WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE ISRAËL News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL, CA #331: Demonstrations in Israel: for which democracy? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Binyamin Netanyahu returned to power, with a far-right coalition at the end of

2022 (1). As of January 4, 2023, the government presented a justice reform
project, the principle of which is to make it more dependent on the parties in
power. ---- This would in particular allow Netanyahu to avoid prosecution for
corruption. Since January 14, demonstrations against this project have been
frequent and have brought together very large crowds. Unfortunately, these
pro-democracy demonstrators do not take the Palestinian people into account, as
the UJFP press release reminds us below.
Israel: democracy for whom?
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in all cities of the country on
numerous occasions. Despite all attempts to suppress them, the movement did not
falter. In the end, Israel's allies expressed their "concern". And Netanyahu has
been forced to postpone his plan to bring the Supreme Court to heel and thus
ensure judicial impunity despite the numerous corruption cases for which he is
prosecuted. At the same time, Netanyahu gave pledges to his allies by authorizing
the creation of a "national guard" which resembles a private militia in charge of
dirty work.

Many media immediately reported on the "Israeli democracy saved". Comparisons
have been made between Macron refusing to back down in the face of a huge social
movement and Netanyahu being forced to back down.
But what democracy are we talking about? The extreme right has become hegemonic
in Israel. The last elections saw two coalitions dominated by the far right clash.

One is dominated by settlers and religious Zionists. They are determined to expel
or imprison Palestinians whenever the opportunity arises. They showed that they
are ready for anything with the pogrom perpetrated in Huwara (2), the pogromist
settlers being supported by the army. They are clearly supremacist and
homophobic. Demonstrators call them "fascist Jews."

But in the other coalition (3), we find authentic war criminals: Naftali Bennett
("I killed a lot of Arabs, I don't see where the problem is"), Benny Gantz,
Avigdor Liebermann , Ayelet Shaked... Even Merav Michaeli, leader of the Labor
Party explained recently: "Wherever they are, the members of the Islamic Jihad
must be annihilated".

Generals, members of the secret services, organizations of reservists, led these
demonstrations where the Israeli flags were omnipresent. They represent well this
important fraction of Israeli society which wants to live "in the European way"
by fully enjoying the wealth garnered by advanced technologies, arms sales or
know-how in repression. As Itamar Ben Gvir claimed he would also go after
"disloyal Jews," the protesters demand democracy... for Jews.

This is where the problem lies: 50% of the population between the Mediterranean
and the Jordan is Palestinian. This population has been fragmented into many
different dominance statuses. It calls for the application of international law:
end of occupation, colonization, blockade of Gaza, destruction of the Wall,
release of prisoners, equal rights for all, right of return for Palestinian
refugees. Of all this, there is no question for the great mass of the
demonstrators. The apartheid regime, a term used by most human rights
associations around the world, is refuted by these supporters of selective democracy.

Israel is an ethnic state where rights depend on origin. Non-Jewish citizens
(more than 20% of the population) legally have "Arab", "Druze", "Circassian" or
"Bedouin" nationality. Never Palestinian. Many professions are prohibited to
them. They are not allowed to live in most cities. The poverty rate among them is
3 to 4 times higher than among the Jewish population. A veritable ethnic
cleansing has been going on for years against Palestinians in the northern
Negev/Naqab desert. Where is democracy for them?

There was a precedent in Israel: the "revolt of the tents" in 2011, a large
movement of revolt of the middle classes to obtain decent housing at affordable
prices. It had caused monster demonstrations. A few rare Palestinian flags had
appeared in these parades, but too few. The move was unsuccessful. He had just
allowed the political rise of Yaïr Lapid, surfing on this movement and on the
aspiration to secularism. When he came to power, he allied himself with several
religious parties and stepped up the deadly bombings of Gaza.

Democracy cannot be shared. To defend a Supreme Court so that it can convict
Netanyahu but accept that it has legalized the torture and expropriation of the
villagers of Masafer Yatta is not to defend democracy. There cannot be a
democratic state for the Jews and apartheid against the Palestinians.

The current movement has no future and can only stem the fascism of the country
if it integrates equal rights and the application of international law for all.

The national coordination of the UJFP on April 3, 2023

The introduction and note 3 are from the CJ of Courant Alternatif

Binyamin Netanyahu won the Israeli elections in December 2022 at the head of a
far-right coalition with 64 MPs out of 120. In this coalition, the "kahanists"
(heirs of the racist Kach party banned in the 1980s for terrorism) have obtained
key positions in the government: Itamar Ben Gvir is in National Security and
Bezalel Smotrich is in Finance. In this coalition, Netanyahu's main concern is to
bring justice to heel so as not to go to prison and his allies are increasing the
provocations against the Palestinians to advance colonization.
On January 18, the Supreme Court struck down Netanyahu's interior minister. The
latter immediately decided to limit its powers and put it under the control of
Parliament.
Monster demonstrations then began. Nearly 10% of the Jewish population took to
the streets. On March 28, Netanyahu backtracked by announcing a "pause" of his
judicial "reform". The demonstrations continued with always a great extent. At
the end of April, we were at 15 weeks of demonstrations.

Ratings
(1) Details in the insert.
(2) On February 26, two settlers were killed near the Palestinian village of
Huwara near Nablus. The following day, hundreds of armed settlers supported by
the army invaded the village. There was one death, 390 injuries and dozens of
homes and cars burned.
(3) The anti-Netanyahu coalition comprises four main parties: Yesh Atid, a
centre-right, ultra-liberal Zionist party with 17 MPs, The National Unity Party,
bringing together two parties and 14 MPs, also a centre-right Zionist and a
liberal economic, the Labor Party, Zionist and Social Democrat which has 7
deputies, Israel Beytenou of the conservative Zionist right with also 7 deputies.
Small leftist and Arab nationalist parties: Meretz, Hadash, Ta'al, Joint List and
Balad are opposed to Netanyahu without being members of the opposition coalition.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article3839
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