The man who has dominated Israeli politics for so long and campaigned against a Palestinian state is finally gone, for now at least. He has been ousted, after four inconclusive elections in two years, by a broad coalition led by Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett.
On paper the government is, in Israeli terms, a centre-left government and much has been made of a small Arab party now part of a ruling coalition government for the first time ever.
Might it be time to hope Israel will move towards considering equal rights for Palestinians? Might now be the time for countries like New Zealand to engage more and encourage change towards justice for Palestinians and peace for everyone?
Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding no. The new Israeli government is wedded to continue running what the largest and most respected Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem calls “a regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”. In their January 2021 landmark report it confirmed what Palestinians and South Africans have been saying for decades – that Israel is an apartheid state.
The B’Tselem report states: “The terms we have used in recent years to describe the situation, such as “prolonged occupation” or a “one-state reality”, are no longer adequate.”
In eight pages it details what it describes as the “four major methods the Israeli regime uses to advance Jewish supremacy”.
These are “immigration – for Jews only”; “taking over land for Jews while crowding Palestinians in enclaves”; “restriction of Palestinians’ freedom of movement” and “denial of Palestinians’ right to political representation”.
It concludes: “These accumulated measures, their pervasiveness in legislation and political practice, and the public and judicial support they receive – all form the basis for our conclusion that the bar for labelling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met…
“A regime that uses laws, practices and organised violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime.”
B’Tselem was joined in April by the US-based, Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning organisation Human Rights Watch, which released a 213-page report detailing how Israeli policies constituted “crimes of apartheid and persecution” against Palestinians.
Living up to the description of an apartheid regime within its first three weeks, the new Israeli government has approved the building of 31 more illegal Jewish-only settlements on occupied Palestinian land, continued plans for demolitions and ethnic-cleansing operations in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, as well as introducing legislation to continue denying entry to Israel by Palestinians who marry Israeli citizens.
As Budour Hassan from Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (JLAC) said at the time: “You can be French, you can be American, and you can come and live with your Jewish-Israeli spouse, but if you’re Palestinian in the West Bank, you can’t”.
This attempt to continue denying entry to Palestinians who marry Israeli citizens failed but not because the new government has had a change of heart. It has failed because the opposition wanted to make the denial of entry permanent rather than continue the temporary ban.
There are now 65 Israeli laws, described by B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch as apartheid laws, which discriminate against Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship.
And needless to say the killing of Palestinian protesters by the Israeli Defence Forcehas continued unchecked. For example, Ahmad ‘Abdu was assassinated by an Israeli death squad last month.
The killings are not just on the Israeli side however. Last month Nizar Banat, a prominent Palestinian activist who has been highly critical of the Palestinian Authority, was allegedly murdered by PA security forces. A cousin who witnessed the incident said his house was raided in the early morning, he was pepper-sprayed and brutally beaten before being taken away. He died a few hours later.
The Palestinian Authority, which has a security co-operation agreement with Israel, has grown deeply unpopular among Palestinians and its leadership would be voted out of office if Palestinian elections were held now.
But elections planned for earlier this year have been put on hold because Israel is refusing to allow Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem to vote. It suits the PA to delay elections because it is unpopular and it suits Israel also because it would lose a more compliant Palestinian leadership.
So where does this new Israeli regime leave us?
Palestinians are in a struggle remarkably similar to the struggle of black South Africans under white rule.
Black South Africans called for boycotts and sanctions from the outside world to help bring pressure for change and that international solidarity, which we celebrate this year on the 40th anniversary of the protests against the 1981 Springbok Tour. These were successful in helping bring a quicker end to that apartheid regime.
Palestinians have made the same call to the world. In 2005 they launched an appeal for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to force Israel to abide by international law and United Nations resolutions.
They are campaigning for three things: an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the siege of Gaza; an end to Israel’s apartheid laws discriminating against Palestinians and the freedom for Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and land in Israel as is their legal right under international law.
The New Zealand government votes in support of Palestinian human rights each year at the United Nations but, like other western governments, has failed to bring pressure on Israel for change and this is at the heart of the problem.
The government claims it is even-handed in its approach to Palestine and Israel. But this is not true. We have extensive links with Israel but provide only nominal support for Palestinians. For example, the government supports a visa free scheme for young Israelis to travel to New Zealand, but not Palestinians.
Similarly it has signed a signed a film co-production agreement, an aviation services agreement and an “innovation agreement” with Israel. It supports increasing trade with Israel and sent our former Minister of Defence Ron Mark to meet with former Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Benjamin Netanyahu.
Instead of cosying up to Israel’s apartheid regime we should be supporting Palestinians with government pressure on Israel.
It’s not so different to earlier decades when New Zealand governments described white South Africans as our “kith and kin” and gave their “goodwill and blessing” to All Black teams going to South Africa.
Our governments were wrong then with apartheid South Africa and they are wrong now with apartheid Israel.
I’ll give the last word to the international expert on apartheid, Nobel Peace-Prize-winner and good friend of New Zealand, South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has described Israeli apartheid as worse than that suffered by black South Africans:
“I have witnessed the racially-segregated roads and housing in the Holy Land that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under apartheid,” Tutu says.
“We could not have achieved our democracy without the help of people around the world, who through… non-violent means, such as boycotts and disinvestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the apartheid regime”
In the case of Israel, Tutu says the world should “call it apartheid and boycott”. I agree.
Boycott those who sell Israeli products. Briscoes would be a good place to start
Search for the truth before and think before making up your opinion.
You will find out that the defending Israel morals are unmatched worldwide when confronting an enemy acting to exnihilate a country and its people.
Only when the Arabs named Palestinians by the Soviet KGB in 1964 will have a similar organizations to B’Tselem who will challenge the Palestinians narrative and actions to destroy the defending Israel and kill all the Jews, the morals and similarities between the defending Israel and the aggressive Arabs could be discuses.
Currently the discussion totally un moral and irrelevant.
The Arabs cleaned up the entire Judea and Samaria from Jewish presents in 1949.
All the Jews from the areas conquered by the Arabs were either killed or expelled.
The PA imposed a death law to anyone living in areas governed by them and sells property to a Jew.
2 month ago , Ahmad Sarraf , A Kuwaiti righter said:
Arabs do not value human rights .In every Arab and Muslim there is a “little ISIS,” that is waiting to come out/
“To Israel, the Israeli human being is the most important thing. For us, unfortunately, when 6,000 or 10,000 die in a war here and there, we say that they ascended to heaven and that this is Allah’s decision.
Source: Al-Arabiya Network (Dubai/Saudi Arabia)
2 month ago
Your a Moron Arierly ,,,,,there are WW1 war graves in NZ cemetery’s which show Kiwi ANZAC soldiers died in Palestine ,,,, How do you blame the KGB for that ??? ,,,, please explain as I’d like a good laugh from an illiterate Kahanist Clown.
I think his spelling ,,, which is about at the level of a 7year old child ,,,, is more accurate than his Zionist fables .
Give that fool a medal ,,,, https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/239848
because there’s more than a little bit of Nazi in every Kahanist https://imeu.org/article/fact-sheet-meir-kahane-the-extremist-kahanist-movement
“Palestinians are in a struggle remarkably similar to the struggle of black South Africans under white rule.”
The situation though is not ‘remarkably similar’..
The South African apartheid regime agenda was racist, cruel but it was NOT an agenda to totally rid South Africa of its nonwhites…The Zionist agenda has been from the beginning to take over all the land and get rid of the Palestinians..either violently force them out, or make their lives so ‘unlivable’ that they will go away.
….
As for IM RIGHT (who, where are you?) comment ” Israel is at the forefront in technology…(medical?), military, IT and they are so good at it they sell it around the planet …
the technology is so advanced even muslim countries buy it ….” Oh yes, Israel has lucrative industries exporting advanced killer drones, spyware..to thugs around the world..Duarte, Orban, Bolsanaro..rulers of Saudi Arabia, UAE..Israel can guarantee that its weapons are ‘battle tested’, the people of Gaza serving as ‘guinea pigs’
….
I wish people would think of what Palestinian CHILDREN have to endure..in the West Bank, East Jerusalem..seeing their schools and homes demolished. In Gaza seeing their friends and relatives killed, wondering when they will be next..
Where is humanity? Why the silence when Gazan hospitals, roads to hospitals, the Covid19 testing centre have been deliberately targeted and bombed?
Do you ever offer the same suggestion to that ‘superior’ mother ( nah just racist) woman Juliet moses John ???.
If I were to list with the key pillars / beliefs of the Kahanist Jewish terrorist ideology ,,,,,, how many of them do you think our more rabid posters like Im Right, gaby etc share with the terrorists.
“Kahane’s Ideology
Kahane was a Jewish supremacist who espoused violence and wanted to establish a theocratic Jewish state encompassing not just all of current Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories (the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza), but large parts of neighboring Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.
Kahane called for a strict separation of Jews and non-Jews and for the enslavement or expulsion of indigenous Palestinians and other non-Jews from Palestine/Israel. While in the Knesset in the 1980s, he introduced a set of proposed laws which read in part:
“Non-Jews will be obliged to assume duties, taxes and slavery. If he does not agree to slavery and taxes, he will be forcibly deported.”
“A non-Jew will not live within the jurisdiction of the city of Jerusalem.”
“A non-Jew who has a marital relationship with a Jew is liable to 50 years in prison. A Jewish prostitute or a Jewish male who has an affair with a non-Jewish male is sentenced to five years in prison.”
“Non-Jews will be obliged to assume duties, taxes and slavery. If he does not agree to slavery and taxes, he will be forcibly deported.”
“Non-Jews in the State of Israel will be without any national rights and without any part in political proceedings in the State of Israel. A non-Jew will not be able to be appointed to any position of authority and will not be able to vote in elections to the Knesset or to any other state and public body.”
“Restriction of residence – A non-Jew will not live within the jurisdiction of the city of Jerusalem.”
“Prohibition on intermarriage – Jewish citizens of the country are not allowed to marry non-Jews, both in Israel and abroad. Such intermarriage will not be recognized as marriage at all.”
“Jews of the State of Israel are not allowed to have full or partial marital relations of any kind with non-Jews, even outside of marriage. Anyone breaching this section is liable to imprisonment for two years.”
“A non-Jew who has a marital relationship with a Jew is liable to 50 years in prison. A Jewish prostitute or a Jewish male who has an affair with a non-Jewish male is sentenced to five years in prison.”
“Separation at beaches – Separate beaches will be established for Jews and non-Jews. A person of one people found on the beach destined for a member of the second people will be subject to six months’ imprisonment.”
” Lehava (a Hebrew acronym for “Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land”) is a right-wing extremist group formed by followers of Kahane in 2009 to prevent the mixing of Arabs and Jews in Palestine/Israel. Hemla is an associated group of Kahanists funded by the Israeli government whose stated mission is to protect the “the honor of daughters of Israel” by preventing them from dating or marrying Palestinians and other non-Jews. Both groups are closely connected to the Jewish Power party.
Lehava members are notorious for roaming the streets of Jerusalem wearing black shirts searching for mixed couples to harass and beating up Palestinians.”
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Finally unless NZ is going to go the way of Israel with segregated schools and separate roads ,,,,,, then your over-hyping NZ’s “imminent apartheid”.
,,, and just in the interest of consistency ,,, Do you attach the apartheid descriptor to Israel ???.
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Some info on how to try and protect against Israels dysto-tech that Im Right likes https://youtu.be/x-6VyVFkib0?t=117
Thank you for providing the ‘Kahanist Creed” reason. The scary thing is that items you list are already being implemented by the increasingly Zionist/Kahanist Knesset.
One edict that attracted attention was, “Jews of the State of Israel are not allowed to have full or partial marital relations of any kind with non-Jews, even outside of marriage. Anyone breaching this section is liable to imprisonment for two years.”
The reason was no doubt having previously read, ‘Israel will claim my son’s Olympic gold but won’t let him marry here.’ https://www.ynetnews.com/culture/article/hjdel11s1yutm_source=Taboola_internal&utm_medium=organic
Wasn’t there another fascist regime that implemented similar relationship policies with the intention to establish the supremacy of an “Aryan race”?
Cheers aom ,,,, Kahanisim is the Elephant in the room when it comes to terrorism and war crimes committed the middle east.
If we look at the recent disproportionate violence and killings incited by Netanyahoo trying to cling to power and keep out of jail.,,,, the worst and most vicious dogs in the large Kahanist pack were let of the leash ,,,,, escalating attacks and violence to provoke a Al-Qassam response ,,, and then the clockwork reprisals from which no Palestinian Parent can ever shield their children ,,,
“On 15 May, Israel bombed the Abu Hatab family’s home in Beach refugee camp without warning. Of the 10 people killed in that incident, two were mothers and eight were children.
Ahmad was a neighbor and friend to some of those children. He cannot understand why they were wiped out so violently.” https://electronicintifada.net/content/trauma-constant-gazas-children/33681
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The rising Israel violence, theft and repression against Palestinian has grown from a shared well of poison.
1). The “Temple Mount” subset of Kahanist extremists,,, they want the Dome on the Rock Mosque destroyed and gone https://2fjnh31ltjpak07q2dcio2yi-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Dome-of-the-Rock-Mosque-300×200.jpg ,,,,
The more extreme Kahanist consider killing to be blessed by their god and a holey act ,,, which is why this guy is a hero to many of them,,,
,,,’The deadliest Jewish terrorist attack occurred when kahanist terrorist Dr. Baruch Goldstein, supporter of Kach, shot and killed 29 Muslim worshipers, and wounded another 150, at the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron, in 1994. This was described as a case of Jewish religious terrorism ‘.,,,
,,, anyway these were the arseholes and nutters invading and desecrating a Muslim religious site in a manner that would be exactly like invading the Vatican during Easter and teargassing / flashbanging the Catholics present…..
2) The illegal occupation and ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem is central core Kahanisim.
3) The continual growing land theft and illegal settlements in the west bank , Golan heights and elsewhere, is undertaken by the hardcore and most violent Kahanists ,,,, their own chants of ” Death to Arabs” sums them up,,, it’s a perfectly acceptable means to their ends,,, to them ,,,, for example and quoting their new PM on the subject , “there’s nothing wrong with that.”.
The overt racism of Trump brought out the worst in Israel ,,,, Zionisim has gotten sicker with the infection of a terrorist ideology poisoning it’s people politics and governments, all to some level.
As a final example of this Kahanist mind-set and moral code in action ,,,, After the three pronged escalations from the’Temple mount’ Mosque attackers ,,, From the home stealing neighborhood cleansing Jerusalem only for Jews dirt bags https://youtu.be/KNqozQ8uaV8
And the mobilization of the illegal settlers who embrace hardcore Kahanist terrorist ideology ,,,, “Kahane believed that hate and violence were terrible, but terribly necessary at the right time and place.”
After the three pronged pogrom of Israel violence and Kahanist actions drew a response ,,,, Israels reprisals of massive high explosives, ALWAYS killing mainly civilians,,, shows a contempt for them that comes from a place that both David Cummins and Juliet Moses have expressed ,,that the Palestinians have less humanity and are a lower race of dangerous people.
Juliet Moses backed up and agreed that Palestinian parents / mothers were not as loving as Jewish ones ,,,, like herself for instance.,,
Both she and Cummins also stand by the most moral bullshitters and prolific protester shooters in the world ,,,, who tell us Palestinian kids are brought to protests as “human shields” ,,,, which would be a pretty impressive trick training the little buggers to jump in front of a snipers bullets they can’t even see ,,,at exactly the precise time,,,, to shield the intended Hamas target ,,,
Of course this ‘shield’ trick is impossible as anyone with half a brain or has ever fired a gun would know ,,,,
‘Fake as they come Cummins’ was the dirty trickster ,,, trying to shield the truth with OCBSD Obsessive-compulsive Bull-shitting Disorder
But trying to encourage people to think of Palestinian mothers / parents as unloving shield breeders serves it’s purpose like all war propaganda…..
Racists dehumanize the person,,,, it’s not murder if they’re not human.,,,, Gook , Rag-head, filthy hunn, dirty commie ,,,
Kahanists are as much racists as Nazis.
Bombs away https://youtu.be/ycA07Uc0LuE
P.s your interesting link glitched for me ,,,, I think this one works https://www.ynetnews.com/culture/article/hjdel11s1y
And I must credit David Sheen for the bulk of my learning and information on the evil terrorist ideology of Khaninism , JDL and other current Zionist Jewish terrorist factions / influence.
I’d be pretty confident to bet that’ Juliet we must talk about terrorism Moses’ has said SFA informing about these terrorists.
I think the Kahanist core beliefs could be compressed down to between 7 and 10 broader principles/ attitudes and wishes ,,,, at this point it could be used as a diagnostic tool evaluating the Kahanist sickness ,,,,,
Understand the motives and there is no mystery behind the actionsl ,,,, The Israel Govt is more infused with terrorist ideology than Hamas ,,,
Quoting from a link Gaby helpfully and unwittingly provided proves this point ….
“Hamas won the Palestinian Authority legislative elections in 2006.8The social services provided by Hamas in both the West Bank and Gaza are wide ranging and of long standing – Hamas funds schools, orphanages, mosques, healthcare clinics, soup kitchens and sports leagues.912.
The (AL-QASSAM) Brigades were established in 1992 as the military wing of Hamas.10 The Brigades have about 2,000 core combat operatives and a wider membership of about 15,000.11
There is a clear separation in the leadership between Hamas’ political wing and the Al-Qassam) Brigades; Jane’s reports that this is increasing”
Israels Kahanist infected political wings are central and fused with their military.
International Dirty Politics media keeps this reality as quiet as Juliet Moses ,,,,
,,, the Zionist terrorist elephant that shall not be spoken of.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210213-kahanism-is-now-israels-mainstream/
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/btselem-israeli-forces-killed-11-year-old-palestinian-boy-with-no-justification-video/
4th August 2021: https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israeli-forces-conduct-large-scale-demolitions-in-jordan-valley/
August 2, 2021:
Israeli Court Wants Palestinian Homeowners to Pay ‘Rent’ to Jewish Settlers
“Israel’s Supreme Court today offered Palestinian residents of the occupied Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood ‘protected residence’ status, saying that if they pay rent to the settler organization which claims the land on which their homes are built, their properties will not be demolished.
“The families have rejected the proposition, objecting to Nahalat Shimon’s claims of ownership and subsequent plans for their forcible eviction, Ir Amim reported.” From this link
Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream Embargo
From that link:
Ben & Jerry’s co-founders have pushed back against claims of anti-Semitism following the company’s decision to stop offering its ice cream products in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, noting that they themselves are Jews.
Writing in the New York Times, Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield said they were “proud Jews” who view Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as a barrier to peace.
“It’s possible to support Israel and oppose some of its policies, just as we’ve opposed policies of the US government. As such, we unequivocally support the decision of the company to end business in the occupied territories, which a majority of the international community, including the United Nations, has deemed an illegal occupation,” they argued, in an op-ed published on Wednesday.
Gaby will love you! He’s not used to being criticised by his sycophants.
Of interest to John Minto perhaps:
“Decades after the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, more details have emerged about how a French spy “crucial” to the attack fled from New Zealand police.
Christine Cabon fled Interpol while amidst a long-running archaeological dig in Israel, after apparently being tipped off by two shadowy Israeli figures.
The new information contradicts the former spy’s assertions that she learned police were after her, while coincidentally already en route back to France. And it raises further questions about the identity of two (“incongruous” Hebrew-speaking) mysterious men who appeared to warn her Interpol was searching for her before she fled.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300374200/the-spy-who-came-to-dor-how-french-spy-christine-cabon-a-crucial-part-of-the-rainbow-warrior-bombing-fled-nz-police
Brewer I noticed your last link is dated. This narrative (sorry no statistics is dated 21 May 2021 and tells the story of changing attitudes among American Jews. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/israel-palestine-jewish-american-support-1172309/
Also, found this, “A 2021 Gallup poll found that while two-thirds of Democratic voters still held favourable views of Israel, two-thirds also favoured Palestinian statehood. Support among Democratic voters for the US putting more pressure on the Israelis to make peace stood at 53 percent.” This is from https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/5/24/palestinian-rights-groups-see-shift-in-us-opinion-on-israel-aid dated 24 May 2021.
Also, https://criticalissues.umd.edu/sites/criticalissues.umd.edu/files/American%20Attitude%20towards%20Middle%20East%20Policy-%20June%202021.pdf June 2021.
Keep up the good work Brewer! People with you knowledge, intellectual ability and research skills are a rare commodity!
Thanks for that aom. I always liked Rolling Stone:
“Young American Jews Have Reached a Tipping Point With Israel
Many American Jews are finding it difficult to square Israel’s actions in Palestine with their progressive domestic politics”
….now I love ’em!
Should someone kick off a fundraiser to get the trolls over to help the IDF in the inevitable upcoming war that Israel is fomenting?
Nah! The Israeli equivalent of a Jihardi bride over at IINZ who was indoctrinated, then went to Israel as a teen to fraternise while being further schooled in the ways of Zionism/Kahanism can deal with it. No doubt she can secure (US/Israeli) funding to add a new dimension to the indoctrination trips she apparently leads to Israel – trips to escort cannon fodder in the form of the propagandist trolls that pollute TDB. They wouldn’t even have to put their of money where their mouths are.
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