Last Updated on 05/09/2024 by Arun jain
On July 29, a day before riots erupted in Britain following a fatal stabbing attack by anti-immigrant protesters, dozens of Israeli right-wing did mischief Two military facilities to protest the arrest of soldiers for allegedly abusing a Palestinian prisoner. What the two events had in common is the role of social media in organizing and fueling the flames of far-right violence and the foundation of populist distrust of government. But they differed in one very important way: in Israel, the protesters were openly supported by some government officials and lawmakers; Indeed, among the rioters were at least two Knesset lawmakers and a junior cabinet minister. Thus the events in Israel were more similar than the events in Washington on January 6, 2021.
On July 29, a day before riots erupted in Britain following a fatal stabbing attack by anti-immigrant protesters, dozens of Israeli right-wing did mischief Two military facilities to protest the arrest of soldiers for allegedly abusing a Palestinian prisoner. What the two events had in common is the role of social media in organizing and fueling the flames of far-right violence and the foundation of populist distrust of government. But they differed in one very important way: in Israel, the protesters were openly supported by some government officials and lawmakers; Indeed, among the rioters were at least two Knesset lawmakers and a junior cabinet minister. Thus the events in Israel were more similar than the events in Washington on January 6, 2021.
The ordeal in Israel began when military police arrived to arrest nine reserve-duty soldiers at the SD Teiman detention facility, where Hamas prisoners are held. Dozens of civilian activists responded to a call circulated on social media to protest and soon attacked the base. Later that day, the rioters advanced to Beit Lid in central Israel, where a military court was to hear charges against the arrested soldiers, and briefly pushed their way.
Instead of expressing concern about a vigilante attack on a military facility, far-right leaders condemned the military. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir, along with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, demanded That the military prosecutor “keep his hands off the reservists.” The police – which are under the authority of Ben-Gavir – took over about two weeks ago Initiated investigation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not taken any action against members of his government who participated in the riots.
The Sde Teiman incident was an unusual case of right-wing violence within Israel. The West Bank has long been a wild west, where extremist settlers direct their attacks not only against Palestinians but also against the military, when they feel it is interfering with their interests. Lawlessness and violence now spreading across the border into Israel, aided and abetted by some in government, should come as no surprise: far-right elements in Netanyahu’s government anarchy not only as a vehicle to promote Western alliances. Bank but as a means of undermining institutions at home to better secure their hold on power.
How did these extremists come to wield so much power so quickly? In Israel the far right has nothing close to popular support for its agenda: in the 2022 election, it captured just 10.8 percent of the vote (significantly less than 37.1 percent for France’s National Rally and its allies and 23.5 percent for Geert. In the Netherlands, the Wilders Party for Freedom, to name two recent European elections). But she has managed to exploit an unusual situation in Israel: Netanyahu’s political weakness and the Oct. Compounding Hamas’ devastating breakthrough on 7, 2023.
Israel has been under almost continuous right-wing rule for the past half-century, but the government formed by Netanyahu in late 2022 was very distinctly right-wing. Religious Zionism and the Otzma Yehudite parties, along with Netanyahu’s once center-right Likud party, do not adopt a traditional right-wing hardline on national security issues, but they also distrust government institutions and the people who work in them. – In the United States, what Trump supporters call the “Deep State”. Everyone from attorney generals and army generals to finance ministry officials are seen as ideological enemies, perhaps even traitors. Thus, it is not surprising when the military, which is generally considered sacrosanct in Israel, finds itself in conflict with extremist settlers in the West Bank or rioters in Sde Teiman.
This worldview is not very different from the anarchist, anti-architectural and paranoid strain of Trumpism. However, the religious element is paramount in the context of Israel; Indeed, it is rare to find people on the extreme right who are not religiously observant. Thus, the program of the far right seeks not only to undermine the country’s liberal and democratic foundations and replace it with a more authoritarian government but also to turn Israel into a religious state. Many also believe that the war and violence now engulfing Israel will bring the Messiah and salvation. They want to encourage it.
In the early months of the Netanyahu government, the far right tried to undermine the state from within. Judicial reform, which sought to subordinate the judicial system to politicians, was a focal point of the campaign. But he was not the only one. Ben-Gavir took personal control of the police, turning it into a tool for protecting rights and suppressing anti-government protests. Taking control of civil affairs in the West Bank, Smotrich unilaterally pursued a policy of de facto annexation, illegal land-grabbing, and settlement-building.
As far-right leaders have become more assured of their grip on power, their followers have been freed to take their agenda to the street. There is no evidence that Ben-Gavir and Smotrich are personally directing this violence and vigilantism, but they are encouraging it. Ben-Gavir ensures that the police avoids confronting and investigating right-wing violence. It has relaxed the rules for issuing gun licences More than 100,000 will be issued Oct. 7 to, in many cases with little or no verification.
It is unlikely that there is a grand strategy for spreading violence from the West Bank into Israel, but the occupied territories have served as a testing ground. Under the current government, extremist immigrants have felt a new sense of empowerment and immunity in the knowledge that many of those in power support them while the rest remain silent. The result is that far-right violence has increased.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that in the first 10 months of the war, settlers were responsible for some 1,250 attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, which led to about 120 deaths or injuries. Most of those incidents are relatively small, but from time to time they involve a dozen or more rioters. The most recent mass stampede took place on August 15, when around 100 masked migrants did mischief Palestinian villages were raided, fired upon, vehicles and houses set on fire, and stones were thrown. A Palestinian was killed. N military investigation It was revealed that troops who arrived at the scene initially failed to stop the rioters, who appeared to be off-duty reserve soldiers, in uniform and carrying army-issued weapons.
There is no indication that this violence is condoned by the majority of Israelis, or even by the majority of religiously observant Jews, who make up less than a quarter of Israelis. But this doesn’t matter because the far right has taken control of large parts of the government. Deprived of the center right, Netanyahu saw the far right as the only way to return to power in the 2022 elections and forged a merger between Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit to ensure he would get as many votes as possible. Today, they have the power to make or break the government and have established their authority over the police, the state budget and the West Bank policy. Determined to remain in power at any cost, Netanyahu turns a blind eye to their provocations and their repeated affronts to his authority.
Oct. Since 7, the far right has also set its sights on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as another upholder of secular values. Oct. Shocked by its failures during the 7 Hamas offensive and preoccupied with fighting the war, the IDF was slow to respond to the growing violence in the West Bank and the infiltration of far-right values within its ranks, especially among reservists.
The defense system has finally woken up. “Nationalist crime has reared its head under the cover of war and has led to revenge and sown calamity and fear among Palestinian residents who pose no threat,” Major General Yehuda Fuchs. warned In a farewell address to troops in July before leaving the army chief for the West Bank. In A letter To ministers in August, Ronen Barr, director of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, warned of “tax attacks that are fueling another front in the multi-front war we are in; putting more players in the cycle of terror; a slippery slope to a sense of lack of governance.” .” The United States and some other Western powers have also tried to curb the violence Imposing restrictions against known criminals.
But the pushback is unlikely to have a deep impact on a government that sees the defense establishment and Israel’s allies as enemies. In any case, the IDF’s hands are largely tied because it is subordinate to the civilian politicians who have been creating the problem from the beginning. Inside Israel, the army has no authority to act, and the police now appear firmly in Ben-Gavir’s hands.
Where will it lead? After getting away with it once at Sde Teiman and Beit Lid, the violent right-wing will no doubt try to strike back inside Israel. The polls show that Israelis increasingly distrust institutionsAnd social media can be effective in bringing out the crowd. Whether they can add to the chaos by recruiting hundreds or thousands of people to join them remains to be seen. The far right has not yet built a mass organization capable of mounting a sustained campaign of chaos. But with his iron grip on power, he probably doesn’t need one.
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