2015: The Year of Blatant and Unapologetic Israeli
Fascism
It was a year in which there wasn't even a semblance
of peace talks or a diplomatic process, but that’s probably a good thing;
enough with the charade.
Gideon Levy
Dec 31, 2015
Palestinians look at a house that was demolished by the
Israeli army, in the Qalandia refugee camp on the outskirts of Ramallah last
week AP
Thursday night will mark the end of a pretty awful year.
There weren’t any wars for a change, leaving Israel free to deal with
itself. There are times when launching a decent war, as Israel knows and loves,
seems to be the best thing to do. Dealing with itself does Israel no good. When
it cannot hide behind the routine “unavoidable war,” all its wounds and scars
are revealed.
According to the 2015 Democracy Index, published by
the Israel Democracy Institute last month, Israelis have it good. That was the
response of some three-quarters of them, up from the 66 percent who were happy
in 2014.
What improved this year? Supermodel Bar Refaeli got
married (and arrested); musician Ninet Tayeb (and news presenter Yonit Levi)
had babies. Eighty percent of Israelis believe that the state of the nation is
good, or at least so-so. Eighty-eight percent of the Jews feel that they
belong.
But look what happened to the Arabs: Only 32 percent
feel an affinity with the state, compared to 59 percent the previous year – the
most dramatic and worrisome drop of the year. But who’s counting and who even
cares?
What’s important is that 86 percent of the Jews say
they are Zionists, 61 percent support a declaration of loyalty as a condition
for the right to vote, 60 percent (more young people than older ones) believe
the state should be allowed to monitor citizens’ Internet use and a majority
believes that human rights organizations are pests.
According to numerology it was a special year – 67
years since the founding of the state in ‘48 and 48 years of occupation that
began in ‘67. There are still many who ask, will it last another 50 years? Will
the occupation last another 50? There is no other country in which such
questions are asked.
Twenty-four Israelis and 128 Palestinians have been
killed so far in the current mini-intifada. The demographic balance is
preserved; more than five times more Palestinians have been killed than Jews,
though it is a significant decrease from previous successes. One hundred
Palestinians killed for every Israeli in Operation Cast Lead and 37 for every
Israeli in Operation Protective Edge. But never before has an official order to
kill been issued, as happened this year.
It was a year in which there wasn’t even a semblance
of peace talks or a diplomatic process, but that’s probably a good thing;
enough with the charade. It was also the year in which the United States gave
Israel carte blanche to act as it wished, perhaps more than any other year. The
most turbulent demonstrations were by those of Ethiopian origin, with the
parents of “sardines” (children in crowded classrooms) also making their voices
heard. That was the upper limit of protest in Israel.
The election in March led to the most right-wing
government in history and the most nationalist Knesset ever, which is
legislating accordingly. It was a year in which all shame was lost, One no longer has to explain why left-wing
organizations must be ultra-transparent while right-wing groups are exempt, or
why, at a time when only the right is violent, it’s the left that’s traitorous.
It was the year that heralded the start of blatant and
unapologetic Israeli fascism. One could not say that before. But a year after
Operation Protective Edge, a year in which citizens feared to protest, the
fruit ripened. The battle for the regime was abandoned without a fight. It is
still in full swing, but the results are in; there is no one left to stop the
downward slide.
Israelis were preoccupied with lots of things this
year, from Sara Netanyahu’s bottle deposits to the suicide of senior police
commander Ephraim Bracha. Of the 30 most-read stories on Haaretz’s Hebrew
website, not a single one had to do with the occupation or the cracks in
Israeli democracy, other than a recent, sweet story about the little Jewish boy
who insulted an Arab rider on a bus (“Do you have a knife?”) and ended up
hugging her in a true Hollywood happy ending.
A nice end to a bad year. The next one looks to be
even worse.
Gideon Levy
Haaretz Correspondent
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