I do not know why former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett decided to retire from office. One thing can and must be clear right now: The reason he cited – the inability to pass the renewal of the emergency regulations which apply Israeli law to citizens in the West Bank – is a convenient narrative to adopt, but is nothing more than that. It is not the Judea and Samaria regulations that toppled the government, it’s not them that we are going to the polls about, and what has been revealed is the precise opposite of what is claimed: It isn't a dispute that tore the Knesset apart, but a wall-to-wall consensus.
According to the narrative, which seizes on the regulations as a pretense, July 1, 2022 was supposed to be day one of the collapse of public order in the “Judea and Samaria Area” and the demolition of Israeli linkage to these lands. The first day of the “jungle,” the “chaos,” and the “anarchy” – all quotes from Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar in the Knesset. Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara, who, to put it gently, makes frequent public statements, spared no effort in describing the abyss approaching as the clock ticked from June to July. An abyss with blessed public order on one side and menacing chaos on the other.
Shall we fall into the abyss or be saved at the last moment? Never before have so many waited with breath so bated for the decision on the regulations, which most of them have never heard of. In any event, we can all rest easy. The Knesset dispersed itself before midnight, and the regulations were extended automatically. But were we really on the brink of disaster?
First of all, regulations or not, nothing here would have changed. Thousands of Palestinian prisoners would not have set out marching from one side of the Green Line to the other. Settlers would not have suddenly been tried before military tribunals, and no staunch wall of public order would have crumbled.
Here’s a recent example of another temporary law (sure, temporary) failing to win renewal: The racist law prohibiting Palestinians from marrying west of the Green Line if one of them is registered as living east of it. The law expired in July 2021. And when it expired, what happened? Did thousands of Palestinian couples suddenly gain legal status in Israel? Law or no law, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked continued the previous policy. After six months, the High Court of Justice said something about it, and two months later the law was passed again. Law or no law – Palestinians could not, cannot and never will be able to receive legal status here. Regulations or no regulations – the status of Jews in the territories will not be downgraded. We are the lords of the land, after all. All of the land.
Second, notice the intellectual mishmash, seeking to cast the status quo (with the regulations) as “order” as opposed to the projected disaster (no regulations) as “chaos.” How exactly is the status quo, in which millions of subjects have been living without rights for 55 years, “order”? Why is a future not based on apartheid regulations “chaos”?
One of the basic preconditions of the rule of law is equality under the law. The Judea and Samaria regulations, like many other components of the apartheid regime, are the complete opposite of equality under the law. Therefore, they are essentially part of the chaos, the moral anarchy, the disorder inherent in a regime that prefers one ethno-national group to another.
Third, the entire theater surrounding the Judea and Samaria regulations reveals no dispute. On the contrary – it reveals the wall-to-wall consensus among the public and the legislature (elected by the part of the public endowed with political rights) regarding the regime of Jewish supremacy over the Palestinians. The consensus is so broad and so confident that everyone knows full well that nothing will change. This is the only reason they were willing to “play with fire” with the regulations, for the fire is obviously extinguished. Had a fundamental issue been at stake, we would never have come close to this.
Regulations or not, what the current round (just like the round of the Citizenship Lawa year ago) reveals is that the regime is more powerful than any law. And since the fundamental facts of the regime – and not passing political moves – are what count, there’s nothing to get excited about. All is well, they all support apartheid, they are all party to it (and thanks to the government of change for clarifying that point). If need be, the formalistic aspects will be dealt with at some point, and the Palestinians will continue to live by the laws of the moral jungle we dictate to them. What we call the rule of law.
The author is the director-general of B’Tselem.