Israelis went to the polls on 17 September to decide Israel’s next government and Prime Minister. The election saw the opposition Blue and White coalition take one more seat than incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. As we go to press, neither party has been able to form a coalition government, and Netanyahu has been given a deadline of six weeks to do so – a task that may prove impossible for him. However the political chips fall in Israel’s legislature, though, the Israeli state’s onslaught against the Palestinian people will continue. Wesam Khaled reports.

This election is the second in Israel this year. The previous one, held in April, resulted in a deadlock as neither party managed to cobble together enough support to form a coalition government. Another deadlock could spell serious trouble for Netanyahu, who has more riding on this election than just staying Prime Minister: he is due to face pre-indictment hearings in October on three corruption charges. It is believed that if Netanyahu succeeds in forming a government he will use his position to pass legislation guaranteeing him immunity from prosecution. The scandal surrounding its leader had a significant impact on Likud’s electoral performance, and has been cited by other parties as a key reason for their refusal to enter into a coalition. If Netanyahu fails again, Likud may throw him to the wolves.

Proponents of Palestinian liberation won’t shed any tears at the prospect of Netanyahu’s downfall. However, as we reported in FRFI 269, none of the major political players in Israel are any better on the question of Palestinian rights. Gideon Sa’ar, the leading candidate to replace Netanyahu as Likud’s leader, is a zealous opponent of Palestinian statehood.

Blue and White coalition leader Benny Gantz, who may be asked to form a government if Netanyahu fails, was the general who oversaw Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza in 2014. Titled Operation Protective Edge, the campaign killed over 2,000 Palestinians including 550 children. On the same day as the Israeli election, Ismail Zaida, a Palestinian-Dutch citizen, brought a lawsuit against Gantz in the Netherlands which accused him of war crimes for the Israeli attack on Zaida’s family home during Protective Edge which killed seven people including Zaida’s mother, his three brothers, a sister-in-law, a 12-year-old nephew and a friend who was visiting. In response to the allegations, Gantz was remorseless, telling Al Jazeera, ‘The Israeli Defence Force is the most moral army in the world and I am proud to have served in it for almost 40 years and to have commanded it.’ He has boasted that ‘parts of Gaza were sent back to the stone age’ by the onslaught.

Israeli state racism and aggression

Meanwhile, Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people continues unabated. In July, 700 Israeli police and 200 soldiers raided the Palestinian village of Sur Baher in the West Bank, demolishing 13 apartment buildings containing approximately 100 homes. While the buildings were mostly still under construction, 17 people were left homeless including 11 children. The demolition followed a ruling by the Israeli high court that the apartments were illegal because they were built without a permit – permits which the Israeli government routinely denies to Palestinians. Israel has destroyed over 120 such structures in East Jerusalem alone so far in 2019, displacing over 200 people. Amnesty International described the act as a war crime. In Gaza, Israel continues to respond with disproportionate violence to the Great March of Return protests, which have been ongoing since early 2018. On 6 September, two Palestinian children were shot and killed by Israeli forces during these protests: Ali Sami Ali al-Ashqar, 17; and Khalid Abu Bakr al-Rabai, 14. Israel has killed over 200 Palestinians since the protests began, including nearly 50 children.

A week before the election, Netanyahu promised that if re-elected he would annex one third of the West Bank, the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel into which over 500,000 Israeli citizens have illegally settled. Netanyahu escalated this promise the day before the election, saying that he would push for all Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be annexed. The UN said the move would be ‘devastating’ for peace prospects in the region. Whether the pledge was anything more than an empty electoral promise remains to be seen; either way it will make little difference. As Raja Shehadeh points out in an opinion piece for The Guardian, ‘in reality, annexing the land will change nothing. It is already under total Israeli control, and the settlers who live there enjoy all the rights and privileges of Israeli citizenship.’ Shehadeh points out that ‘Israel’s international campaign to demonise criticism of its colonial policies as a form of anti-Semitism is succeeding.’ While this campaign of demonisation is being waged by Israel’s allies in Britain, Palestinians in the West Bank continue to live under the shadow of occupation and racist discrimination, possessing none of the rights of their Jewish neighbours and subject to a separate system of Israeli military law, while Palestinians in Gaza suffer under a crushing military siege and violence at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

None of the candidates lining up to replace Netanyahu have any intention of changing this situation; indeed, they all actively support it.

Corbyn attacks anti-Zionist banner as ‘anti-Semitic poison’

A ‘disgusted’ Jeremy Corbyn condemned a pro-Palestinian banner put up outside the Labour Party conference in Brighton as ‘anti-Semitic poison’, though it featured a cartoon that was defending him from a Zionist smear campaign.

Zionists from Sussex Friends of Israel slashed it with scissors, but when police were called to take it down, they decided it was not offensive. Corbyn and Labour Party officials insisted that it was, and demanded the police take action; they eventually removed it.

Corbyn tweeted: ‘I’m disgusted that this banner was displayed near our Labour conference centre. We asked the police to remove it and I’m glad they did. This kind of antisemitic poison has no place whatsoever in our society.’

Carlos Latuff, who created the cartoon for anti-Zionist news site Mondoweiss, responded scathingly:

‘No, Mr. @jeremycorbyn that banner was not disgusting. Disgusting is:

• how the #Israel Lobby™ weaponize anti-Semitism to silence critics.
• how you bowed down to your detractors and ordered removal of a banner with a @Mondoweiss cartoon I made in defense of you! Shame on you!’

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 272, October/November 2019