New Ultranationalist Government Ushers in Unabashed Annexation of Palestine

The cover image of this article is from order-order.com.

Two young males vandalised more than 30 Christian graves in Jerusalem last Sunday.Video footage revealed that the suspects showed no fear of being identified as they nonchalantly pulled down crosses and bashed them to pieces. Their brazen activity was presumably emboldened by the recent formation of a hard-right government in Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and full of far-right and religious extremists.

One of the ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has a history of defending Jewish settlers in similar hate crimes targeting Christian and Muslim Palestinians. Consequently, such crimes, which often go unpunished, are now likely to continue with impunity.

Systematic Destruction Of Palestinian People

The impact of the new government is already being felt. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet have promised to “promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel”—a commitment to expand the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. This has been accompanied by rhetoric of Jewish supremacy—and plans to expel Palestinians from the West Bank and gut the judiciary, so that the government can directly control both Palestinian and Israeli life without any kind of opposition.

This has caused outrage among Palestinians, according to former peace negotiator Diana Buttu. She believes that the desecration of the graves was directly linked to the establishment of such a hard-right government, stating “the fact that they the suspects desecrated those graves, it’s not coming out of the blue – it’s because they can.”

Opposition To The Government

The far-right Israeli government has complex implications for the rest of the world, particularly for the US and its diplomats. While Washington publicly supports the existence of a Palestinian state, the current Israeli government actively works to prevent this from happening, a dilemma which has forced the US to resort to awkward political manoeuvres.

Other members of the Israeli right-wing are also starting to question the new government. Times of Israel editor David Horovitz wrote that while Israelis are “victorious” following the elimination of domestic anti-occupation voices, they are now “worried that Netanyahu had made too many concessions to his far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies.”

Conclusion

Overall, it is clear that the new Israeli government has ushered in an era of widespread fear and uncertainty among Palestinians—who are now facing a hard-right administration unafraid of pursuing its far-right agenda. With such politics becoming “mainstream”, it is likely that these violations of Palestinian rights will continue—and that there will consequently be no end to the destructive cycle of violence and oppression.