“The Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, Judea, and Samaria.” Encompassing all of the Occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights, these are the areas where Benjamin Netanyahu plans to develop illegal settlements with his new government, the most far-right coalition in Israeli history.
While Israeli settlements have existed since the 1967 War, the swearing-in of Netanyahu’s latest coalition on December 29 has brought a slew of fascist, ultra-nationalist leaders such as Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit Party) and Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) into the highest positions of power within the Israeli government, making settlement expansion—along with a violent crackdown on Palestinian nationalism—a national priority.
Rob Prince, a retired professor at the Korbel School of International Studies, saw the new government’s refusal to pursue negotiations for a Palestinian state as very alarming. “[The members of the new government] are all calling for no negotiations with Palestine. Bam. They’re making these statements against international law, against the United Nations, that this is Israel and we have a right to build settlements everywhere. A very, very provocative, right-wing government,” he said.
Ben-Gvir, now Minister of National Security, is well-known for provoking violence in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Just last November, he led over 30,000 settlers in marches through the Palestinian city of Hebron over the Chayei Sarah holiday. The mob stormed the city’s market, assaulting Palestinian civilians, ransacking shops and attacking private homes.
“For us, it’s not visiting, it’s invading,” said Badee Dwaik, a Palestinian human rights activist from the organization Human Rights Defenders. “It was a celebration for the settlers, and hell for the Palestinians.”
The expanding settlements are not the only cause for concern from Netanyahu’s new government. Alongside Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have made their intentions clear: to increase the militarization of the policing of Palestinians, crack down on expressions of Palestinian nationalism and reinforce Jewish supremacy, starting with Ben-Gvir’s recent criminalization of the display of the Palestinian flag.
This was very concerning to University of Denver Professor Nader Hashemi. Dr. Hashemi, who heads the Center for Middle East Studies at the Korbel School, saw this as a show of Israeli and Zionist dominance. “There’s an attempt now to crush any manifestation of Palestinian nationalism to send a message that the Palestinians have no national rights under this new Israeli government,” Dr. Hashemi said.
These crackdowns come at a time when Palestinians are already struggling economically and have little power to counter regime policy. The decision by the Israeli government in 2021 to withhold tax revenues they collect on behalf of the Palestinian Authority government in line with the Paris Protocols has cut government salaries by roughly 20%, said Dwaik.
“The Israelis now use these taxes, which are supposed to be sent to the Palestinians, as political stakes. And when you talk about the 175,000 Palestinians working in the police and the [Palestinian Authority], you’re talking about more than 1 million hit by the financial situation,” Dwaik said, referring to the families of government employees.
The higher costs of living in Palestine are also a result of decades of economic dependency on the Israeli economy. Without their own independently controlled seaport, airport, or border crossing, Palestinians must navigate a bureaucratic web of strict Israeli import and export policies, including tariffs, searches and permits to access the world market.
Dr. Hashemi saw the Netanyahu government’s policies as an attempt to capitalize on this time of weakness among Palestinians. “The new Israeli government is trying to use this opportunity to put the final nail in the coffin of Palestinian nationalism,” he said.
Dwaik reflected, ruefully, “We are now talking about a fascist government. They have exposed their real face.”
While Netanyahu’s government may be more explicit and hawkish than past governments in its policy on settlements, freedom of expression and Palestinian right to self-determination, the sentiments of this government are not new.
After all, more moderate governments have killed thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip; more moderate governments have condoned settler violence and expansion throughout Palestine. The year 2022 saw the highest number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli regime since the Second Intifada, and that was partially under Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party.
Despite the reluctance of past leaders to explicitly claim all of Palestine under Israeli sovereignty or to openly encourage the construction of new settlements, the reality is that the Jewish ethnostate of Israel was built on Jewish supremacy and violent disenfranchisement of Palestinians; Netanyahu is just laying it directly on the table.
That much was clear to Dr. Hashemi. “All Israeli governments from the beginning always held that perspective, but for international support, they’ve gone through the motions of saying they’re interested in dialogue and negotiation,” he said. “Now, the mask has been lifted.”
