The Israeli elections produced results that will have far-reaching consequences that cannot be wiped away by the lies and claims of Netanyahu and his fascist allies.
The most significant outcome was the failure of Netanyahu and his political camp to retain their majority. Their representation fell from 68 seats to 53, a crushing defeat that cost them 15 seats. The only thing Netanyahu succeeded in doing was demonstrating his familiar talent for political theft: taking seats away from his allies so that Likud could emerge as the party with the largest number of seats. But this will be of little use to him as long as the opposing camp remains larger than his own.
Second, the Palestinian Arab electorate and its political parties emerged as the biggest winners. They achieved an unprecedented and remarkable result, securing 19 seats. As a result, the two Zionist blocs are now individually incapable of forming a government without the support of Palestinian Arab votes.
This achievement represents a psychological, political and national transformation. Palestinian citizens of Israel have emerged as an influential political force, possessing considerable self-confidence in their struggle against racial discrimination and Israel’s apartheid system.
The result also embodied the integration of the struggle of these communities with that of other components of the Palestinian people, both in the occupied territories and abroad. It reflected a shared struggle not merely against the occupation and the apartheid system, but against the entire Zionist project of settler-colonialism and ethnic replacement.
The Palestinian public has become increasingly convinced that the only appropriate response to the racial oppression it faces – from organised crime and house demolitions to the seizure of more of its land for Zionist settlements – is to confront that oppression using every available means. The elections exposed the extent to which Israeli Jewish society and its political parties have shifted towards outright racism, crossing the boundaries into fascism.
This was evident in the absence of any meaningful differences between Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposing Zionist bloc on matters concerning the rights of the Palestinian people. All these parties reject the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state. They all oppose halting settlement expansion in the West Bank and reject dismantling the settlements, all of which are illegal.
They also insist on continuing the genocidal war against the Gaza Strip and refuse to withdraw from it. In other words, whether in government or opposition, they all reject ending the occupation and accepting a compromise with the Palestinian people.
Racism was displayed in its ugliest form through the campaigns launched by Netanyahu and his camp, urging opposition Zionist parties not to rely on the votes of Arab parties to form a government that could remove Netanyahu from power.They described the participation of Palestinian voters as ‘election theft’ and falsely accused Arab parties of receiving foreign funding. In addition, the fascist Itamar Ben-Gvir called for stripping Palestinian Arabs of their right to vote.
Arab voters also developed extraordinary traditions of resistance, which became a model for the entire Palestinian people in confronting racism, impoverishment, the theft of their land and the destruction of their sources of livelihood. Their successive uprisings, beginning with the historic Land Day, have provided further examples of resistance.
There are no meaningful differences between Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposing Zionist bloc when it comes to the rights of the Palestinian people.The Zionist parties opposed to Netanyahu now face a major challenge. Without the votes of Palestinian Arabs, they will remain incapable of forming a government that can remove Netanyahu and his fascist coalition.They are caught between two conflicting impulses: their desire to take revenge on Netanyahu for his arrogance and hostility towards them, and their racist reluctance to depend on the votes of Arab political parties.
Palestinians have been deprived of such elections for 21 years. They have repeatedly been postponed and cancelled without any legitimate justification.
[by Mustafa Barghouti in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque