Radical nationalism on the rise in Israel

Some Israeli human rights organisations are expressing their worries about increasing Israeli racism towards the indigenous Palestinian "Israelis" of 1948. In their various reports, these organisations have confirmed that the trend in Israeli society is increasingly calling for the "emigration", the "ousting", or the "transfer" of these Palestinians. The trend also shows increasing opposition to the participation of Arab-Israeli parties in Israel's political life as such parties are continuously being dubbed a "fifth column".

The above-mentioned organisations warn that with the rising power of the Jewish, extremist (nationalist and religious) parties in Israel, as amply transpired in the recent parliamentary elections, "the feelings of fear, malice and racism" now find open expression in Israeli political discourse.

With the rise of his star in the mid-1980s, Rabbi Meir Kahane called for the ousting of Arabs from Occupied Jerusalem; the banning of intermarriage between Palestinians and Jews. He advocated the arrest of any Israeli Jew, male or female, who developed a romantic or sexual relationship with an Arab!

Having formed a radical party that called for the "transferring" of Palestinian Israelis to neighbouring Arab countries, Kahane was able to win a seat on the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament). However, the short-lived coalition between the left-wing parties and the liberal right-wing parties prompted the Knesset into adopting an anti-racism law that resulted in the outlawing of Kahane's (Kach Party).

In an article in Israel Today, Yehushua Sobol argued that "the weak law that caused the outlawing of the Kach Party died a short time after being enacted. We don't know of one case," Sobol wrote, "where anyone in Israel was sued and imprisoned on the force of the anti-racism law and practices. This is not because such events did not take place, for they continue taking place all the time".

With the continuing maltreatment of Arabs in both the 1948 and the 1967 Occupied Territories, one can easily detect the spreading of the racist epidemic in Israel that emanates from the ideological and political stances of Israeli extremist parties. Those stances form a good habitat for the Israeli racist virus.

Heading the list of the Israeli extreme right-wing parties stands the Yisrael Beiteinu Party led by the racist Avigdor Lieberman, who believes that Israel's "special" national security must be given first priority.

This means that Israel should depend on its military power, so that in its wars a clear-cut victory is achieved, where the enemy is completely defeated with no room for compromise. Lieberman further believes that in order to secure an absolute Jewish majority in Israel, most of Palestinian of the 1948 areas must be "transferred" to the territories designated under the control of the Palestinian National Authority; territories that are, at any rate, decreasing in size continuously to make room for new and expanding Jewish colonies.

Lieberman's party adopts the extreme policy of forcing Palestinian Israelis, if they want to preserve Israeli citizenship, of declaring their allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state. In almost the same vein follows Shas the religious party of Oriental Jews.

This party is strongly against withdrawal from the 1967 Occupied Territories that the party terms as biblical lands. The extremist stance of the party's spiritual leader, Ovedia Yousuf, is well known. He urged the Israeli Defence Forces, during the recent war on Gaza, to pour more "cast lead" over schools and hospitals. "O God," he prayed, "may you pour your wrath over the goyim [gentile]; take reve nge from the Arabs, annihilate their offspring, pulverise them, oppress them and erase them from above the earth!" Another part, Ya'hdut Ha Torah, which represents the extreme religious ashkenazis (Western Jews), is even more extreme than Shas, especially in calling for ousting of the Palestinians of the 1948 areas. However, The New Mafdal party is considered the most extremist of all Israeli parties.

The party's leadership comes from among the extremist colonists. Those leaders oppose the freezing of the colony activities in the Occupied Territories. In fact, in order to prevent Arabs from becoming a majority in the Negev area and in Galilee (inside Israel's Green Belt) the leadership of The New Mafdal calls for the reinforcement of Jewish colonies in those areas. It also calls for the reinforcement of Jewish hegemony over Al Aqsa Mosque and advocates a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem by "re-settling" the Palestinian refugees in Arab countries.

Indeed, the Israeli racist virus is deeply rooted in Zionist ideology and in Zionist Israel. For its origin goes back to the founding fathers of Zionism of both the "soft" proponents, such as Theodor Herzl, and the coarse and violent ones, such as in the case of Vladimir Jabotinsky and his followers. Jabotinsky violent school of Zionism find expressions in a long lineage of grandfathers, fathers and grandsons as is the case with Menachem Begin and son, Benny Begin, the rising star in the Likud Party. Evidence of that violent Zionism is best demonstrated by Lieberman.

The results of the recent Knesset elections in Israel brought to light the racist phenomenon of Zionism that more than before endeavours to deal a fatal blow to the Arab existence (both land and people) in historical Palestine.

Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman is the Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopedia.