Araqchi: Linking JCPOA to Other Issues Not Possible

 May 22, 2018

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warns that if world powers try to link the joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to other issues they will lose the agreement.

In a Monday’s interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Araqchi raised questions on EU commitment to the nuclear deal following withdrawal of the United States.

In response to a question whether Iran was satisfied with the proposals made by EU Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete during his recent visit to Tehran, Araqchi said he was unaware of all aspects of the issue.

“We are waiting for the Europeans to deliver us their economic package as they already promised,” he said.

“Of course,” he said, “We do not want more than what has been enshrined in the JCPOA. I wonder whether the Europeans can meet our expectations or not.”

Araqchi also questioned whether Europe can guarantee Iran’s sale of crude oil, gas and petrochemical products now that the US has withdrawn from the JCPOA and vowed to re-impose sanctions on the country.

“Can the European Union guarantee effective banking transactions with Iran? Can it protect its companies which are working in Iran? If a Spanish firm decides to do business with Iran, will the Madrid government or EU be able to protect it?” Araqchi asked.

On Europe’s concerns about Iran’s regional role and missile program, the Iranian deputy foreign minister said that these concerns had existed when nuclear negotiations started.

“At that time, we all decided to deal with the nuclear issue separately and concentrate our efforts on its settlement and we made it.”

The US, EU and other countries (involved in the nuclear talks) were aware of Iran’s ballistic missile program and its stands on various regional issues but they decided not to mix these issues with the nuclear one, he said.

Araqchi warned that if they try to link the JCPOA with other issues, they will lose the agreement and make settlement of other issues more complicated.

As to dealing with other issues independently, the Iranian diplomat said “They should know that we have already signed an agreement that has not worked for Iran. Therefore, before anything else they must do something to make the JCPOA beneficial to Iran. How can we speak about negotiations on the second issue while the first one does not work properly?”

“Our message is clear. The priority is that the JCPOA should work first and then we can hold talks,” the Iranian diplomat said.

Source: IRNA

 

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On Accountability in the Light of Israeli Brutality

May 20, 2018  /  Gilad Atzmon

For the last few weeks Israel has displayed a new level of institutional criminality. Fearing that Palestinian protestors attempting to return to their land would cross the Gaza border fence, Israel deployed hundreds of snipers, scores of tanks and drones across the Gaza Strip border. The government ordered forces to shoot at anyone who managed to reach the border. (although it is clear that Israeli forces also shot well inside the border.) This was a premeditated massacre: a cold blood governmental decision to shoot at protestors.  The outcome of this disastrous  decision is known and it reveals the murderous nature of the Jewish State.

The world reacted in disgust. The UN voted two days ago to send an international war crimes probe to Gaza.  Israel has already refused to cooperate with this fact finding mission.

These events in Gaza proved that the nature of Israeli barbarism has no precedent in human history. Israel is not a tyrannical dictatorship deploying death squads against protestors, nor were the killings the result of an outburst by a lone commander on the battlefield. Instead, Israel’s actions resulted from a non-ethical continuum that stretched from the Israeli PM to the last IDF sniper on the Gaza dunes. The Jewish state is a democracy. Its army is a popular army. The events in Gaza were the direct outcome of a policy that remained unchanged for 6 weeks despite the high level of civilian casualties in the Palestinian side.  We are talking about an murderous system that is institutionalised  at all levels of  the state that repeatedly defines itself as ‘The Jewish State.’

This has exposed a complete absence of moral awareness.  Israel has acted with impunity to kill on a mass scale as if ethics had never made it to Israel.  However John Adlington from Treflach seems to be really upset that I  insist that Jews must look into themselves so that they can understand what is it about their culture and politics that evoke so much fury. John Adlington from Treflach wrote to his local paper (Oswestry Advertiser) complaining about a local music venue inviting me to perform and run Jazz workshops. In Adlington’s eyes  I am ‘anti-Semitic’ for insisting that Jews, like everyone else, must reflect on their actions to understand once and for all why their history has been a chain of total disasters and how they bring misfortune on themselves.

I remain firmly behind those words that upset Mr. Adlington “…maybe the time is ripe for Jewish and Zionist organisations to draw the real and most important lesson from the Holocaust. Instead of constantly blaming the Goyim for inflicting pain on Jews, it is time for Jews to look in the mirror and try to identify what it is in Jews and their culture that evokes so much fury. It may even be possible that some Jews would take this opportunity to apologise to the Gentiles around them for evoking all this anger.” http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/holocaust-day-the-time-is-ripe-for-a-jewish-apology.html

I insist that it is well past the time for the Jewish State and Jewish institutions to figure out why the entire world has been disgusted by the actions of the IDF in Gaza. It is time for the Jewish State and Jewish organisations to grasp that Israeli criminality paints Jews in a disastrous light.  It is time for Israelis and Jews alike to accept that as long as Israel defines itself as the ‘Jewish State,’ the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians doesn’t reflect well on Jews. The on going Gaza siege doesn’t present the Jewish State as a humanist adventure either.  I would advise  Mr. Adlington that in this imaginary ‘racist contest’ he is well ahead of me.  Expecting Jews not to self reflect  and to understand their role in their own misfortune is actually a surrender to Jewish racial exceptionalism.

If the Jewish State and its many satellite lobbies and advocacy bodies around the world were taking responsibility for their actions, the Gaza massacre wouldn’t  have happened because the Palestinians would, by now, be living back on their land and peace would have been prevailed.  However, if promoting Jewish accountability and peace is ‘anti-Semitism’  one may wonder, what is a real bigot?

If they want to burn it, you want to read it!

Being in Time – A Post Political Manifesto,

Amazon.co.uk , Amazon.com and  here (gilad.co.uk).

 

دمشق حرّة حرّة

مايو 22, 2018

ناصر قنديل

– خلال سبع سنوات مضت كان كلّ ما يجري خارج دمشق في كفة وما يجري في دمشق وحولها وعلى الطرقات التي تربطها بمدن سورية ومحافظاتها في كفة أخرى. فمحافظتا دمشق وريف دمشق تشكلان معاً قلب سورية الجغرافي والسياسي والاقتصادي والسكاني والعسكري، ويكاد يكون لكلّ ما جرى خارج هذا القلب وظيفة الاستنزاف لتشتيت قدرات الدولة السورية وجيشها وأجهزة أمنها وحلفائها، كي يتمّ الحفاظ على البنى القادرة على الإرباك في دمشق وريفها. ففي دمشق وما حولها من ريف ومن أطراف حمص إلى أطراف درعا إلى الحدود اللبنانية والعراقية والأردنية والفلسطينية، تتشكّل هذه البقعة التي يتقرّر منها مستقبل سورية.

– منذ تحرير الغوطة بدا أنّ ساعة تحرير الجيوب المحيطة بدمشق أو المنغرزة في قلبها قد دقّت، وأنّ العبث بعناوين مثل مخيم اليرموك، والتقرّب من مقامات دينية كمقام السيدة زينب، لتزخيم ألاعيب الفتن، قد انتهى زمانه، وأنّ الجيش العربي السوري بات قادراً وجاهزاً، ولديه القرار الحاسم لإنهاء هذه اللعبة التي أريدَ لها أن تقتل ما يمكن من السوريين وأن تستنزف ما تستطيع من مقدراتهم وأعصابهم وأرواحهم ودمائهم وأرزاقهم، وأن تشيع حالة الحرب في كلّ أحيائهم، وأن تسقط فكرة الدولة وقدرتها في عاصمتها وفي عيون أهلها، فلا يتبقى منها سوى هيكل عظمي بلا روح، مهما كان هذا الهيكل قوياً.

– يربط كثيرون التصعيد الأميركي والإسرائيلي والسعودي بحسابات ومعادلات إقليمية، وكثيرون يحاولون القول إنّ القضية هي قضية الوجود الإيراني ودور حزب الله، ومستقبل التسويات في سورية. وهذا كله فيه جانب من الحقيقة، لكن الحقيقة الأهمّ هو أنّ التأثير على قدرة الجيش السوري وقراره وتماسك جبهة حلفائه لتأخير وتعطيل قرار إعلان دمشق وريفها مناطق خالية بالكامل من الإرهاب، يبقى الهدف الأهمّ، ووحده يفسّر معنى أنّ كلّ الاستهداف الذي طال مواقع الجيش السوري وحلفائه قد تركز في هذه البقعة من الجغرافيا السورية، منذ حرب الغوطة، فالعدوان الذي قادته واشنطن ومثله الاعتداءات الإسرائيلية كانت جزءاً عضوياً من الحرب التي تخوضها جماعات تتلاقى على العداء لمشروع الدولة السورية، تضمّ داعش والنصرة وجيش الإسلام وبقايا الجماعات الأخرى المسماة بالمعارضة المسلحة، والمرتبطة عضوياً بقرار أميركي سعودي إسرائيلي.

– لا ينفصل الإنجاز التاريخي عما سبقه ومهّد له بالتأكيد، لكن نكهة الإعلان عن الإنجاز تبقى مميّزة، فبمثل ما كان معلوماً أنّ هذه اللحظة قادمة مع تهاوي قلاع الإرهاب في القلمون الشرقي بعد الغوطة، كان للإعلان بالإنجاز قيمة منفصلة رغم التوقّع، ولذلك كما منح نصر الغوطة لهذا الإنجاز نكهته، يمنح هذا الإنجاز هو الآخر لإعلان قمة الرئيسين الروسي فلاديمير بوتين والسوري بشار الأسد نكهة أخرى، فيصير الحديث عن فرصة متاحة لدعوة مَن يريد الالتحاق بعملية سياسية بات معلوماً أنّ سقفها حكومة موحّدة في ظلّ الرئيس الأسد تضع دستوراً جديداً وتمهّد للانتخابات، حديثاً واقعياً، كما يصير السؤال عن مستقبل القوات الأجنبية التي تدّعي ربط مصيرها بالتسوية السياسية، سؤالاً مشروعاً.

– اليوم بمثل ما يستطيع السوريون الهتاف بصوت عالٍ، دمشق عادت حرّة، يستطيعون الاستعداد لمرحلة جديدة تقودها دولتهم في السياسة كما في الميدان، والعنوان، سورية موحّدة بجيش واحد هو الجيش العربي السوري ورئيس واحد هو الرئيس بشار الأسد، ولا مكان لاحتلال ولا لانفصال، مهما كانت عوامل التمويه والتورية، زمن يبدأ وزمن ينتهي، وقد وجب أخذ العلم.

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Muhammad & Friends with Gilad Atzmon

العبادي وجنبلاط مثال على حصيلة الحركة السعودية

مايو 21, 2018

ناصر قنديل

– ليس الموضوع المطروح الآن تقييم حركة السيد مقتدى الصدر في العراق وقد فازت بمكانة مميّزة في الانتخابات الأخيرة، بخطاب وميراث للسيد الصدر يجمعان إلى موقفه السبّاق بالدعوة لمقاومة الاحتلال تميّزه بالابتعاد عن الخطاب المذهبي ومكافحة الفساد، إلى علاقته المستجدّة بالسعودية وموقفها العدائي من إيران وقوى المقاومة، بحيث ربط الصدر مصير الحكومة الجديدة بعد الانتخابات بما يتخطّى شرطه السابق باستبعاد تكتل رئيس الحكومة السابق نوري المالكي الذي يتهمه بالفساد والطائفية، ليشمل الحظر تكتل الفتح الممثل لقوى الحشد الشعبي التي كان لها الفضل بالنصر على داعش، والتي ليس لها في قصر السياسة من أمسِ عصر الانتخابات، وقد سبقها التيار الصدري بالتمثيل النيابي والحكومي ويحمل مسؤولية أكبر منها عما آل إليه الحكم في العراق، بما جعل الحظر مشروعاً تقاطع فيه الصدر مع السعودية بخلفية العلاقة المأزومة مع إيران.

– الأكيد أنّ الرهان السعودي كان واضحاً على تشكيل تحالف يضمّ تكتل سائرون بقيادة الصدر مع تكتل النصر بقيادة رئيس الحكومة حيدر العبادي، وفقاً للمعادلة ذاتها، إبعاد حلفاء إيران عن المعادلة الحكومية في العراق، على أن يجري اجتذاب تكتلات نيابية تضمّ الحزب الديمقراطي الكردستاني وحزب الحكمة بقيادة السيد عمار الحكيم وتكتل الوطنية بزعامة إياد علاوي لتشكيل أغلبية حاكمة تنضمّ إلى صفوفها الكتل الصغيرة تلقائياً، والأكيد في المقابل أنّ بيضة القبان في المعادلة كان العبادي وموقفه، وقد تسنّى للعبادي أن يقيم الحسابات الدقيقة، وأن يدرس الفرص والتوازنات، ويستمع للمبعوثين من القوى المحلية والإقليمية والدولية، ليكوّن موقفاً واضحاً، قبل اتخاذ القرار.

– الحصيلة التي وصل إليها العبادي تقول برفض عرض الصدر بحكومة تستبعد الحشد الشعبي والمالكي ويكون عنوانها مواجهة إيران، أو حتى الابتعاد عنها، أو إغضابها، وقد بنى العبادي هذه الحصيلة على ثلاث نتائج هي: الأولى أنّ قضية تشكيل الحكومة شأن إجرائي ينتهي مع توقيع مراسيمها، لكن تمكين الحكومة من ممارسة الحكم شأن سياسي يومي ومستمرّ تعوزه موازين قوى تجعل الحكومة التي يتمّ تشكيلها على الورق، حكومة موجودة في الواقع، والثانية هي أنّ الحزب الديمقراطي الكردستاني وأحزاب أخرى أوصلوا للعبادي تمسكهم بالتفاهم مع إيران للمشاركة في أيّ تكتل نيابي. فالعلاقة بإيران جغرافيا سياسية محلية وليست جغرافيا سياسية إقليمية فقط، والثالثة هي أنّ تكتل العبادي نفسه مكوّن من أفراد وليس من أحزاب، ونصفه سيتفكك إذا سار بخيار عنوانه الخصومة مع إيران. وفي حصيلة الحصيلة خرج العبادي بموافقة الصدر على حكومة توافق تضمّ الجميع، وخصوصاً تكتل المالكي وتكتل الحشد الشعبي.

– في لبنان جرى توقيت حركة سعودية بالعقوبات على حزب الله، وبالنشاط الدبلوماسي والسياسي على كتل ونواب وقادة، تحت شعار تضييق الخناق على حزب الله، وخلق مناخات تسهم بإضعاف وهج حصاده الانتخابي وحصاد حلفائه، وما وصفه الأمين العام لحزب الله السيد حسن نصرالله بتوفير الحصانة للمقاومة، وتوفير بيئة مناسبة تفاوضياً لرئيس الحكومة سعد الحريري بوجه حزب الله، بعد تكليف الحريري تشكيل الحكومة الجديدة. ومحاور الحركة لا يحققها تحصيل الحاصل الذي يمثله موقف القوات اللبنانية، ولا الأمل باجتذاب مستحيل لرئيس المجلس النيابي نبيه بري، والحركة محصورة بثلاثة محاور، الأول هو التيار الوطني الحر والثاني هو النائب وليد جنبلاط، والثالث هو النواب الذين عادوا للمجلس النيابي من الطائفة السنية على حساب تيار المستقبل، وكانت للسعودية خطوط وخيوط على هذه المحاور الثلاثة.

– على محورَيْ التيار الوطني الحر ونواب الطائفة السنية جاء الإفطار السعودي كافياً وافياً لإعلان الفشل بغياب كليهما عن هذا الإفطار، سواء كان الغياب قراراً سياسياً لهم، أو احتجاجاً بروتوكولياً، أو رسالة سعودية لهم، فهو يكشف أزمة في العلاقة في عنوان علني ومناسبة تحرص السعودية كثيراً على تظهير موقعها الجامع فيها، وقد أصيبت بالفشل. وهذا سيكون كافياً لتظهير كيف ستسير الأمور بعدها، سيصير تطبيع العلاقات فيه سقفاً للطموح، فكيف بالتعاون في قضية عنوانها بحجم العلاقة بحزب الله، لها من الجذور في تاريخ وسلوك المعنيين ما يكفي لمعرفة نتيجة أيّ محاولة للفكّ والإضعاف؟ أما على محور النائب جنبلاط فمحاولات التطبيع تنجح وقد تنجح لاحقاً وتتوّج بزيارة ملكية جنبلاطية إلى الرياض، لكن جنبلاط يضع نقاطه على حروف العلاقة مع السعودية من بوابة خصوصيته واحترامها. العامل الأهمّ في هذه الخصوصية العلاقة بمن يصفه بحليفه الأول في لبنان، الرئيس نبيه بري، وصولاً لترجمة هذا الموقف في انتخابات نائب رئيس مجلس النواب بتوزيع أصواته بين مرشح القوات اللبنانية ومرشح التيار الوطني الحر النائب إيلي الفرزلي لأنه يحظى بمباركة الرئيس بري.

– السعودية في لبنان والعراق، مال وإعلام وسفارات وزيارات، حركة بلا بركة.

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The myth of the Gaza ‘border’

Amjad Iraqi

The Green Line disguises the fact that Palestinians in Gaza are no longer being oppressed outside the Israeli state, but are being caged and brutalized inside it.

Palestinian protesters inside the Gaza Strip throw stones in the direction of an Israeli military position on the other side of the border fence, Gaza Strip, December 8, 2017. (Ezz Zanoun/Activestills.org)

Palestinian activists have long criticized the use of the word “border” to describe the 1949 armistice line that divides Gaza and Israel, and which protestors in the Great March of Return have been trying to cross at great risk to life and limb. By invoking the term, Israel insists that its open-fire policy toward the march is part of its legitimate right to defend its sovereignty and security. It further claims that, because the government dismantled its settlements in 2005, it no longer occupies the Strip and therefore bears no responsibility for its conditions.

These are disingenuous arguments. Israel’s blockade and control of Gaza stretches from its eastern and northern land crossings to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, with Egypt controlling the south. What it calls a “border” is actually a militarized network of naval ships, barbed wire, electronic barriers, lethal no-man zones, and surveillance systems that operate as the fence of an open-air prison. In legal terms, Israel retains “effective control” of the Strip (including people’s movement, its airspace, flow of goods, and other needs of daily life), and therefore remains its occupying power.

An Israeli warship approaches a Palestinian skiff, as photographed from the observation boat Olivia (photo: Rosa Schiano/Civil Peace Service Gaza CPSGAZA)

The human rights community has spent years articulating the nature of Israel’s occupation under international law and the responsibility of third-parties to end it. The law, however, is only worth as much as the will to enforce it; and half a century later, these efforts have failed to produce meaningful outcomes. It is not that the law is incorrect, but that it has been unable to mobilize political action or make Israel’s military rule less sustainable.

The Palestinians’ own ambiguities about the Green Line have further complicated matters. We focus on the military structures that have spawned since 1967, yet emphasize that the real problem is 1948. We cite Israel’s obligation to abide by international law, but chastise the law for being useless in practice. We combine settler colonialism, occupation, and apartheid as lenses to explain the ongoing Nakba, but arrive at different conclusions for what the solution entails. These debates are natural, but they also muddle the struggle’s priorities and the discourse it promotes.

Exploiting these uncertainties, Israel has turned Gaza into an area that is simultaneously separated from and annexed under Israel’s control. It is a purgatory designed to provide whatever answer is most convenient for shirking responsibility and justifying violence at any given time. This has obscured a controversial but perhaps inexorable fact: after 51 years, Gaza can hardly be described as “occupied territory” anymore. It is now a segregated, debilitated, and subjugated part of Israel; a replica of the districts, townships, and reservations that imprisoned native populations and communities of color in apartheid South Africa, the United States, and other colonial regimes. In other words, Palestinians are no longer being oppressed outside the Israeli state; they are being caged and brutalized inside it.

Israeli soldiers look on at protests in Gaza. April 13, 2018. (Oren Ziv / Activestills.org)

The Green Line has been key to disguising this complex system. Like the de facto annexation of the West Bank – where Israel’s growing settlements and military presence have similarly made the “border” there non-existent – Gaza has effectively been absorbed into Israel’s political jurisdiction. Hamas, like the Palestinian Authority, is viewed as a pseudo-government of hostile “enemy aliens,” but one that can be managed in Israel’s domain so long as it is contained behind the fence. The thousands taking part in the March of Return are not “infiltrators” trying to breach a sovereign state, but displaced and disenfranchised “citizens” breaking out of a state-built ghetto. The army is not holding off “foreign invaders,” but is killing and suppressing its own native subjects.

This framing is crucial to understand the scale and severity of Israel’s policies, and to devise stronger paths to correcting their injustices. By tearing off the mask of the Green Line, Palestinians and their allies can reverse Israel’s efforts to isolate Gaza from the West Bank and to deny its people’s rights to their ancestral homes. What Israel fears more than a Palestinian state is a Palestinian population it cannot disown, and the myth that Gaza is “separated” from Israel helps it to balance that fear. That myth must be broken, and that racist fear must be exposed. Doing so would also reveal the political solution: if Palestinians cannot win their independence along the Green Line, they will demand their full equality beyond it. The March of Return is doing just that

At 70: Let’s let israel implode

At 70: Let`s let Israel implode

Israel’s democratic farce is collapsing, but little can be done today to challenge this from within Zionist institutions

Marcelo Svirsky

They are desperate as they have never been before. In their impatience and immoderation, Israel’s institutions hasten, with their own hands, the end of Zionism. We might even see it happening in our lifetime. 

For the first time in history, it seems they are realising that, in the long run, Zionism is indefensible and unsustainable. But that realisation is not creating a genuine collective introspection that could move Israeli society towards social transformation; rather, the opposite is happening. In a scattergun approach, Israel fires in all directions, to protect, as British essayist Perry Anderson famously put it, “what it has made of what it has taken”.

Celebrating Palestinian deaths

Their strategy is revealing: Threats need to be contained, and strengths must be augmented. The backbone of the Zionist project involves the social mobilisation of Israeli citizens. The combined sight of Israeli soldiers celebrating the killing of unarmed Palestinians, while others take their seats at makeshift balconies to watch – as in an outdoor cinema – Palestinian protestors being shot at, shows the extent to which the colonial gangrene has expanded in the Israeli social body. 

Israeli Jews are the spine of this project, but diaspora Jews are its reservoir. Anywhere Jewish dissent blossoms, the Zionist spectre is there to crush it. All means are kosher: Israel’s rabbinical courts may soon have unprecedented power over non-Israeli Jews.

It is evident that for Israel, the threat posed by Palestinians is not in their actions: To the Zionist mind, Palestinian life in itself is a manifestation of war

Not only are Palestinian protesters executed by military snipers at the Gaza border as a matter of policy, but the Israeli government also justifies it. In response to a Supreme Court petition filed by human rights groups, the state of Israel said that the Gaza protests fell into the category of a state of war, and thus human rights law did not apply to the rules of engagement.

There is something tragic about appealing to Israeli courts to defend basic human and civil rights. Israeli courts have never been a bulwark of freedom. In the past, the military would have refuted the extent of the death toll; but today, unapologetically, the official story adapts law and morality to make sense of Israel’s policies for Israeli eyes and ears.

This shift points to a cultural degradation that the world must acknowledge: when the perpetrator rationalises and celebrates its crimes, the space for dialogue has been extinguished. Israel must be ostracised until it complies with international law, just as the BDS movement is demanding.

Erasing the occupation

In recent years, the Israeli government has been attempting to control and restrict donations to human and civil rights organisations in the country, while encouraging militaristic activities in schools and erasing all discussion of the occupation in civics textbooks.

Human rights defenders are also blocked from bringing their messages into Israel’s social space: this week, two prominent US human rights lawyers, Katherine Franke and Vincent Warren, were detained at Ben Gurion airport for 14 hours, interrogated and deported.

On the external front, Israel has created more and more official institutions to fight against BDS, recruiting US legislators in the effort as well. Yet these attempts are insignificant compared with the growing mass of people and organisations around the globe joining the BDS movement, winning more victories each year.

People take part in a demonstration calling for a boycott of Israel and for the recognition of the state of Palestine in Paris in 2015 (AFP)

Now, Israel also convicts Palestinian poets. Dareen Tatour was convicted this month by an Israeli district court of incitement to terrorism because of posts on social media – particularly, because of her poem titled: “Resist, My People, Resist Them.” No other decision could defeat its purpose more than this ruling; to silence poetry is to excite its passions.

To the Zionist mind, Palestinian life in itself is a manifestation of war

It is evident that for Israel, the threat posed by Palestinians is not in their actions. To the Zionist mind, Palestinian life in itself is a manifestation of war. The intensification and expansion of this applied hatred towards Palestinians requires the tightening of Israeli mobilisation. It is not inconceivable that at some point, Israelis will have to express their loyalty in more visual and louder ways, perhaps as Culture Minister Miri Regev conceived for Independence Day commemorations, with children wearing yellow stars.

Enhanced executive powers

In the meantime, the institutional authoritarian ring closes on Israelis. Firstly, to be on the safe side, the Israeli parliament is about to make sure that it can override Supreme Court decisions that challenge the Jewish or militaristic character of the state; and secondly, Israel’s prime minister can now declare war in consultation only with the minister of defence, regardless of the cabinet’s position. Both decisions enhance the power of the executive, which for decades has dominated the Knesset without any significant political opposition.

Israel’s democratic farce is collapsing. MK Dov Khenin of the Joint List has warned that Netanyahu is leading the country towards a Masada-style suicide. But little can be done today from within Zionist institutions.

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Where is Israel’s outrage at the appalling massacre in Gaza?

The Joint List must immediately leave the Knesset. Whatever its small victories are, its presence continues to legitimise the vermin. Let’s let the Knesset become a pure Jewish parliament, to better resonate with the dynamics of the state and society. Let’s let Israel implode from its own bile.

In the meantime, Palestinians and anti-Zionist Israelis on both sides of the Green Line can begin establishing the foundations of new democratic institutions. Once the political institutions of Israel implode, alternative political tools will be available.

– Marcelo Svirsky is a senior lecturer at the School for Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong, Australia. He researches settler-colonial societies, particularly Israel-Palestine, and focuses on questions of social transformation and decolonisation.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.  

Photo: Anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews burn an Israeli flag in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighbourhood on 2 May 2018, during celebrations for the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer (AFP).

This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.