Predictable, Inevitable, Irreversible
by Jonathan Kuttab
Much has been said recently about the results of the Israeli elections and the frightening rightward shift in Israeli politics. To the left, Meretz failed to meet the minimum threshold, while Labor just barely did so. Itamar Ben Gvir, who was specifically convicted of terrorism and incitement in Israel and declared a terrorist by the US, who has 53 criminal convictions, who openly leads chants of “Death to the Arabs,” and who publicly advocates for the mass deportations of Arabs, now holds 14 seats in the Knesset. His party is the third largest political party in Israel, and he is demanding to be Minister of Police.
This openly unabashed, fascist racism makes many friends of Israel totally uncomfortable, creating for them a crisis of conscience. Yet, it must be declared that Ben Gvir’s election is not a sudden or recent development. It is predictable, inevitable, and irreversible.
Once the majority of Israeli Jews chose to reject the concept of equality and sought instead to create a Jewish state, and further once it was decided not to turn over the properties occupied in 1967 for Palestinians to set up a state of their own, instead keeping and aggressively settling in those areas, it was inevitable that Israel had opted to rule over and oppress another nation in perpetuity. The Israelis felt they had won, that they had the power to hold onto the whole of Palestine/Eretz Yisrael. For over half a century, they pretended the occupation was temporary and employed a number of arguments and deceptions to cover their true intentions. But, the reality on the ground showed that Israel never had any intention of accepting Palestinians as a people or allowing the creation of a Palestinian state, even within the 22% of historic Palestine that constitutes the West Bank/Gaza. Arabs within their borders had to accept this reality and cease any unrealistic claims of exercising true sovereignty over any part of the land. Once the ruled nation, however, refused to accept this injustice and opted to resist, in spite of the overwhelming power marshaled against them, Israel necessarily had to become more and more fascist, repressive, and openly racist. It made no difference whether Palestinian resistance was nonviolent (like BDS) or not. Any refusal to accept Zionist views of Jewish supremacy and predominance in the Land had to be crushed and silenced.
In a recent interview with Bill Maher, Benjamin Netanyahu was crystal clear: “The Palestinians are only 1% of the Arab World. It was foolish of us to accept the principle that we need to make peace with Palestinians first. We will seek peace with the other 99% and only after that will we see what to do with the Palestinians.” He will not even speak to Mahmoud Abbas let alone treat the Palestinian Authority as a state-in-the making, but merely use them as a subcontractor whose job and duty is to keep its people from resisting Israeli domination in any way.
The point is that from the moment Israel embarked on this path, it became both predictable and inevitable that Israel would carry out actions that can only be described as the enforcement of an apartheid regime. Its ideology required either ethnic cleansing or apartheid to sustain it. It has needed to arrest and detain more and more Palestinians, quash civil society, assassinate journalists, and terrorize the population. A combination of both religious and secular Zionism has denied equality to Palestinian Arabs, requiring harsh measures to bludgeon them into submission. And, when such behavior fails, Israel doubles down and uses even harsher and harsher measures.
Ultimately, unless Palestinians roll over and play dead (which they have no intention of doing) Israel is pushed by this logic into continuing to take even harsher and harsher measures. Apartheid has become a necessary and integral aspect of Israel’s system of control over the Palestinians. And, the machinery if Israeli apartheid has become harder to hide or camouflage. It also becomes more and more difficult for people to morally justify such a system. In the absence of moral legitimacy, the state must rely on brute force to maintain its system of Apartheid.
FOSNA believes that the question of Palestine/Israel is primarily a moral and ethical one. Given the massive support the United States gives to the state of Israel and the Zionist movement, we are all implicated in its policies unless we actively resist those policies. To do so is not to take sides in a fight between two opposing factions, but to stand up for justice, equality, and rights for all. It is to oppose apartheid and discrimination and to resist oppression. The election of Ben Gvir and reelection of Netanyahu should make the issues sharper and clearer. Whatever arguments were used in the past for supporting Zionism and the policies of Israel, can no longer be sustained. People of conscience and morality need to take a stand.
Preach Palestine 2022
Now Is the Time!
Friends of Sabeel North America is calling on Christian leaders across the U.S. to commit their congregations to Preach Palestine this Advent season.
Be it an entire service or a single prayer, we are asking you to once again Preach Palestine and lift up the Palestinian people such that they would come to experience the joy, justice, and peace of Christ's liberating reign, as a very real light in the present darkness.
Click the link below to learn more and find resources!
FOSNA kicks off it’s annual Christmas Appeal on Giving Tuesday (November 29), a day which corresponds this year with the International Day Solidarity with the Palestinian People. As a friend of Sabeel, we invite you to stand alongside us in solidarity with the people of Palestine as a peer fundraiser. To learn more about how you, as an individual or group, can join together with us in raising support for justice, please click on the link below:
FOSNA FALL TOUR
Our co-chair Joe Roos is in Santiago, Chile for a week-long conference titled "Christian Zionism and Religious, Political and Economic Fundmentalisms: A Palestinian-Latin American Conversation".
Click on the button below to read his daily reflections and see photo galleries from the conference!
Get Involved!
We invite you to join us in the following events and activities:
November 10 - 12: San Anselmo and Online
IPMN Conference
After only convening virtually for the past two annual meetings, IPMN is offering a hybrid format for the 2022 IPMN Annual Meeting! General Assembly has once again proved critical in the work of advancing human rights and justice in Palestine/Israel with the PCUSA overwhelmingly voting in support of overtures related to apartheid, ending the siege in Gaza, and designating May 15 as Nakba Remembrance Day.
Join in person in San Anselmo, CA or via Zoom this November 10-12 as IPMN considers what it means to "endure for the promise" as they continue to lift up the calls for justice and equality coming from our siblings in Palestine.
November 13: Online
Voices from the Holy Land Online Film Salon: "The Settlers"
Combining history and headlines, THE SETTLERS is the first comprehensive look at the sensitive issue of Israel's continued construction of settlements in the West Bank, which is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Radicals, idealists, messianic fanatics, true believers and political opportunists, living on the fault lines of an age-old conflict, come face to face with history itself. Today, the settlers threaten to destroy what little peace remains in the Middle East.
Watch the film for free at your convenience | Join the Q&A Discussion
Shimon Dotan – Filmmaker, university instructor on Political Cinema and Film Directing
Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro – Scholar, author, and Board Director at International Council for Middle East Studies
Lara Friedman (moderator) – President, Foundation for Middle East Peace
December 11: Online
December Voices From the Holy Land Online Film Salon
Save the date for VFHL's December film salon! We will be focusing on the topic of pilgrimage to the Holy Land with three free short films and a Q&A panel after.
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, Jerusalem:
Weekly
Sabeel Prayer Service. Join Sabeel every Thursday (6pm Jerusalem) for online Bible Study, discussion, and prayer. Examine scripture in light of the ongoing realities confronting the Palestinian Church and the pursuit of Palestinian liberation.
Wave of Prayer. Subscribe to receive Sabeel's Wave of Prayer, enabling friends of Sabeel around the world to pray over issues of critical concern to the Holy Land on a weekly basis.
Kumi Now! (Week 45) Anti-Semitism. Across Europe, November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism. As a nonviolent movement dedicated to achieving peace for all people in Palestine, it is critical that the Kumi Now community understands and fights all forms of hate, including antisemitism. As we work for justice for Palestine, let us also remember and renew our call for the elimination of antisemitism in all its forms. Here’s what you need to know about antisemitism and what you can do so that together we can rise up.