The debate scheduled to be held on 4 May in the French National Assembly on a resolution condemning the ‘institutionalisation by the State of Israel of an apartheid regime consequent upon its colonial policies’ has aroused outraged protests, roars of indignation and predictable accusations of anti-Semitism. These reactions can often be explained by an ignorance of the colonial reality of Zionism. Apartheid? How dare you? The president of the Republic himself has scolded those who ‘misuse (.)
With this Focus on Israel, we begin a series of articles on the opposition movement to Benjamin Netanyahu, provisionally halted on Monday 26 March 2023. The processions are impressive in terms of numbers, duration and the determination of those taking part. The order of the day is clear and agreed all round: to stop the constitutional reform promised by the extreme-right, Jewish-supremacist coalition currently in power in Israel. Some officers and soldiers joined the movement. Hundreds of (.)
What more does it need? The governing coalition now established in Israel includes ministers who in any other country would be labelled fascists. Some of them have been defined as neo-Nazis by Daniel Blatman, professor at the Institute of Contemporary Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University and a Holocaust specialist. All of them embrace a Jewish supremacist ideology, in the belief that the rights of an Israeli Jew justify burying those of the Palestinians. What more does it need? Benjamin (.)
Although Palestine seems to have disappeared from the Western and Arab diplomatic agenda, it remains rooted in the regional reality and in the memory of the peoples. One cannot so easily eradicate the aspiration to emancipation. President Biden’s recent visit to the Middle East did not reset American grand strategy. It essentially sought to reduce energy prices in the wake of the Ukraine War. Yet it ignored the issue of Palestine, leaving the Palestinian people as marginalized as ever. (.)
Of course, the war in Ukraine and the economic and environmental situations are the mainstays of the campaigns being conducted by the three principal left-wing candidates, Jean-Luc Melenchon, Fabien Roussel and Yannick Jadot. However, the recent NGO reports describing the existence in Israel and on the West Bank of a system of apartheid has brought about a sea change on the left. This is the last chapter of our examination of the role of Israel-Palestine in the coming election. The Union (.)