Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss / October 30, 2022
The Israeli political system is set up to perpetuate apartheid, not end it. The results of the latest election won’t change this.
The Israeli public will go to elections on Tuesday. Those who are privileged enough under the control of the one Apartheid state from the river to the sea, that is. Not the occupied Palestinians with no real political representation, nor the expelled refugees. The 1.7 million Palestinians who are Israeli citizens can vote, but they cannot have national representation. Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, which last year published a scathing report about Israeli Apartheid “from the river to the sea”, has today published a position paper ahead of the elections, titled “Not a ‘vibrant democracy’. This is apartheid” – an equally sobering read. It ends like this:
“One regime governs the entire area and the fate of everyone in it. This regime operates according to a single organizing principle: advancing and cementing the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians. Under this regime, Jewish citizens have the monopoly on political power. Only they have a true seat at the table where their fate, and the fate of Palestinians, is determined. This is not a democracy. This is apartheid.”
And so in this Apartheid reality, the Zionist rulers get to play “Jewish democracy” between themselves. The drama is supposedly great – will Netanyahu be elected again, or not?
In the anti-Netanyahu camp, melodramatic names have turned up in recent years. Netanyahu rival Gideon Sa’ar, started up his own party, “New Hope”, a couple of years ago. But Sa’ar offers no new hope for Palestinians – he is politically even further right than Netanyahu. Meanwhile New Hope has been merged with Benny Gantz’s Blue White party, under the latter’s leadership, a party now called National Union. Gantz, another anti-Netanyahu supposed liberal, boasted of bringing Gaza to the “stone age” (as army chief of staff) when he entered politics. Once again, hopeless. The supposedly liberal Yair Lapid has set up “Yesh Atid” a decade ago; the party name means “There is a future”. Lapid’s stated principle is “maximum Jews on maximum land with maximum security and with minimum Palestinians”. What a future, huh?
This is a veritable horror show, with or without Netanyahu. “New hope”, “There is a future” – it’s all a hypocritical cacophony of Zionist melodrama and self-righteousness, that all ends up in Jewish supremacy.
It’s obvious that many Palestinians don’t want to take part in it, even the ones who are eligible to vote. The recent years’ experience with the supposed “government of change”, which was, for a change, not under Netanyahu, proved that there is no relief from Israeli Apartheid governance in the horizon, with or without Netanyahu. It’s predicted that the voting turnout from Palestinian citizens of Israel may be historically low, probably under 50%.
Thus on the left, there is campaigning to get Palestinians to vote. Some are just trying to get them to vote for anything that is within the ‘not-Netanyahu’ circle, since low turnout among Palestinians will indirectly increase the chances that rival parties will fall under the electoral threshold to enter the next government (3.25%, 4 seats). Failed parties get their votes redistributed which statistically advantages the bigger parties – and Netanyahu’s Likud is the biggest with an average of about 31-32 seats (from the last polls this week). The Netanyahu bloc averages over 60 seats in these recent polls, and that tiny advantage of the redistributed votes can make the difference for getting to the coveted 61 seats – a majority in the 120-seat parliament.
But some go further than just campaigning for Palestinians to vote. Labor leader Merav Michaeli has recently put out a video where she speaks in Arabic, to Palestinian women, and deplores them not just to vote, but to vote Labor. It goes like this:
“If you had the right to vote at all, would you agree? Women were murdered during the feminist struggle, which provided you with the right to vote. You will not vote? Vote E.M.T. [Labor’s voting initials]. Vote for a woman who will understand you and fight for you!”
You need some real nerve, some real chutzpah, to talk to Palestinian women like that. I mean, Labor – the party which was singularly responsible for the Nakba, the 1948-66 military rule of Palestinians who remained in what became Israeli territory, the 1967 occupation, the ensuing settlement project. Michaeli has also proven beyond doubt in the past year that her party will simply perpetuate Apartheid. She is talking about the right to vote – where her Israel and her party has stolen that right from so many Palestinians! It also stole their lands, their homes, and their lives. She is now lecturing Palestinian women about what is right for them to do — vote Labor!
Michaeli has an arch-rival now – and I don’t mean Netanyahu anymore, it’s Itamar Ben Gvir, from the furthest right Jewish Power party. She is claiming to be his polar opposite, but they are but two sides of the same Zionist coin. Sure, Ben Gvir is an outspoken Jewish supremacist – but Michaeli is also a Jewish supremacist, just with a more progressive feminist veneer. She boasts that women can be combat fighters, and that she will not let Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of Religious Zionism, take that right away, as she did in this tweet recently. Women should also have the right to bomb Palestinians and be part of the Apartheid army.
A person really does have to work this one out for themselves. Once you understand that we are speaking about Apartheid, it really changes your priorities. It is obvious that the Israeli political system is set up to perpetuate it, and we cannot expect that system to improve itself with the balance of powers as they are.
Some try to make the best of it, and vote anyway, in an attempt to change things from within. I will not lecture them not to, but I will certainly not say that voting just for the sake of it in an Apartheid reality is a noble deed – the only ones who think that are those who seek to enshrine the fake laurel of democracy in such a situation. But for everyone else, particularly those who are not Israeli and who do not vote there, the priority must be to end the Apartheid. That is not done by voting, it is done by pressuring Israel and isolating it – that is why Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions are so important.
Jonathan Ofir is an Israeli musician, conductor and blogger/writer based in Denmark
