Palestinians have been excluded from recent Israeli demonstrations.
Ilia YefimovichAPA images
People
across the world have watched the thousands of Israelis demonstrating
against their government with at least some bemusement. After 75 years
of Israel denying its own agency in the terrible catastrophe it has
inflicted on the Palestinians, its new government is now blamed for
doing something most Israeli governments have never done – openly
discussing the aim of controlling the whole of Palestine through an
exclusive Jewish apartheid state.
That this aim requires a less-than-democratic society seems obvious,
and arguably Israel has never been democratic in any real sense. But now
that Jews will also face some loss of rights, the old elites
responsible for the Nakba – the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine – and
all that followed are out on the streets.
They wish to defend their “Jewish democracy,” in which Palestinian flags and self-determination are outlawed.
The recent ructions present Jews abroad with a painful dilemma: Do
they – as many do – continue to support Israel in an unqualified and
unquestioning manner? Or is it a time for a somber, self-searching
reflection – a rethink of their identity, no less?
Not something they would normally choose to embark on, and most seem to be shying away from the need to look in the mirror.
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‘Open your eyes’: Ex-Israeli diplomats warn of dictatorship as Netanyahu visits UK
Former Israeli ambassadors to
South Africa tell MEE that the fate of Israelis and Palestinians under
the occupation is in the balance
Mounted police are deployed as
Israelis block a main road to protest against plans by Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the judicial system, in Tel
Aviv, 1 March (AP)
Published date: 23 March 2023 10:39 UTC
| Last update:9 hours 22 mins ago
For all their careers as diplomats, Alon Liel and Ilan Baruch advocated Israel’s case. Both served as Israeli ambassadors in South Africa, and Liel rose to be director-general of the foreign service.
Today, they are using all their diplomatic skills to destroy their
government’s case before the international community, and last week were
in London ahead of an expected visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu on Thursday.
Liel and Baruch are on a mission: to alert MPs and British Jews who support Israel to what is happening. They say the fate of 5.3 million
Palestinians under occupation and the fate of Israeli Jews are both in
the balance as Israel lurches towards an openly declared and law-based
Jewish supremacy.
'You are either pregnant or not, I don’t see any possibility of a compromise'
- Alon Liel, former diplomat
Back in Israel, hundreds of thousands of people are massing in
protests as Netanyahu’s government, buttressed by far-right parties,
attempts to override the authority of the courts.
