MK Itamar Ben Gvir brandishing a hand gun in the Sheikh Jarrah
neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem on October 13, 2022 [photo
credit: Twitter]
Ben-Gvir’s most recent pistol-toting incident
was in the Palestinian community of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem,
long a target of the extreme settler movement. Efforts to intimidate
residents and seize their homes are part of a wider effort to lay claim
to all of Jerusalem as the capital of a Jewish state, thus denying East
Jerusalem its right to be the state of an independent Palestine. Two
weeks ago Ben-Gvir rushed to the neighbourhood after seeing a video of a
Palestinian throwing a stone. In true John Wayne fashion he tweeted "I
am now on my way to the place to protect the Jewish residents.” When he
arrived he pulled out his pistol and demanded of police officers “if
they are throwing stones shoot them.”
Ben-Gvir was a disciple of Rabbi Meir Kahane the ultra-nationalist American-born terrorist whose ideology of hate against Arabs inspired Baruch Goldstein,
the killer of 29 Palestinian worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in
Hebron in 1994. Ben-Gvir had a picture of Goldstein prominently
displayed in his office until just a few years ago
What is possibly more concerning is the current appeal Ben-Gvir has with young Jews. At a recent appearance
at a high school in the heart of liberal Tel Aviv, he was applauded and
cheered. With the power of a cabinet position in his sights Ben-Gvir
was keen to play down his support for the mass murderer, telling
students:
“It's true, at the age of 17 I said that Dr Baruch Goldstein was a
hero. Today, I am 46, a few years have passed since then, I’ve had
children, became a lawyer. I don’t think that Dr. Goldstein is a hero. I
don’t think we should kill Arabs, I don’t think we need to deport
Arabs.”
That rather conveniently ignores that in 2019 the picture of
Goldstein was still hanging in his office. And as for deporting Arabs,
including citizens, his views have altered only to make him more
appealing to those lawmakers in Likud who may have at least some
concerns over his extremist views. He, apparently, no longer believes
all Arabs should be expelled. As he told the author of a largely
sympathetic profile piece:
“If somebody is a terrorist and throws Molotov cocktails then that
person should be in prison, and then after they leave prison they
shouldn’t be here. They should be sent elsewhere.” Thus says this
disciple of the terrorist rabbi Kahane and erstwhile admirer of the
terrorist killer Goldstein.
An analysis
of recent polls by the Israel Democracy Institute showed that among
young Israelis, support for Ben-Gvir and his party is growing. And,
rather as the presidency of Barack Obama galvanized white supremacists
in America, the addition of the United Arab List, the party of Mansour Abbas,
in the coalition that enabled Naftali Bennett to become prime minister,
a first in Israeli politics, has proved a rallying point for racists in
Israel. Abbas eventually pulled out of the coalition but the fact that
an Arab politician could wield power disturbed many Israelis. As Dr Or
Anabi, who carried out the polling analysis for Israel Democracy
Institute put it: “Until Mansour Abbas joined the government Jews were
used to the idea that Arabs are never part of the power game.”
Should Netanyahu’s alliance of Likud with neo-fascists prevail, it
will confirm for Palestinians, both those who are citizens and those who
are denied either citizenship or a state of their own, that the slide
towards extremism and the genocidal policies that accompany it are quickening in a manner that ought to alarm not just Israel but its Western allies.