Dvir Aviam Ezra is an Israeli-Dutch lawyer and human rights activist based in Tel Aviv. He has worked in the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and the Mertez Party, and is a policy officer for Young European Federalists – Belgium.
Three months ago, Israeli politics were upended.
The cabinet of national unity, which spanned political parties from both the right to left and included an Arab-minority party, lost the elections. Instead, it was replaced by a far-right populist government led by the thrice-indicted Benjamin Netanyahu and, for the first time, included openly racist parties like “Jewish Power.”
The new government’s plans now include a reform to the judiciary, which would effectively give politicians full control over supreme court appointments and allow parliament to override judicial decisions. Meaning, that if the government gets its way, there would be a de-facto ban on Arab-minority parties running in elections. Furthermore, Netanyahu’s coalition wants to impose religious restrictions on a whole host of activities.
Meanwhile, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is set to be completely frozen. Indeed, not a single party in the incumbent coalition backs the two-state solution, and most even deny Palestinian nationhood and support the deepening of Israel’s occupation in the West Bank. NGOs and activists opposing the occupation may be restricted, as proposed laws would push the narrative that they’re foreign agents, and senior ministers are promising to prevent investigations of violent soldiers, as well as withhold funding from movies dealing with the occupation.
In such an environment, it isn’t surprising that criticism of Israel’s actions — both inside the country and the West Bank — is mounting. But the government has fallen back on a time-worn playbook — equating any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism and violence, thus seeking to delegitimize critics. This is a dangerous approach.
Netanyahu had already stated that left-wing Israelis “forgot what it means to be Jewish” back in 1997. Now, we are faced with the same rhetoric once more, with the country’s diplomats calling Palestinian complaints to the International Criminal Court “diplomatic terrorism.”
Examples of modern anti-Semitism abound, of course, and they mostly have their roots deeply embedded in the far right. From Hungary’s smear campaign against George Soros to the prevalence of Nazi apologists in Germany’s Alternative for Democracy (AfD) party and the plight of Jews and their institutions in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, intolerant ultranationalism poses a severe danger to Jewish people in Europe today. (That’s not to say that vitriolic discourse with anti-Semitic undertones doesn’t exist on the left, but research suggests it’s much more prevalent on the right.)
Yet, this fact doesn’t seem to pose a problem for Israel’s new governing coalition, or prevent it from nurturing contacts with some of Europe’s far-right parties, just because they’re ostensibly pro-Israel — or, rather, pro-Netanyahu — a cynical move by all concerned, made for short-term political gain.
Netanyahu’s government and affiliated academics have been happy to deepen cooperation with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Hungary; Netanyahu’s son expressed support for the AfD; and politicians from the ruling Likud Party have held closed-door meetings with officials from Austria’s right-wing populist Freedom Party.
But this is a perilous strategy.
On the one hand, it denies the legitimacy of mainstream criticism of Israeli settlements by labeling it anti-Semitic, and on the other, it cozies up to some of Europe’s most dangerous parties. It’s an approach that risks offending well-meaning friends and partners in Europe and isolating Israel, all while pushing it to ally with increasingly extreme European right-wing trends and actors that, in turn, influence policies in Israel.
Netanyahu himself is increasingly aping the techniques used by European far-right populist governments to erode democracy. If the prime minister gets his way with the “reforms” he’s proposing, my country may well soon become the Hungary of the Middle East — holding elections but possessing little of the characteristics that define a healthy democracy.
The use of false “anti-Semitism” accusations by Israel’s far right in order to restrict public discourse and demonize criticism should be rejected by our European partners. They shouldn’t let themselves to become accomplices in the severe erosion of Israel’s democracy. They should, however, use their moral, economic and political power to help the country’s broad-based democracy movement, and to insist there are concrete commitments made to democracy and peace from the Israeli side.
We liberal Israelis and Jewish people have long been aware of the importance of the historical and social bonds we have with Europe, and these bonds now have the potential to protect our freedom. Please use them.
