End of the Year Issue
By Lara-Nour Walton
December 31, 2022
Palestine continues to dissolve like an Alka-Seltzer on global maps. Newly sworn-in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to enforce this in a Dec. 28 tweet: “The Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the land of Israel.” Such a statement comes as an affront to official United States’ regional efforts, which claimed to prioritize “peace over the sovereignty movement” since Aug. 2020. Netanyahu’s predicted course of action would, conversely, “formulate and promote policies within whose framework sovereignty will be applied to Judea and Samaria.”
Such an approach would remove distinctions between Israel and designated Palestinian Territories like Gaza and the occupied West Bank, thus paving the way for further settlement and strife under the Netanyahu administration. West Bank settler and Religious Zionism champion Bezalel Smotrich will be finance minister, overseeing essential aspects of Palestinian life in occupied territories. Similarly, West Bank settler and Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) leader, Itamar Ben-Gvir, will manage the state police per his national security minister position. Ben-Gvir is a particularly contentious pick considering his public expressions of racism and ardent support for Meir Kahane’s ultranationalist and anti-Arab Kach party. A spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas laments that the new Netanyahu coalition will “constitute a dangerous escalation and will have repercussions for the region.”
Yet, Palestinian resistance has historically had little bearing on Israeli national vision — an estimated 600,000 Jewish Israelis reside in the 140 settlements that pockmark the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel’s 1967 occupation of the aforementioned regions is widely considered a breach of international law and directly contributes to the displacement and subjugation of the indigenous Palestinian demographic, though Israel disputes these claims.
Palestinian self-determination within Israeli borders has been minimized to such an extent that Netanyahu’s coalition partners dismiss the two-state solution altogether. However, such a development has been a long time coming, with both Israelis and Palestinians increasingly scrapping the two-state compromise in favor of more radical panaceas. A 2014 Washington Institute for Near East Policy survey disclosed that most Palestinians hope to see the wholesale reclamation of historical Palestine “from the river to the sea,” while a mere 27 percent endorse a two-state solution.
Declining support for moderate policies, like the two-state agreement, only extends the protracted regional quagmire, with neither side willing to relinquish land for fear of international erasure. However, one Palestinian Twitter user, @Jennineak, acknowledged the Israeli-Palestinian power imbalance by denouncing Netanyahu’s recent remarks as inciting “ethnic cleansing.”
Anti-Netanyahu animus is not confined to Palestinian populations. He is serving a record sixth term as Israeli Prime Minister, and his return was not smooth sailing. Only last year, eight opposition parties united to oust him from office after four deadlocked elections and a corruption scandal. The Yesh Atid coalition, led by the outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, is one such party determined to regain state control. Netanyahu was sworn in without decorum — no ceremonial power handover took place and a note scrawled in Lapid’s handwriting “Lapid – 2024” awaited him on the Prime Minister’s desk.
Furthermore, the Israeli public and international community fear that discrimination may surface with the ascendance of newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister Avi Maoz and his anti-LGBTQ Noam party. Maoz has already called for the ban of Jerusalem's Gay Pride Parade and opposes women’s military participation and non-Jewish immigration to the country. His strict observance of Jewish law has the potential to be institutionalized — Israel’s anti-discrimination law may be amended to allow businesses to refuse services on religious grounds.
Despite Netanyahu’s move to include the openly gay Parliamentary Speaker Amir Ohana in his coalition, growing agitation is latent among certain Israelis. Queer activist Daniel Johnas expressed that, for the first time, he is afraid to fly the rainbow flag in his country’s streets. Other critics are apprehensive in the face of coalition resolve to pass legislation that would vest a parliamentary majority with the power to override Supreme Court decisions.
Netanyahu remains unfazed by domestic and international disenchantment. He informed the Knesset that, alongside his annexation plans, his new administration aims to expand Israel’s arsenal of Arab regional allies and hinder Iran from acquiring nuclear weaponry. The Prime Minister was sworn in on Dec. 29, 2022, yet, his term has already proven to be turbulent. Only time will tell how the most right-wing government in Israeli history will fare.