Democratic Palestine : 39 (ص 12)
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- Democratic Palestine : 39 (ص 12)
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The «Greater Israel» Government
On June 11th, the Knesset voted confidence in Prime Minister
Shamir’s newly formed rightist coalition. The stated priorities of
the new government are to «uproot» the Palestinian intifada and
to «absorb» the new waves of Soviet Jewish immigration. The for-
mation of this government signals a new stage of Zionist coloniza-
tion and efforts to drive the Palestinian people from their home-
land.
by Farida Al Asmar
Government spokesman Yossi
Olmert described the new coalition as
a «nationalistic right-wing government
but one dedicated to pursue the peace
process,» but this only aims to throw
dust in the face of the international
community. The government is more
like a new declaration of war on the
Palestinian people and their rights. Its
platform pledges to «enhance, expand
and develop» settlements in «all the
land of Israel» (read: especially in the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip and
whole Jerusalem district). Such settle-
ment-building 1s considered «the right
of the Jewish people» and «an insepar-
able part of our (Israeli) national sec-
urity» (International Herald Tribune,
June 9-10th).
The new platform reaffirms the
basics of the previous government such
aS the Camp David accords and the
Shamir plan, ruling out negotiations on
Jerusalem’s final status as well as any
direct or indirect contacts with the
PLO. The Shamir plan has been bul-
warked against any possible liberal
interpretations. In early May, Likud
ministers Meridor and Nissin drew up
guidelines for the coming government
that specifically excluded East
Jerusalem from any peace talks as well
as from the autonomy plan; it also
excluded the 140,000 Palestinians of
Jerusalem from voting in_ the
envisioned West Bank elections. The
Cairo meeting proposed to lead to a
Palestinian-Israeli dialogue was simply
not mentioned in the new platform.
Instead, the parts of the Shamir plan
dealing with talks with the Arab gov-
ernments and the «rehabilitation of the
refugee camps» were reasserted.
12
Surely this is a government for
«Greater Israel,» signalling new politi-
cal and physical attacks on the Pales-
tinians, more violent military repres-
sion in the occupied territories, the
definitive resurgence of state-organized
settler terrorism and intensified settle-
ment-building. The «Greater Israel»
coalition aims to end once and for all
any Palestinian claims to Palestine, or
even a part of it.
The settlement-transfer junta
Ariel Sharon, responsible for the
Sabra-Shatila massacre, wanted the
post of defense minister, but it is no
less dangerous that he received the
housing and construction portfolio. He
also heads a special committee for
absorbing new immigrants. Since there
is already an Absorption Ministry per
se, and since Jerusalem falls under the
jurisdiction of the Housing Ministry,
placing Sharon in this post indicates
that the new government wants to fill
Jerusalem with the new Soviet Jewish
immigrants. The attack on Palestinian
presence in Jerusalem’s Old City and
surrounding districts, already escalated
under Shamir’s caretaker government,
will be waged with new vengeance.
The appointment of Rafael Eitan
of the Tzomet Party as Agriculture
Minister also echoes Zionist crimes of
the past. In Lebanon, in 1982, he was
army chief-of-staff and teamed up with
Sharon, then Defense Minister, in the
effort to annihilate the PLO, with the
ultimate aim of enabling Israeli anne-
xation of the 1967 occupied territories.
The Agricultural Ministry is pivotal in
gaining access to funds for promoting
settlements. Sharon and Eitan failed in
Lebanon, but they can now team up
again for a new colonial invasion, this
time attacking the occupied State of
Palestine and its capital, Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the US-educated ve-
teran of the Israeli arms industry,
former Foreign Minister Moshe Arens,
resumes the post of defense minister
which he held in 1983-4, with the spe-
cial task of supervising a new Israeli
effort to crush the uprising.
In view of the slim majority which
Shamir’s new government commands
in the Knesset, many have questioned
how long it can last and how much it
can accomplish. But there should be
no doubt that it is a landmark in the
ongoing shift to the right on the Israeli
political scene. The Palestinian intifada
has created new polarization in the
Israeli polity. Though more Israelis
began to see the need for coming to
terms with the reality of the Palesti-
nian cause, the stronger tendency in
this polarization was towards the right
- for more repression and fascism. The
new government symbolizes _ this
increased right-wing tendency and will
at the same time serve to reinforce it
through more aggressive wielding of
State power.
The danger of efforts to imple-
ment the «transfer» option - mass ex-
pulsion of Palestinians - has thus in-
creased. Shamir had, in fact, planned
to appoint Rehavan Ze’evi, leader of
Moledet, the party which openly advo-
cates transfer, as police minister. This
would have given Ze’evi a chance to
carry out his promise of «liquidating
the intifada» in the Jerusalem area. In
the end, Moledet did not join the new
government, because its position is e-
ven more openly extreme than that of
Likud; it rejects Camp David and the
autonomy plan as giving too many con-
cessions to the Palestinians. However,
those favoring «transfer» are a trend
much broader than this one party;
they are well represented in the new
government which will give much more
space to work for this goal. A poll
published in Israel on May 29th con-
firms polls of the last few years con-
cerning the strength of the transfer
option: it showed that one-half of Is-
raeli teenagers (tomorrow’s soldiers
and politicians) are for expulsion of - هو جزء من
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