The ceasefire imposed by the US on October 10 has not stopped regular Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Nor has it threatened to hold a parliament and society accountable for their actions in supporting a large-scale war that many international bodies have deemed genocide.
Instead, fueled by what analysts inside Israel describe as a complete sense of impunity, anti-Palestinian violence has intensified throughout the country and the occupied West Bank, while much of the world remains convinced that the ceasefire is complete.
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In parliament, or the Knesset, a senior lawmaker and member of the governing party openly defended convicted ultranationalist Meir Kahane, who has long been considered an extremist even by members of Israel’s right and whose Kach movement is banned as a “terrorist organization.” At the same time, Parliament is also discussing reintroducing the death penalty as well as expanding the terms of the crimes to which it can apply – both clearly targeting Palestinians.
Under the law, proposed by ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – who himself has been convicted of “terrorism” related crimes for his vocal support of Kahane – anyone found guilty of murdering Israelis due to “racist” motives and “for the purpose of harming the State of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in its land” would face execution.
That bill was read for the first time this week.
Analyst and former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy said, “The absence of any effort to claim accountability from the outside, on the part of Israel’s allies, is echoed in Israel’s own Knesset.” “This does not mean that Israel has done anything wrong or that anyone should be held responsible.”
Even Israel’s media, which traditionally cheers the country’s war on Gaza, is not immune to the hardening of stance. Legislation to shut down Army Radio is already underway after Defense Minister Israel Katz described it as broadcasting political material that could undermine the army, as well as what lawmakers refer to as the so-called “Al Jazeera law”, which allows them to shut down any foreign media deemed a threat to Israel’s national security.
“Israel has built this energy through two years of genocide,” Orly Noy, editor of the Hebrew-language Local Call, told Al Jazeera. “He didn’t go anywhere.
“Just because there is a ceasefire and the hostages are back, racism, domination and wanton violence did not disappear. We are seeing daily massacres by soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. There are daily attacks on Palestinian bus drivers. Not only within ’48, but anywhere, it has become dangerous to speak Arabic,” he said, referring to Israel’s initial borders of 1948.
‘May your village burn’
Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has reached unprecedented levels. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were 264 attacks against Palestinians in the month following the ceasefire announcement: the equivalent of eight attacks per day, the highest number since the agency first began tracking attacks in 2006.
The interior of Israel also looks no less safe than the mob. On Tuesday, a meeting at a private home in Pardes Hanna, near Haifa, organized by Palestinian member of the Knesset Ayman Odeh, was surrounded and attacked by a mob of right-wing protesters. As police reportedly stood nearby, Israeli protesters chanted “Terrorists! Terrorists!” They surrounded the house raising slogans. and sang “Tumhara Gaon Jal Jaaye” in an attempt to disrupt the meeting, which was presented as an opportunity to build “partnership and peace” after “two years filled mainly with pain and hostility”.
And on Monday at the Israeli Supreme Court, two soldiers accused of the brutal gang rape of a Palestinian prisoner in Sde Timan prison last year were met not with condemnation, but with applause and chants of “We are all Unit 100,” referring to the military unit accused of raping the Palestinian man.
“They’re not cheering rapists, they’re cheering the idea that nothing matters anymore,” said Ori Goldberg, a political scientist based near Tel Aviv. “Genocide devalues everything. Once you commit genocide, nothing matters. Not the lives of those you kill and, in short, not even your own. Nothing has any consequences. Not your actions, nothing. We have become hollow.”
On hand to prove Goldberg’s point in the Knesset on Wednesday was Nissim Vaturi, the body’s deputy speaker and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party. Vaturi crossed one of Israel’s few political Rubicons and directly referenced Kahane, whose name has become a rallying cry for settlers and ultranationalist groups throughout Israel.
Asked if he was in favor of “Jewish terror”, Vaturi responded “I support it. Believe me, Kahane was right in many ways where we were wrong, where the people of Israel were wrong,” he said, referencing the former lawmakers convicted of “terrorism” crimes in both Israel and the US and whose party, Kach, remains a banned “terrorist group” worldwide.
Daniel Levy, analyst and former Israeli peace negotiator, said, “Once you have consent to genocide, you need to be proactive in reducing the level of brutality, which is not what we are seeing.” “If anything, we’re seeing it continue. They’ve dialed the cruelty level up to 11… and they’re leaving them there.”