Occupied Jerusalem
- The new Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu carries an agenda that is in line with many of the ideological aspirations of the government coalition partners, especially from the Haredi parties and the "religious Zionist" coalition, which seeks to consolidate the principle of a "Jewish state" at the expense of the Palestinians in all of historic Palestine.
Despite what appeared to be differences between these parties - the most extreme - over ministerial positions and the distribution of security and civil powers;
They agree among themselves to oppress the Palestinians, while strengthening the "Jewish and national" identity of Israel.
The coalition of "religious Zionism" headed by the extremist Bezalel Smotrich, "Jewish greatness" headed by the extremist Itamar Ben Gvir, the "Noam" movement, and the Haredi parties "Shas" and "Torah Judaism" with the Likud party, will participate in the formation of the next government. Together, these represent a majority of 64 out of 120 deputies in the Knesset.
Haredi parties (religious people) and the "religious Zionism" coalition (mainly settler forces) are strengthening their presence in the Israeli political and partisan arena, after blackmailing Netanyahu and imposing its "agenda", by drafting laws and legislation affecting internal issues in Israeli society, and related to the Palestinians of 1948 or the fate of the Palestinians. In the West Bank, and the file of the conflict with them in general.
In his article on the "ice" website, the Israeli writer Yariv Oppenheimer explains that the next Netanyahu government will implement the slogan "Death to the Arabs" by giving soldiers absolute freedom to kill Palestinians.
What he means is that although previous governments did this, the parties of Netanyahu's government are concerned with legalizing killing based on national identity.
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- Dr. Saleh Al-Naami (@salehelnaami) December 21, 2022
The plans for the composition of the Israeli government coalition indicate that the Palestinians are standing before a pivotal station, where the “religious Zionist” parties will succeed in acquiring important powers, including security in the West Bank in particular, which will necessarily lead to an escalation in the confrontation with the Palestinians in all their places of existence.
As for Jerusalem and the holy sites, Palestinian researchers believe that the Netanyahu government, according to its declared statements, will seek, during the year 2023, to resolve the battle for sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque in its favor, and to withdraw religious guardianship over it from Jordan.
The two ministers in Netanyahu's new government, Bezalel Smotrich (right) and Itamar Ben Gvir (left), have inherent hostile plans towards the Palestinians (Reuters)
Powers lead to a bloody showdown
The head of the Center for Contemporary Studies in the Palestinian Interior, Saleh Lutfi, believes that the year 2023 will be a turning point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the Zionist religious establishment pervading the new government and assuming the joints and reins of government in Israel, for the first time since the Nakba.
Lutfi explains in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that the approach and program of the next Netanyahu government will have repercussions for the Palestinians of 48, especially in the Negev (south), whose people are waging a defensive and existential battle to prevent the confiscation of 800 thousand dunums of their lands, and the demolition and displacement of 40 villages that are not recognized by Israel.
This portends confrontations due to the policy of "easy pulling the trigger" by the Israeli security forces, a situation that has not been known before in the Palestinian interior.
The analyst believes that Itamar Ben Gvir's insistence on transferring the powers of 72 units - called - the "Israeli Border Guard" operating in the West Bank to his command, reflects the extreme religious right's incursion into power.
With the expansion of the powers of the extremists who led the political scene in Israel, the Palestinian researcher does not rule out scenes of armed confrontation between parties from the Palestinian interior and the Israeli security forces, similar to the resistance and armed clashes in the West Bank, which will also take an unprecedented upward turn, as he sees it.
Battle of existence
On the Palestinian level in the West Bank, Lutfi is likely to push the new Israeli government towards dismantling the Palestinian Authority, in accordance with the coalition agreements that stipulated that Smotrich assume responsibility for the so-called Civil Administration (responsible for running the affairs of the Palestinians in the West Bank).
The researcher believes that the next government's "agenda" targets Area C, which constitutes 62% of the West Bank, and its annexation to Israeli sovereignty, which will forever end the project of a Palestinian state in the territories occupied in 1967, and will completely undermine the existence of the Palestinian Authority.
In view of this, Lutfi believes that the Palestinians are now facing scenes that simulate the work of the Zionist gangs in the Nakba, where religious Zionism continues to form armed gangs in the West Bank settlements, which have become an arm of the occupation army, and these gangs will carry out unprecedented killings among the Palestinians, under the pretext of providing security and safety for the settlers. .
On the other hand, the researcher believes that the Palestinians will not be silent about the attack on them and their sanctities in the year 2023, which will be different in everything related to the Israeli relationship with the land, people, and Palestinian sanctities, and it is the year that will witness an escalation of resistance and a battle of existence to confront the Israeli aggression.
Israeli settlers, protected by soldiers in the occupation army, attack Palestinians south of Nablus in the West Bank (French)
annexation and tension
On the Israeli side, the head of the Palestinian Affairs Department at the National Security Research Center affiliated with Tel Aviv University, Udi Dekel, believes that the most prominent thing in the new government coalition is the reduction of the powers of the Minister of Security, and the transfer of the powers of the Civil Administration and the Coordinator of Government Activities from the Ministry of Security to the Minister of Settlements on behalf of the Alliance party. Religious Zionism" will have a lot of repercussions on the lives of the Palestinians, the nature of the conflict, and perhaps the decisiveness, and most importantly on the expansion of the settlement project.
Dekel explained - to Al-Jazeera Net - that this procedure and the transfer of powers between government ministries, and the transfer of powers to ministries that handle extreme right-wing parties, will contribute to accelerating the process of annexing the West Bank to Israeli sovereignty.
He pointed out that the transfer of government powers with regard to the West Bank would contribute to undermining the decision-making policy on the Israeli side, which would lead to an expansion of the tension and security situation in the West Bank, as well as an escalation of protests against Israel on the international scene.
Accordingly, and in light of the developments and the new government coalition, Dekel believes that there will be a great possibility of complications in government performance, with everything related to managing the affairs and lives of Palestinians in the West Bank, as well as with regard to settlements and settlers, and the intensification of the conflict.
It is not excluded that this will help in the escalation of the pace of conflict and friction between the Palestinians and the settlers, and reveal the weakness of the Palestinian Authority and its security mechanisms, amid uncertainty about the future of the Palestinian Authority, which is witnessing a state of gradual disintegration.
Because of internal and other factors related to Israeli policies, and the new direction of the Netanyahu government.