WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, FdCA, Il Cantiere #16: International, Palestine where is Israel going? - Interview with Ilan Shalif (*) by Salvatore Francesco (known as Totò) Caggese (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On Friday March 10, Benyamin Netanyahu visited Rome to speak with the Italian

government. He left among demonstrators who did not want him to leave and was
greeted by demonstrators who contested him shouting: "Israel must remain a
democracy, it cannot turn into a theocracy". What is happening in the State of
Israel? ---- Ilan Shalif: Israel has never been a full-scale democracy. Until
1977 it was ruled by the Zionist elite which was a National Socialist with
varying levels of influence of Marxism on its main tendencies. In 1948, the
economy was 75% non-capitalist - some was cooperative or trade union-owned and
only 25% privately owned. (This was one or the main reason why Stalin supported
the creation of Israel in the United Nations and with military resources hoping
that Israel would join his block).
 From the very beginning, Palestinians who were not displaced were under military
rule until 1966 and even after that they were disciplined by discriminatory laws
and decrees.
The so-called judicial system, which was supposed to control government and
parliament, was formally capable of limiting government and parliament, but
appointed by the Zionist elite and always found ways to bend its rule according
to Zionist needs.
Thus, until 1984, any independent Palestinian was barred from participating in
elections. In 1984, for the first time, a Palestinian was only allowed to
participate because independent Palestinians joined the Zionists and a Jewish
radical activist had been killed by a retired Jewish general. Until then, for
many years Palestinians could only be included in the list of the Jewish-led
Communist Party and only in the 1980s in a list of the CP headed by a Palestinian
citizen.
In a sense, Israeli "democracy" used to be a Jewish democracy, but now the right
wants to abolish this democracy as well and establish a tyranny (dictatorship) of
the right wing of the Zionist elite.

What is the political situation in Israel after the November 1, 2022 elections?
What are the forces at play?
Ilan: The main party is the right-wing "Likud" (1) with 30% of the vote, it can
be considered the party of Netanyahu's followers. The other partners are the
far-right fascist religious currents of Smotrich and Ben Gvir with around 10% and
the orthodox parties with around 12% (since 1977 they have always
supported the Likud).
Netanyahu is under trial which may end with the end of his government and a
prison sentence. Having the parliamentary majority in favor, he tries to change
the rules so as to allow him to interrupt the process. In return, he offers a
prize to the right-wing settlers by allowing them to occupy the West Bank
territories (2) and allowing the transfer of Palestinians: the purpose of all
this is to limit the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel and increase the
privileges of Orthodox Jews.
The creation of rules to reduce the power of the High Court, currently capable of
influencing the work of the government and parliament, contrasts with the vision
of Israel as a defender of Western democracy and brings it closer to "democracy"
of the Hungarian and Polish type.
There will be in the near future (probably a few weeks) a confrontation between
the highest echelons of the judicial system and the government's attempts to
apply the new rules.
We had an example of what can happen when Minister Ben Gvir orders the Police
Commander to fire the Tel Aviv region commander because he was "too soft on the
protesters" and the Government Judicial Attorney instead orders the Police
Commander to put him back in the role of commander of the Tel Aviv region and did
so by saying that he obeys "the laws" and not the minister.
The supporters of the judicial system options, who want to limit the power of
Parliament, are composed of almost all of the unorthodox middle class, including
these semi-retired pilots and other special forces, the majority of high-ranking
economy (including high-tech ), security Services...

On January 21, 2023, 130,000 people marched in Tel Aviv, the capital of the state
of Israel, in the third act of a large movement rarely seen in the country. Every
week since early January, tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets
to oppose a justice reform project that threatens the independence of the Supreme
Court, supported by Benyamin Netanyahu's right-wing and far-right coalition.
What and who does this movement represent?

Ilan: As I mentioned earlier, it represents all those who resist the abolition of
Western democracy, including almost half of the right. Their main concern of most
is that the abolition of Western democracy will end almost general acceptance by
the West of Israeli occupation against the Palestinians, and a huge economic
catastrophe.

The Israeli left appears to have all but disappeared. It seems that in Israel
there are only right and extreme right. Is it really so?
Ilan: There has never been an internationalist "left" in Israel. Most leftists
were nationalist Marxists who advocated the displacement of Palestinians and the
discrimination of Palestinian citizens. The so-called left was for secular
welfare capitalism and for compromise agreements with the Palestinians of the
occupied regions (never advocated unconditional withdrawal from the occupied
regions in '67 or even sharing real equality with Palestinian citizens. One of
the main ones" positions of the left" was that of not alienating the public
opinion of the population of Western countries to the unlimited promotion of the
Zionist project.

I was born in 1953 and the territory of Palestine was at war. Today in 2023 that
territory is still at war. Will we be able to see peace in our lifetime or should
we leave the problem to future generations?
Ilan: I was born in 1937 in the midst of the Palestinian rebellion against the
British Mandate of Palestine which served as the pioneer of the Zionist project.
My first (recorded) memory was the rolling of a large stone on the street near my
window to commemorate the Zionist intelligence person killed a year earlier in
our neighborhood. Israel's role in the demands of the Western imperialist system
in our region seems to be diminishing and the shift in the balance of world
powers is advancing. My result was to force Israel to withdraw from most of the
gains of 1967. (as if they forced South Africa to end apartheid). If right-wing
efforts to abolish Israeli democracy are not defeated, and even if they are not,
the current confrontation could result in a sharp curtailment of the Zionist project.

* Ilan Shalif anarchist militant, born in the summer of 1937 in East Jerusalem,
lives in Tel Aviv

(1) Likud ("consolidation"). Founded in 1973, the Likud, the largest center-right
Israeli political formation, experienced a profound crisis in the early years of
the 21st century due to the departure of its leader A. Sharon, opposed by his own
party for his decision to evacuate the Gaza Strip (August 2005). After the
departure of Sharon, founder of the new Kadima center party (Nov. 2005),
secretary of L. became B. Netanyahu (already in office between 1993 and 1999). In
the legislative elections of April 2006, the party suffered a collapse, while
there was a clear reversal of trend in those of 2009, which brought the party to
the helm of the government.

(2) The West Bank (literally "the part on this side of the Jordan": in Arabic:
ad-Diffä l-Gharbiyä; in Hebrew: Hagada Hamaaravit?, HaGadah HaMa'aravit or, again
in Hebrew and officially for the State of Israel, Yehuda ve'Shomron, Judea and
Samaria; in English called the West Bank, "the western bank") is a landlocked
territory on the west bank of the Jordan River, in the Middle East. It is part,
together with the Gaza Strip, of the Palestinian territories and of the
historical-geographical region of Palestine.

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