Ghassan Khatib: The rise of the Israeli far right & the future of Palestine
The victory of Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing allies
last week at the polls amounts to a major defeat of left and center-left
parties in Israel and is merely one more indication that Israeli society is
continuing a strong trend of radicalization. Over the last 20 years, with only some fluctuations, each
successive Israeli government and parliament has been more radical and more
right-wing than the one before it.
The only way to explain this drift in the direction of
increasingly rigid and extreme political positions is the absence of
accountability. Israelis have been allowed to have their cake and eat it, too.
They have been allowed to continue disregarding the expectations of their
backers, particularly the US and Europe, and to continue expanding settlements
while ignoring their friends’ chiding remarks. Part of the reason for this is that in the current regional
security chaos, Israel is seen as increasingly valuable to Western powers.
Palestinians, meanwhile, have made a mess of their own
affairs, allowing an internal political chasm to grow and thus deterring and
confusing the nation’s friends in their attempts to offer support. The lack of pressure on Israel means that Israelis do not
have to pay any price for their violations of Palestinian rights. Every sign is
that these negative trends will continue — leading all involved away from a
rational and principled solution to the Palestinian conflict and into an abyss
of force and violence.
It is easy to predict Netanyahu’s way forward in dealing
with Israeli-Palestinian relations and the future of the peace process. His previous governments were systematic in expanding
illegal settlements, consolidating the illegal Israeli occupation, blocking
peace negotiations — Israel was openly blamed for the failure of the last round
of talks lead by US Secretary of State John Kerry — and continuing to undermine
the Palestinian Authority and its leadership.
Netanyahu’s ability to continue on this path is wide open.
Israel’s successive right-wing governments have created a status quo that is
quite comfortable for Israel while being brutal for Palestinians. This status
quo was created partially through negotiations and the fact their outcome has been
frozen in time, and partially through the use of unilateral force. Israel gained security and its occupation is less costly
than ever. At the same time, Palestinian needs were not met and public
frustration has been rising.
The Palestinian leadership last year expressed its inability
to live with this status quo by crossing Israeli “red lines” and joining the
International Court of Justice, trying to gain back some leverage by inviting
outside intervention. But to punish the Palestinian leadership, some Israeli
politicians stated in their election campaigning that the Palestinian Authority
could be “downgraded” or done away with all together. This might have been
election fever — but it also could have been very serious.
It is quite possible, if Netanyahu and his cohorts are given
a free hand for four more years, that this will be enough to close the historic
opportunity for a two-state solution. The current moderate Palestinian
leadership will be the second casualty of such international negligence. Indeed, in the aftermath of the Israeli election results,
Palestinians find themselves with only one option to slow this process, which
is to challenge the Israeli government where it is weakest, namely to fight
Israel in international arenas and on the basis of international law.
This could include joining more international agencies,
going back to the Security Council, filing war crimes charges against Israel
and Israelis, and doing more to encourage friends to adopt boycott, divestment,
and sanctions against an unchecked Israel.
It is the Palestinians’ right to pursue all legal and
legitimate means of achieving their aspirations and ensuring their own
protection. We must be candid about the future. This approach will not
move the parties towards peaceful agreements, but rather will bring about more
Israeli recriminations and pressure on Palestinians. Tensions will rise.
The only other countervailing factor is the involvement of
the international community.
Unless the US and Europe introduce elements of accountability
into their relationships with Israel, the coming four years are likely to be
dramatic, and will include the final closing of the chapter started in Oslo
over two decades ago.
Ghassan Khatib is Vice President for Development and
Communications and a lecturer of Cultural Studies and Contemporary Arab Studies
at Birzeit University in Palestine.
