
As a lawyer, human rights activist, prominent politician, and advocate for women, Jarrar and her eloquence, courage and deep understanding of her rights and the rights of her people, demolish this Israeli house of lies. She is the quintessential feminist; her feminism, however, is not mere identity politics, a surface ideology, evoking empty rights meant to strike a chord with western audiences. Instead, Khalida Jarrar fights for Palestinian women, their freedom and their right to receive a proper education, to seek work opportunities and to better their lives, while facing tremendous obstacles like Israel’s military occupation, prison, and social pressures.
In Arabic, Khalida means “immortal”. It is a most fitting designation for a true fighter who represents the legacy of generations of strong Palestinian women whose “sumoud” — steadfastness — shall always inspire an entire nation.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara.
8 nov 2018
Israeli MK Oren Hazan, from the ruling Likud party, described his handicapped lawmaker Ilan Gilon, from Meretz, “half a human”, during an official plenum.
The comment came during a stormy Knesset debate over legislation that would see government funding for the arts as contingent on “loyalty.” The law targets Arab residents in order to stop commemorating Palestinian occasions.
Gilon had been criticizing Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev, also of the Likud party, from the podium when Hazan came to her defense.
The disabled MK and Hazan then exchanged words before the Likud backbencher said: “If you weren’t half a human, I would respond to you.”
Gilon replied branding Hazan “the Golem of Prague.” Gilon, who had polio as a child, has difficulty walking unaided and often uses a wheelchair.
“Let me remind you that this repulsive MK also mocked my friend Karin Elharar for her disability. How disgusting can you be?” Zionist Union MK Mickey Rosenthal said.
“If he isn’t thrown out of the Likud in the coming hour — then this is the true face of the party. This is the way they want to lead Israel. Revolting,” wrote Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir on Twitter.
However, he remained in the Likud.
The comment came during a stormy Knesset debate over legislation that would see government funding for the arts as contingent on “loyalty.” The law targets Arab residents in order to stop commemorating Palestinian occasions.
Gilon had been criticizing Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev, also of the Likud party, from the podium when Hazan came to her defense.
The disabled MK and Hazan then exchanged words before the Likud backbencher said: “If you weren’t half a human, I would respond to you.”
Gilon replied branding Hazan “the Golem of Prague.” Gilon, who had polio as a child, has difficulty walking unaided and often uses a wheelchair.
“Let me remind you that this repulsive MK also mocked my friend Karin Elharar for her disability. How disgusting can you be?” Zionist Union MK Mickey Rosenthal said.
“If he isn’t thrown out of the Likud in the coming hour — then this is the true face of the party. This is the way they want to lead Israel. Revolting,” wrote Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir on Twitter.
However, he remained in the Likud.
Attorney General Mandelblit, Deputy AG Dina Zilber, and Justice Minister Shaked
Justice Minister Shaked demands Attorney General Mandelblit to fire his deputy Dina Zilber after she criticized the loyalty in culture bill proposal at a Knesset committee discussion; stressing he won't allow outside interference in the managing of his department, the AG decided to halt Zilber's appearances in the Knesset or government until he can clarify the matter with her.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has demanded the dismissal of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's deputy Dina Zilber over her criticism of the loyalty in culture bill.
The loyalty in culture bill, which was proposed by Culture Minister Miri Regev, seeks to grant the Culture and Sports Ministry the authority to deny state funding to cultural institutions that "undermine" the state's values and symbols.
During a discussion at the Knesset's Education, Culture and Sports Committee on Tuesday morning, Zilber pointed out the legal difficulties such an amendment would pose. "The legislation grants sweeping powers, including the denial of funding, while creating an effect of self-censorship," she cautioned.
"Culture is free imagination, beauty, the plurality of voices, courage, defiance, honesty—an expression that doesn't pander or adjusts itself to pass governmental compliance tests," Zilber continued.
"Times are changing. These are not simple days, and they bring with them not just new laws, but also new words: Governance, loyalty, override. (This is) contrarian discourse, which is wounding and scarring our social fabric. It marks and labels—who is with us and who is against us. And if there's one who is loyal, is there another who betrays? A fifth column? 'Give us obedient AGs, emasculated artists, curbed media—a disciplined and educated people whose thinking is uniform,'" Zilber charged.
In response to Zilber's comments, Justice Minister Shaked announced on Tuesday evening that she expects the deputy AG to immediately tend her resignation.
"Starting today, Mrs. Dina Zilber no longer represents my positions, the positions of my ministry, or the positions of the government in government discussions, at one of its committees or at one of the Knesset's committies," Shaked informed Mandelblit. "She is no longer permitted to appear in front of the government or the Knesset as a representative of the ministry."
"Zilber has made a series of extremist and defiant statements against members of Knesset and government ministers," Shaked accused. "It is clear from Zilber's repeat actions that she does not wish to act in accordance with the Civil Service Regulations, the instructions of the attorney general, or any other basic rule of good governance that should be obvious even without having to be put in writing. It is clear she does not wish to act as a legal advisor in a professional and honest manner."
Shaked further claimed that if Zilber wishes to arrive in the Knesset and express political views, she must do so by running for political office.
Backing Shaked, her Bayit Yehudi party leader Naftali Bennett praised "this incredibly important move by Justice Minister Shaked and Bayit Yehudi. The advisors' job is to advise, judges' job is to judge, and the government's job is to govern. Over time, things got confused. This is another significant move by Bayit Yehudi to restore sanity and balance."
While agreeing to Shaked's demand not to have Zilber represent government positions for the time being, Attorney General Mandelblit said he decided not to suspend or punish her.
Speaking during an emergency meeting of his department, Mandelblit said he will seek clarifications from Zilber over her appearances at Knesset committees over the past two weeks in which she presented her positions on ethical issues without consulting with him first.
"Anyone going to a discussion on my behalf should represent my legal position," he said, adding however that he "will not tolerate any outside interference in the running of this department."
Shaked doubled down on her demand to dismiss Zilber on Thursday. "To issue a manifesto against the government on a variety of unrelated issues is not a legal position, it's a political one," Shaked told Ynet.
"Legal advice must be done professionally. Political legal advice undermines the public service. The public needs to believe that the public service promotes the government's agenda and not an independent one," she explained.
12 aug 2018 Israel: 'the strongest democracy in the world.'
Justice Minister Shaked demands Attorney General Mandelblit to fire his deputy Dina Zilber after she criticized the loyalty in culture bill proposal at a Knesset committee discussion; stressing he won't allow outside interference in the managing of his department, the AG decided to halt Zilber's appearances in the Knesset or government until he can clarify the matter with her.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has demanded the dismissal of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's deputy Dina Zilber over her criticism of the loyalty in culture bill.
The loyalty in culture bill, which was proposed by Culture Minister Miri Regev, seeks to grant the Culture and Sports Ministry the authority to deny state funding to cultural institutions that "undermine" the state's values and symbols.
During a discussion at the Knesset's Education, Culture and Sports Committee on Tuesday morning, Zilber pointed out the legal difficulties such an amendment would pose. "The legislation grants sweeping powers, including the denial of funding, while creating an effect of self-censorship," she cautioned.
"Culture is free imagination, beauty, the plurality of voices, courage, defiance, honesty—an expression that doesn't pander or adjusts itself to pass governmental compliance tests," Zilber continued.
"Times are changing. These are not simple days, and they bring with them not just new laws, but also new words: Governance, loyalty, override. (This is) contrarian discourse, which is wounding and scarring our social fabric. It marks and labels—who is with us and who is against us. And if there's one who is loyal, is there another who betrays? A fifth column? 'Give us obedient AGs, emasculated artists, curbed media—a disciplined and educated people whose thinking is uniform,'" Zilber charged.
In response to Zilber's comments, Justice Minister Shaked announced on Tuesday evening that she expects the deputy AG to immediately tend her resignation.
"Starting today, Mrs. Dina Zilber no longer represents my positions, the positions of my ministry, or the positions of the government in government discussions, at one of its committees or at one of the Knesset's committies," Shaked informed Mandelblit. "She is no longer permitted to appear in front of the government or the Knesset as a representative of the ministry."
"Zilber has made a series of extremist and defiant statements against members of Knesset and government ministers," Shaked accused. "It is clear from Zilber's repeat actions that she does not wish to act in accordance with the Civil Service Regulations, the instructions of the attorney general, or any other basic rule of good governance that should be obvious even without having to be put in writing. It is clear she does not wish to act as a legal advisor in a professional and honest manner."
Shaked further claimed that if Zilber wishes to arrive in the Knesset and express political views, she must do so by running for political office.
Backing Shaked, her Bayit Yehudi party leader Naftali Bennett praised "this incredibly important move by Justice Minister Shaked and Bayit Yehudi. The advisors' job is to advise, judges' job is to judge, and the government's job is to govern. Over time, things got confused. This is another significant move by Bayit Yehudi to restore sanity and balance."
While agreeing to Shaked's demand not to have Zilber represent government positions for the time being, Attorney General Mandelblit said he decided not to suspend or punish her.
Speaking during an emergency meeting of his department, Mandelblit said he will seek clarifications from Zilber over her appearances at Knesset committees over the past two weeks in which she presented her positions on ethical issues without consulting with him first.
"Anyone going to a discussion on my behalf should represent my legal position," he said, adding however that he "will not tolerate any outside interference in the running of this department."
Shaked doubled down on her demand to dismiss Zilber on Thursday. "To issue a manifesto against the government on a variety of unrelated issues is not a legal position, it's a political one," Shaked told Ynet.
"Legal advice must be done professionally. Political legal advice undermines the public service. The public needs to believe that the public service promotes the government's agenda and not an independent one," she explained.
12 aug 2018 Israel: 'the strongest democracy in the world.'
7 nov 2018
The victory of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential election last week has won Israel a passionate new friend on the international stage. The world’s fifth-most populous nation will now be “colored in blue and white”, an Israeli official said, referring to the colors of Israel’s flag.
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately called to congratulate Bolsonaro, a former army officer with a pronounced nostalgia for his country’s 20-year military dictatorship. Critics describe him as a neo-fascist.
According to Israeli media reports, it is “highly probable” that Netanyahu will attend Bolsonaro’s inauguration on January 1.
The Brazilian president-elect has already promised that his country will be the third to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, after the United States and Guatemala. That will further undermine Palestinian hopes for an eventual state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Bolsonaro has told Israel that it can count on Brazil’s vote at the United Nations, and has threatened to close the Palestinian embassy in Brasilia.
One might imagine that Netanyahu is simply being pragmatic in cozying up to Bolsonaro, given Brazil’s importance. But that would be to ignore an unmistakable trend: Israel has relished the recent emergence of far-right leaders across the Americas and Europe, often to the horror of local Jewish communities.
Bolsonaro has divided Brazil’s 100,000 Jews. Some have been impressed by the frequent appearance of Israeli flags at his rallies and his anti-Palestinian stance. But others point out that he regularly expresses hostility to minorities.
They suspect that Bolsonaro covets Israel’s military expertise and the votes of tens of millions of fundamentalist Christians in Brazil, who see Israel as central to their apocalyptic, and in many cases antisemitic, beliefs. Not that this worries Netanyahu.
He has been engaged in a similar bromance with Viktor Orban, the ultra-nationalist prime minister of Hungary, who barely veils his Jew-baiting and has eulogized Miklos Horthy, a Hungarian leader who collaborated with the Nazis.
Netanyahu has also courted Poland’s far-right prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, even as the latter has fueled Holocaust revisionism with legislation to outlaw criticism of Poland for its involvement in the Nazi death camps. Millions of Jews were exterminated in such camps.
Israel is cultivating alliances with other ultra-nationalists – in and out of power – in the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
The conclusion drawn by Jewish communities abroad is that their well-being – even their safety – is now a much lower priority than bolstering Israel’s diplomatic influence.
That was illustrated starkly last week in the immediate aftermath of a massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue on October 27. Robert Bowers gunned down 11 worshippers in the worst antisemitic attack in US history.
Jewish communities have linked the awakening of the white-nationalist movement to which Bowers belonged to the Trump administration’s hostile rhetoric towards immigrants and ethnic minorities.
In Pittsburgh, huge crowds protested as Trump paid a condolence visit to the Tree of Life synagogue, holding banners aloft with slogans such as: “President Hate, leave our state.”
Equally hard to ignore is that Israeli leaders, while they regularly denounce US and European left-wingers as antisemites for criticizing Israel over its abuse of Palestinians, have remained studiously silent on Trump’s inflammatory statements.
Chemi Shalev, a commentator for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, noted the disturbing impression created by Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the US, escorting Trump through Pittsburgh. Dermer looked like a “bodyguard”, shielding the president from local Jewish protesters, Shalev observed.
Meanwhile, tone-deaf diaspora affairs minister Naftali Bennett, leader of largest Israeli settler party, the Jewish Home, milked the local community’s pain over the Pittsburgh massacre to Israel’s advantage. At an official commemoration service, he compared Bowers’ bullets to rockets fired by Palestinians, describing both as examples of antisemitism.
In an online post before the attack, Bowers singled out the synagogue for its prominent role in helping refugees gain asylum in the US.
Trump has rapidly turned immigration into a “national security” priority. Last week, he sent thousands of US troops to the border with Mexico to stop what he termed an “invasion” by refugees from Central America.
Drawing on the histories of their own families having fled persecution, liberal Jews such as those at the Pittsburgh synagogue believe it is a moral imperative to assist refugees escaping oppression and conflict.
That message is strenuously rejected not only by Trump but by the Israeli government.
In a move Trump hopes to replicate on the Mexico border, Israel has built a 250km wall along the border with Egypt to block the path of asylum-seekers from war-torn Africa.
Netanyahu’s government has also circumvented international law and Israeli court rulings to jail and then deport existing refugees back to Africa, despite evidence that they will be placed in grave danger.
Bennett has termed the refugees “a plague of illegal infiltrators”, while the culture minister Miri Regev has labeled them a “cancer”. Polls suggest that more than half of Israeli Jews agree.
Separately, Israel’s nation-state law, passed in the summer, gives constitutional weight to the notion that Israel belongs exclusively to Jews, stripping the fifth of the population who are Palestinian citizens of the most basic rights.
More generally, Israel views Palestinians through a single prism: as a demographic threat to the Jewishness of the Greater Israel project that Netanyahu has been advancing.
In short, Israel’s leaders are not simply placating a new wave of white-nationalist and neo-fascist leaders. They have a deep-rooted ideological sympathy with them.
For the first time, overseas Jewish communities are being faced with a troubling dilemma. Do they really wish to subscribe to a Jewish nationalism in Israel that so strongly echoes the ugly rhetoric and policies threatening them at home?
– Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately called to congratulate Bolsonaro, a former army officer with a pronounced nostalgia for his country’s 20-year military dictatorship. Critics describe him as a neo-fascist.
According to Israeli media reports, it is “highly probable” that Netanyahu will attend Bolsonaro’s inauguration on January 1.
The Brazilian president-elect has already promised that his country will be the third to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, after the United States and Guatemala. That will further undermine Palestinian hopes for an eventual state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Bolsonaro has told Israel that it can count on Brazil’s vote at the United Nations, and has threatened to close the Palestinian embassy in Brasilia.
One might imagine that Netanyahu is simply being pragmatic in cozying up to Bolsonaro, given Brazil’s importance. But that would be to ignore an unmistakable trend: Israel has relished the recent emergence of far-right leaders across the Americas and Europe, often to the horror of local Jewish communities.
Bolsonaro has divided Brazil’s 100,000 Jews. Some have been impressed by the frequent appearance of Israeli flags at his rallies and his anti-Palestinian stance. But others point out that he regularly expresses hostility to minorities.
They suspect that Bolsonaro covets Israel’s military expertise and the votes of tens of millions of fundamentalist Christians in Brazil, who see Israel as central to their apocalyptic, and in many cases antisemitic, beliefs. Not that this worries Netanyahu.
He has been engaged in a similar bromance with Viktor Orban, the ultra-nationalist prime minister of Hungary, who barely veils his Jew-baiting and has eulogized Miklos Horthy, a Hungarian leader who collaborated with the Nazis.
Netanyahu has also courted Poland’s far-right prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, even as the latter has fueled Holocaust revisionism with legislation to outlaw criticism of Poland for its involvement in the Nazi death camps. Millions of Jews were exterminated in such camps.
Israel is cultivating alliances with other ultra-nationalists – in and out of power – in the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
The conclusion drawn by Jewish communities abroad is that their well-being – even their safety – is now a much lower priority than bolstering Israel’s diplomatic influence.
That was illustrated starkly last week in the immediate aftermath of a massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue on October 27. Robert Bowers gunned down 11 worshippers in the worst antisemitic attack in US history.
Jewish communities have linked the awakening of the white-nationalist movement to which Bowers belonged to the Trump administration’s hostile rhetoric towards immigrants and ethnic minorities.
In Pittsburgh, huge crowds protested as Trump paid a condolence visit to the Tree of Life synagogue, holding banners aloft with slogans such as: “President Hate, leave our state.”
Equally hard to ignore is that Israeli leaders, while they regularly denounce US and European left-wingers as antisemites for criticizing Israel over its abuse of Palestinians, have remained studiously silent on Trump’s inflammatory statements.
Chemi Shalev, a commentator for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, noted the disturbing impression created by Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the US, escorting Trump through Pittsburgh. Dermer looked like a “bodyguard”, shielding the president from local Jewish protesters, Shalev observed.
Meanwhile, tone-deaf diaspora affairs minister Naftali Bennett, leader of largest Israeli settler party, the Jewish Home, milked the local community’s pain over the Pittsburgh massacre to Israel’s advantage. At an official commemoration service, he compared Bowers’ bullets to rockets fired by Palestinians, describing both as examples of antisemitism.
In an online post before the attack, Bowers singled out the synagogue for its prominent role in helping refugees gain asylum in the US.
Trump has rapidly turned immigration into a “national security” priority. Last week, he sent thousands of US troops to the border with Mexico to stop what he termed an “invasion” by refugees from Central America.
Drawing on the histories of their own families having fled persecution, liberal Jews such as those at the Pittsburgh synagogue believe it is a moral imperative to assist refugees escaping oppression and conflict.
That message is strenuously rejected not only by Trump but by the Israeli government.
In a move Trump hopes to replicate on the Mexico border, Israel has built a 250km wall along the border with Egypt to block the path of asylum-seekers from war-torn Africa.
Netanyahu’s government has also circumvented international law and Israeli court rulings to jail and then deport existing refugees back to Africa, despite evidence that they will be placed in grave danger.
Bennett has termed the refugees “a plague of illegal infiltrators”, while the culture minister Miri Regev has labeled them a “cancer”. Polls suggest that more than half of Israeli Jews agree.
Separately, Israel’s nation-state law, passed in the summer, gives constitutional weight to the notion that Israel belongs exclusively to Jews, stripping the fifth of the population who are Palestinian citizens of the most basic rights.
More generally, Israel views Palestinians through a single prism: as a demographic threat to the Jewishness of the Greater Israel project that Netanyahu has been advancing.
In short, Israel’s leaders are not simply placating a new wave of white-nationalist and neo-fascist leaders. They have a deep-rooted ideological sympathy with them.
For the first time, overseas Jewish communities are being faced with a troubling dilemma. Do they really wish to subscribe to a Jewish nationalism in Israel that so strongly echoes the ugly rhetoric and policies threatening them at home?
– Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
6 nov 2018
Speaking in a Likud faction meeting, PM Netanyahu says only technological strength can lead to agreements with the Arab world, since 'concessions are perceived as weakness'; hails US President Trump's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran.
Speaking at a Likud party meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the demonstration of strength is the most important thing in Israel's foreign policy.
"'Occupation' is bull. There are countries that have conquered and replaced entire populations and the world keeps silent. Strength is the key, it makes all the difference in our policy towards the Arab world."
Netanyahu stressed that concessions are perceived as weakness in the Middle East . "As opposed to the perception that concessions promote agreements with the Arabs, they would only bring minor and short-term changes—nothing more.
"The right thing to do is to make progress through common interests, which are based on technological strength," the premier explained.
In addition, Netanyahu addressed the resumption of US sanctions against Iran that came into effect on Monday.
"This day is an historic day. Today is the day Washington imposed the toughest sanctions Iran has ever known, in an attempt to halt its aggression," Netanyahu stressed.
"I would like to again thank US President Donald Trump for the courageous, determined and important decision. I think it contributes to stability, security and peace in the region.
"We can already witness the influence of these sanctions—Iran is already reducing its budgets, funding aggression elements in and outside its territory," he concluded.
Speaking at a Likud party meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the demonstration of strength is the most important thing in Israel's foreign policy.
"'Occupation' is bull. There are countries that have conquered and replaced entire populations and the world keeps silent. Strength is the key, it makes all the difference in our policy towards the Arab world."
Netanyahu stressed that concessions are perceived as weakness in the Middle East . "As opposed to the perception that concessions promote agreements with the Arabs, they would only bring minor and short-term changes—nothing more.
"The right thing to do is to make progress through common interests, which are based on technological strength," the premier explained.
In addition, Netanyahu addressed the resumption of US sanctions against Iran that came into effect on Monday.
"This day is an historic day. Today is the day Washington imposed the toughest sanctions Iran has ever known, in an attempt to halt its aggression," Netanyahu stressed.
"I would like to again thank US President Donald Trump for the courageous, determined and important decision. I think it contributes to stability, security and peace in the region.
"We can already witness the influence of these sanctions—Iran is already reducing its budgets, funding aggression elements in and outside its territory," he concluded.
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