‘It burns on all fronts’

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These are turbulent times in Israel. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in several cities on Saturday. A major demonstration took place in the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv for the ninth Saturday night in a row, in which some 160,000 demonstrators took part, according to media reports. Protests also broke out in other cities such as Haifa and Netanya.

The reason for the anger of parts of the population: the planned judicial reforms of the new government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (73). The government is half Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and half the far-right Religious-Zionist Alliance and two strictly religious parties.

Meanwhile, the situation between Palestinians and Israeli settlers is also coming to a head. A suspected Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis in the Palestinian city of Nablus on Sunday. Afterward, Israeli settlers rioted in the Palestinian town of Hawara in the northern West Bank, setting houses and cars on fire.

The Israeli government did not de-escalate, but seemed to encourage the Israeli settlers to riot. A member of the right-wing religious government coalition, Zvika Fogel, praised: The riots will help prevent Palestinian attacks, he said on military radio. “I see the result in a very good light.” Netanyahu himself only called for calm.

“The developments are quite dramatic. There is fire on all fronts,” summarizes Peter Lintl, Israel expert at the Foundation for Science and Politics (SWP) in Berlin. According to the expert, this renewed escalation is no coincidence.

The right-wing government wants to destroy the court

Netanyahu has assembled the most radical right-wing government in Israel’s history. It dreams of completely undermining the power of the Supreme Court through judicial reform. All power would thus lie with the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. The Israeli Supreme Court is too progressive for the current government.

The planned judicial reforms have led to an uprising by the Israeli population. Last weekend, 160,000 people took to the streets. Judith Poppe, a German journalist who has lived in Tel Aviv for many years, says in an interview with Blick: “The mood is incredibly heated. People are scared.”

Fear of not being safe in their own country, of having to face the consequences of something they cannot do anything about. Fear that Israel’s democracy will crumble under Netanyahu’s government. Poppe also confirms: “If things continue like this, an illiberal democracy will emerge. Privileged people will initially not be affected by these reforms, while minorities – Palestinians, refugees, LGBTQ people – will feel it first,” she is sure.

SWP expert Lintl agrees. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian. But: “The current protests clearly show that many Israelis disagree.”

Not only the Israeli population, but also Palestinians inside and outside Israel are afraid. The problem is that the Israeli settlers feel supported by the government. Because it is the government that rejects a two-state solution.

As early as November 2022, the United Nations warned that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would “reach boiling point.” That point now seems to have been reached. “The current situation is more hopeless than ever, as there is currently no prospect of negotiations at all. That is why the signs are currently pointing to a massive escalation of violence,” says Lintl. Some even speak of a new Intifada. The second Intifada (2000-2005 ) killed more than 4,000 Israelis and Palestinians.

Source: Blick