Once again the racist policies of the Likud party led by Netanyahu, have been endorsed by the electorate with the return of a coalition of right wing parties to power in the recent Israeli elections. While the mix of right wing parties in this coalition is not quite the same as in the previous parliament, the policies the new government pursues continue to treat the Palestinians in Israel as second class citizens. In the occupied territories, the Palestinians in the West Bank are subjected to army rule and in Gaza, the harsh blockade blights their lives . What was striking in the election campaign was the ever more blatant racism having to be employed by Netanyahu to ensure that his party, the Likud came out on top. The Israelis have not learnt the lessons of the failure of racist policies adopted by other settler colonial regimes to stem the tide of liberation struggle of the colonised. The resistance of the Palestinians to the incursion of the Israeli army into Gaza last year not only inspired further resistance in the West Bank but has strengthened the boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign(BDS) against Israel throughout the world.
During the election campaign, Netanyahu blamed a cabal of “foreign money”, the Obama administration and a hostile media for “aiming at ousting him and electing a leftist government relying on Arabs”, whom he charged with “voting in droves”. He also promised the building and expansion of new settlements, declaring that there would never be a Palestinian state while he was prime minister. He flew to the US and made a provocative speech before Congress, to the delight of the Republican right wing, trying to torpedo any deal which Obama might reach with Iran on the nuclear issue. One positive feature of the election was the emergence of the Joint List, bringing together small parties of the Arabs, who constitute 20% of Israeli citizens but had not enjoyed the representation their voting power should have commanded. The list consisted of the main Arab parties and the communist led Hadash. The participation of the list contributed to an increase in Palestinians voting from 54% to 67%. There was a small turnout of Israeli Jews in support of the list, which is far to the left of the platform of any of the other parties.
The fear haunting the Israeli racists, if demographic predictions are correct, is that Palestinians are going to be a majority in a decade and they do not have a readymade solution to “this threat”. As the Palestinians continue to resist land grabbing in the West Bank and suffer the siege of Gaza, Israel is driven to find a more lasting solution to the “Palestinian problem”. What “solutions” are they exploring? According to Moshe Machover, an Israeli socialist living in exile “ There is only one other possibility, and that is to take the territory without most of its Palestinian-Arab population. That means major ethnic cleansing”. This would entail “a massive operation to clear the occupied territories of their two million Arabs”. He does not think this is just speculation as an Israeli military expert in the past mapped out a scenario involving the US for this to occur. In this regard, the linkup between the US Republican right and the new Israeli government is a sinister development (“Searching for a pretext” Communist Platform ,March 22nd Weekly Worker).
Following the failed policies of the PLO colluding with the government of Israel , the US and the Arab leaders in the 1993 Oslo accords, a new Palestinian generation has grown up and initiated new strategies. One of these is the boycott, divestment and sanctions(BDS) movement against Israel, which is shaped by a rights based approach. It has been in existence since 2005 and emerged from 170 Palestinian civil society groups including all political parties, unions, refugee networks, NGOs and organisations representing Palestinians under occupation, in Israel and in exile. The campaign against Israel will continue until it meets its international obligations by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonisation of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall .
2 . Recognising the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.
3 . Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
The Palestinian organisations drew their inspiration from the Anti- Apartheid movement against the racist South African regime. There are organised boycotts in many countries of Israeli goods. The BDS are pressurising public investment portfolios and pension funds not to finance companies like G4S, a large British security firm, which supplies personnel to run prisons in Israel for Palestinian political prisoners. Academics at universities and artists are campaigning against collaboration with Israeli universities and cultural organisations. BDS also campaigns for sanctions against economic, diplomatic and sports organisations, which provide a veneer of respectability and material support for Israel’s crimes against human rights.
The BDS movement has made big advances in 10 years. It is estimated that Israel has lost at least $30 million due to the BDS campaigns. As world attention focuses on Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians, it is becoming a pariah state. The BDS is playing an important part in solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinians for national liberation.