The legal groundwork for turning Israel’s regime into one that persecutes its critics has been here for a long time. All that is needed is a government that will aim these laws inward, while embarking on a journey of silencing and oppression. Such a government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, is at the gate.
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At the focus of Tuesday’s vote lies a simple question: Will this article still be publishable after the election if it ushers in a right-wing government led by Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir? All signs indicate that this trio is plotting to turn Israel into an authoritarian state in which criticizing the government or replacing it will only be a theoretical dream.
No new legislation is required in order to bring this to pass. The current laws for combating terror and defense (emergency) regulations are sufficient for abolishing the freedom of political and journalistic expression, which is currently undergirded by feeble rulings of the High Court of Justice, rather than by a constitution containing a bill of rights. At most, a few senior officials with reservations about the new policy will be replaced, with the Supreme Court neutralized through an override clause or through its inundation with an expanded panel of yes-men in judicial robes. A right-wing majority in the Knesset is assured for all these steps and more.
The ideological objective of a right-wing government will be to entrench and deepen a regime of Jewish supremacy on both sides of the Green Line. This idea is not new, and one could argue that Zionism espoused it from its inception, applying it by force with the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the occupation of new territory in 1967. But it always enabled internal criticism and freedom of expression, on which Israel’s democracy was based. As the state matured, it made room for the voice of the Palestinian national movement, with talks held with the Palestine Liberation Organization before the signing of the Oslo Accords, and with representatives of Arab society in the Knesset and in public discourse.
Netanyahu and his partners object to this freedom of expression, viewing it as a danger to the existence of Zionism and the state. From the day he returned to power in 2009, Netanyahu has been busy suppressing criticism of the occupation and the discrimination of Arabs living in Israel, laying a legal-juridical foundation which would perpetuate these evils. The expressions of this are legion: the Nakba and boycott laws, the closing of al-Midan theater in Haifa, restrictions on financing civil society organizations, the arrest of poet Dareen Tatour, the ban on teaching Dorit Rabinyan’s book “Gader Haya” (“Borderlife”) in high schools, the attempt to deny mathematician Oded Goldreich the Israel Prize, and of course, the “cherry on the cake,” the nation-state law, which anchored Jewish supremacy in a Basic Law. All of this applies to areas within the Green Line, in the Jewish and democratic state.
The common denominator of all these moves is that most of them were received with indifference, if not with tacit support by the Jewish political and media mainstream. Among their supporters are some of the leaders of the current so-called “government of change.” Yair Lapid voted against the nation-state law, courageously expressing his support for civic equality, but only after enthusiastically supporting the persecution of left-wing organizations.
Avigdor Lieberman coined the slogan “no citizenship without loyalty,” as a threat to Arab society, and Gideon Sa’ar was the political patron of the Im Tirzu movement. Benny Gantz is a signatory to the decree outlawing human rights groups in the West Bank. Others remained quiet at this muzzling. No theater was closed in protest over the denial of budgets to al-Midan, no show was cancelled. On the contrary, the repertoire swung towards placating audiences and refraining from delivering any political messages or statements that could anger the repressive organizations on the right.
If a Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir coalition is formed, the moves taken by its predecessors will look like a small-scale prelude. In such a world, Arab parties will be officially defined as supporters of terror, as in rightist propaganda. The labeling of people and groups as “enemies of Israel” will pass from private organizations such as Im Tirzu, Ad Kan and activists such as Shamai Glick to government institutions.
Instead of rightist activists documenting the lectures of leftist lecturers, universities will be compelled to report lecturers using the term “occupation,” lest they lose their financing, with such lecturers later forbidden to teach at all.
And why stop with the occupation? Why allow the financing of departments teaching gender studies, or scientists researching the climate crisis? Organizations like B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence, whose operation somewhat restores the dignity of Israel’s democracy, will be put on the list of Israel’s enemies, their activity prohibited. Who exactly will stand up to defend them, risking being boycotted, investigated and possibly incriminated? Sa’ar? Gantz? Merav Michaeli?
This is the tangible, clear and present danger of a right-wing victory today: the turning of Israel into a regime that persecutes its critics, while perpetuating its rule. The legal underpinnings have long been in place. All that’s needed is a government that will use this framework to repress and silence dissent from within. Such a government is at our gates. If its vision is realized, then anyone in the media reporting on this repression or objecting to it will in turn be persecuted, and publishing an article like this will be impermissible.
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