In what many critics claim amounts to a power grab, Netanyahu began pushing through changes last week to Israel’s basic laws, the equivalent of a constitution. The move was described as “terrifying” by Elyakim Rubinstein, a conservative former supreme court judge.
Israel's Palestinian citizens brought the country’s busiest highway to a crawl as they drove in a slow convoy towards Jerusalem to protest police inaction over a tide of violence that has swept their communities. More than 70 lives have been claimed so far this year.
Israel benefits from a strong military and even stronger allies, but analysts warn the state faces major challenges Al Jazeera – 17 April 2018 It appears Israelis have every reason to be in festive mood this week as they celebrate the 70th anniversary of their state’s founding. This “Independence Day”, which Israel marks according to […]
A display of Israeli-style community policing before an audience of hundreds of young schoolchildren was captured on video. It shows four officers staging a mock anti-terror operation. As the “terrorist” lies badly wounded, the officers empty their magazines into him from close range. In Israel it is known as “confirming the kill”. Everywhere else it is called murder.
New legislation to cement the definition of Israel as a state belonging exclusively to Jews around the world is a "declaration of war" on Palestinian citizens of Israel, the minority's leaders have warned. Critics are also concerned that the Jewish Nation-State Bill is intended to stymie prospects of reviving peace talks with the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The current obsession with BDS reflects a changing political environment for Israel. Concealment at source of damning information is no longer easy, so the battle must be taken to those who disseminate this information. The urgency has grown as artists refuse to visit, universities sever ties, churches pull their investments and companies back out of deals.
Israel's 1.7 million Palestinian citizens are facing a tidal wave of incitement and hate speech on social media, including from government ministers, community leaders have warned. They say the increasingly hostile political climate in Israel is stoking violence from the police and street gangs, and has laid the ground for a recent raft of racist legislative proposals.
The popular reaction in Israel to the military court’s decision to convict Elor Azaria was far more telling than the decision itself. Like Brexit and Trump, Azaria’s trial exposed not only a deep social fissure, but also a moment of transition. Those who see a virtuous system punishing a rotten apple are now outnumbered by those who see a rotten system victimising a hero.
It was the trial almost no one in Israel wanted. It exposed not just the rogue actions of one soldier but the dark underbelly of Israeli society and its "citizens' army". Elor Azaria was taken to the Israeli public's bosom, celebrated as the "child of us all". But like many of his fellow soldiers and commanders, he consorted with the most extreme settler leaders in Hebron and used social media to express his hatred of Arabs.
For leftwing Israelis, as well as Israel's Palestinian minority, Netanyahu is considered the king of incitement. His current conduct has revived memories of the mid-1990s, when Yitzhak Rabin, was drumming up support for the Oslo Accords. Footage of the period shows Netanyahu addressing crowds holding aloft placards of Rabin in Nazi uniform. Months later, Rabin was assassinated.
