Report from Leon Duveen
The last few months have been difficult for those looking to advance peace in the Middle East.
The new Netanyahu Government that took office at the end of December and, as I feared, it is more extreme than any previous Israeli Government. It contains two parties Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) of Itmar Ben Gvir & Religious Zionist of Bezalal Smotrich that can only be described as Fascist. Both Parties espouse an extreme Jewish Nationalism and racist attitudes towards Arabs, both those living in Occupied Palestine and those who live in (and are citizens of) Israel.
There have been a number of very worrying developments.
Firstly, the increase in Israeli Military raids targeted at Palestinian terror groups that have resulted in not only in the death of the terrorists but often in the death of Palestinian civilians. These raids trigger more violence against Jewish/Israeli targets and the cycle continues. I wrote a piece on this for our website. One direct result is the curtailing of cooperation between Palestinian Security forces with their Israeli counterparts.
Alongside this has been a rise in settle terrorist attacks (including killings) on Palestinians, attacks that appear to me at least have the tacit support of Israeli soldiers & Coalition politicians.
Secondly, the Netanyahu Government have proposed a set of Judicial Reforms that will have the effect of severely curtailing Judicial Independence in Israel, limit the Supreme Court overturning laws passed by the Knesset that conflict with “Basic Law”, dilute the role of the Attorney General in giving legal advice and give Ministers more powers to act without fear of Judicial Review. Unsurprisingly, these reforms are seen by many Israelis as a threat to Israel Democracy and there have been mass demonstrations every Saturday night across Israel (and this weekend outside Israeli Embassies elsewhere) against them. Over 100,000 Israelis have regularly been taking part, that is over 1% of the population, and I was proud to represent LDfPME at the demo outside the Israeli Embassy in London last Saturday afternoon. Whether these demonstrations succeed in stopping these reforms, I don’t know but if they don’t, it will allow the Netanyahu Government to introduce many laws that will legitimise discrimination against non-Jews in Irael and even more oppressive laws on Occupied Palestine. Ben Gvir has also talked about introducing the Death Penalty for Palestinian Terrorists.
These developments have made it clear to me that what we are trying to do is even more important than ever. Unless we can help Palestinians & Israelis find a different way, the violence & deaths will continue. As a Zionist, I am scared that the intransigence & intolerance of Parties like Otzma Yehudit & Religious Zionists will damage Israel irretrievably as the Zealots did to the defenders of Jerusalem during the Jewish Revolt in 70 CE