The Roots of Israel's Judicial Coup, Tangled in Apartheid
Haaretz Editorial: The Roots of Israel's Judicial Coup, Tangled in Apartheid
About 300 Jewish settlers attacked the town of Turmus Aya, north of Ramallah, on 21.6.2023, they burned about 50 vehicles and set fire to 35 houses, agricultural crops, and farms.
Aug 24, 2023 – National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is not the father of Israeli apartheid. If anything, it would be more correct to say he is its child. From the way he thinks, speaks and acts, it is evident that the language of apartheid is his mother tongue. He knows no other. He was nursed on Jewish supremacy, and today, in his adulthood, he embodies its worldview. Sorry Itamar, but this is the reality.
On Wednesday this week, the minister was a guest of Channel 12 news and, as an exponent of Jewish supremacy, he used the opportunity to spread his sickness. “My right and that of my wife and children to travel the roads of Judea and Samaria is more important than freedom of movement for Arabs,” he said. He then turned to journalist Mohammad Magadli and added: “Sorry Muhammad, but this is the reality, this is the truth. My right to life comes before freedom of movement.”
The Kahanist wave that has swept across Israel is murky, ugly and menacing. But precisely because of its visible crudeness, more and more Israelis are waking up and seeing the direct connection between the settlement enterprise, the concept of Jewish supremacy and the judicial coup. For decades, they could pretend that Israeli democracy was solid even with the occupation, but now the realization is quickly dawning on them: One cannot live side by side with the other.
“The protest is getting to the roots of the coup” – this is the vow of an advertisement sponsored by protest leaders, calling for a demonstration in front of Ben-Gvir’s home in the settlement of Kiryat Arba on Friday at 11 A.M.
Ben-Gvir is indeed one of the main drivers of the governmental coup, but there is another, very important one as well – the settlements, their expansion, their maintenance and the desire to annex them and all the occupied territories, without granting Israeli citizenship to the millions of Palestinians who live there.
The awakening to this connection is painful but necessary. The protest movement initially tried to remain apart from the struggle against the occupation and the right of Palestinian self-determination, but now its leaders are beginning to understand that the two are inseparable. The judicial coup is essential to the process of anchoring apartheid and strengthening Jewish supremacy. If the protest does reach the sources of the coup, then our hope is not yet lost.
Article originally published by Haaretz