We Palestinians are not shocked by the extreme direction of Israeli policy

When Israeli citizens went to the polls in their fifth general election in four years, we Palestinians were once again relegated to the stands, unable to do more than observe the kind of power that will next govern our lives .

For five million Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, the reality is that we are denied the right to vote for a government that impacts every aspect of our daily lives. Many Palestinians are unwilling to give their opinion on the candidates and simply say, “They are all the same.”

This is an understandable view, given the way each Israeli government has pursued its colonial policies. However, they are not all the same.

For Palestinians, the Israeli election had two possible outcomes: a government that would continue to entrench an oppressive apartheid system, or a government that would escalate systematic violence against a colonized population, normalize Jewish supremacy, and accelerate ethnic cleansing. It appears that the Israeli electorate has made its choice, and the latter has emerged victorious.

In the months leading up to the elections, both ruling and opposition parties campaigned intensely to win the support of the electorate.

On the one hand, outgoing Prime Minister Yair Laid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz have led a military operation dubbed “Breaking the Wave,” which has led to the UN warning that 2022 will likely be the deadliest year on record for Palestinians in the West Bank — and October the deadliest month in the deadliest year. The ruling coalition also launched an attack on the Gaza Strip in August, killing 49 Palestinians in three days.

On the other hand, there is the rising star of Israeli politics, Itamar Ben Gvir, chairman of the Jewish Power party. Ben Gvir is a Kahanist activist who had a picture of the notorious mass murderer Baruch Goldstein hanging in his home and who, as a lawyer, has defended Israeli Jews accused of terrorism and hate crimes – including the Duma attack that killed three members of the Dawabshe family.

Ben Gvir himself has been charged eight times, including for “supporting a terrorist organization”. As the elections approached, he brandished his gun at the Palestinians in Jerusalem and spared no effort to incite violence against the residents of Sheikh Jarrah. He is now one of the kingmakers of Israeli politics.

Some Israelis say they are shocked by the seemingly “sudden” rise of the far right in these elections. However, the signs have been there for years, and it is the mistake of Israelis who thought that the situation in which Palestinians are systematically subjected could continue without such developments. Today, 70% of Israeli Jews aged 18 to 24 identify as “right wing.”

We Palestinians are neither shocked nor surprised by the extreme turn Israeli policy is taking. It is the natural result of decades of rampant colonialism in the form of political persecution, institutional violence, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

In these elections, parties that wanted to tackle the occupation, Palestinian rights and freedom were relegated to the absolute margins (or were not even elected to the Knesset). Meanwhile, the so-called centrist and right-wing parties all pandered to an increasingly right-wing electorate, promising to strengthen the settlement enterprise in the West Bank and consolidate an undemocratic Jewish nation-state.

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For decades, Israeli state institutions and courts have sought to legalize and normalize the apartheid system that governs the country. The Israeli state has violated international conventions, committed war crimes, and enjoyed total impunity, while the United States and the European Union have continued to provide it with financial and diplomatic support.

Lacking any interest in reaching a political solution with the Palestinians, it was only natural that the proto-fascists would become the strongest camp in Israeli politics.

Those who believe that Israeli elections can bring about positive change are sadly mistaken. It is up to the rest of the world to stop normalizing the odious ideologies of ethnic supremacy that thrive in Israel. The international community must immediately stop funding apartheid, as all indications are that it is moving toward greater violence.

I do not wish to have the choice between apartheid and ethnic cleansing; I only wish for the freedom of my people and that we can live in dignity with our rights fully guaranteed, here in our homeland of Palestine.

Jalal Abukhater is a Palestinian civil servant and writer based in Jerusalem.