In the West Bank youths are again confronting Israeli troops in response to daily deadly raids, and extremist Jewish settlers have been on rampages burning out Palestinian homes. In Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities for two months now thousands of Jews and Arabs have massed in demonstrations against perceived attempts by the government to destroy the country’s judicial independence. The protests continued this weekend. They are being dispersed by water cannon and stun grenades.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s new ultra-right coalition government, elected on a pledge, which it is implementing with enthusiasm, to crack down hard on Palestinian rights, has already faced a dramatic upsurge in protests and violence. In the first two months of 2023, 60 Palestinians and 14 Israelis have died. Meanwhile, ministers are pouring petrol on the flames.
Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has sweeping powers over civilian life in the West Bank and is a settler himself with a history of anti-Arab rhetoric, has shocked even hardened observers with his call to destroy a Palestinian village, Huwara. It was home to a militant who attacked settlers and then subject of a deadly retaliatory settler rampage a week ago.
“The village of Huwara needs to be wiped out,” Smotrich said. “I think that the State of Israel needs to do that – not, God forbid, private individuals.”
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The attempt to pass legislation allowing parliament to overrule the courts has united the opposition and civil society. In a state with no written constitution, the judiciary, and the supreme court in particular, have historically been considered vital checks on political power and defenders of civil rights.
Fears of the government’s intentions have been compounded by legislation introduced by one of its more extreme parties which would extend the death penalty to people convicted of murder in cases of political violence against Israeli citizens. The act is understood as implying capital punishment for Arabs but not Jews.