LGBTQ+ activists in Tel Aviv protest once morest the new government. Civil rights activists call the coalition agreement a nightmare and lawyers fear the end of democracy. How worrying is the most right-wing government in Israel’s history?
Just hours following the new government in Israel was sworn in, protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv, led by the LGBTQ+ organization Aguda. Netanyahu may have designated a gay parliament speaker, but LGBTQ+ activists are concerned. “I found out on Thursday that I am blacklisted,” said one of the protesters.
Barely a week before the oath, it became known that one of the six parties in the new coalition has drawn up a list of fifty names from the LGBTQ + community who work in the media. The Noam party’s program revolves around scaling back lgbtq+ rights.
The leader of Noam, a settler in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, wants to introduce conversion therapy to “cure” gays and ban Pride. The new coalition agreement worries activists.
For example, there is a plan to drastically limit the power of the Supreme Court. If the court nullifies a law because it violates basic rules such as freedom and combating discrimination, parliament might now vote down that nullification with a narrow majority of 61 seats.
Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara warns that the plan would turn the country into “a democracy in name only.”
“Actually, you have three groups in this coalition and they find each other in limiting the judiciary,” says Yehuda Shaul, who founded Breaking The Silence, an organization of ex-military personnel, out of dissatisfaction with the occupation policy. “The ultra-Orthodox do not want the Supreme Court to intervene in religious matters, the settlers do not want him to intervene in occupied territories and Netanyahu wants to avoid prison (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suspected of corruption, BST).”
“He is determined to avoid his lawsuit and the rest are determined to carry through their far-right agenda,” says Middle East expert Brigitte Herremans (UGent). “Israel is at a turning point in history. This is apartheid plus, where that plus stands for the openly anti-democratic program.”
Jewish superiority
The most important portfolios of this government, especially with regard to annexation, are in the hands of far-right figures who believe in Jewish superiority. Itamar Ben-Gvir becomes Minister of National Security, which also includes the police. This government wants to adjust the instructions for gun use by officers and make them less liable.
“In the new government, parties are striving for a more authoritarian state, with more power for the military and police,” says sociologist Itamar Shachar (UAntwerp). “The main problem is the fascist forces in this government.”
The far-right Bezalel Smotrich will be finance minister, among other things. The agreement provides for the government to tax foreign funds for NGOs and spend billions on the entire occupation system on the other hand.
For Netanyahu, the policy of occupation is central to this coalition agreement, in its most expansionist form, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. “The Jewish people have an exclusive and indisputable right to all parts of the land of Israel,” he said.
“This coalition agreement contains too long a list of commitments, but even if they implement only 10 percent of them, it will be a transformation for Israel,” says Shaul.
