Israel has been in a democratic backslide since at least 2018, with a rise in ethno-nationalist populism in internal politics, and building ties with Trump, Bolsonaro, and Orban in international politics.
On November 1st 2022, Israel elected the most right-wing government in its history. Here’s just a glimpse of who those elected politicians are:
· National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of far-right “Jewish Power” party, is the figure of Jewish fascism and an admirer of Kahane, the founder of a Jewish terrorist group named Kash;
· Minister of defense, Yoav Galant, said that “the Palestinians are human animals”;
· Deputy mayor of Jerusalem went further by proposing to “bury alive” the Palestinians;
· Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, has happily referred to himself as a “fascist homophobe.”
This list could go longer and longer. Those quotes are just the tip of the iceberg of the whole outrageous colonialist Jewish supremacist apartheid society Zionists have built.
Can the genocide be stopped?
Following Hamas’ October 7th 2023 attack, Israel is bombing the whole population of Gaza in relative impunity. This ‘’over the top’’ (like Biden said) response is nothing but the logical result of their genocidal colonialist agenda which is hypocritically hidden behind their reprisal war against Hamas.
Jewish peace activist Pierre Stambul wrote in the French anarchist journal Courant Alternatif: “most of the planet disapproves [of the bombings of Gaza]. But those with military or financial power let it happen. […] Without sanctions, there is nothing to hope for from Israeli society.”
And he is right. No legal action will win over peace and justice from Israel. South Africa tried to sanction Israel through the International Court of Justice (South Africa v. Israel). The judgement hasn’t concluded on the practice of genocide. However, Israel’s Foreign Ministry described South Africa as “functioning as the legal arm” of Hamas, while Ben-Gvir called ICJ “anti-semitic.”
Anarchists and Palestinian liberation
Nigerian anarcho-syndicalist Sam Mbah wrote in his 1997 book African Anarchism that “anarchists demand the liberation of all existing colonies and support struggles for national independence in Africa and around the world as long as they express the will of the people in the nations concerned. However, anarchists also insist that the usefulness of ‘self-determination’ will be very limited as long the state system and capitalism — including marxist state capitalism — are retained.”
This means that Palestinians are fully supported by most anarchists in their struggle against oppression, but that anarchists won’t support any political parties nor national State, since all of these are oppressive. Indeed, thousands of Palestinians marched against Hamas on July 30th, 2023. If we consider that no elections have happened since 2007 in Gaza, this shows that this party isn’t the voice of Gaza’s people, but one of its oppressors.
But what do most anarchists propose instead? See the next article for more.