THREAD: Naftali Bennett is now Israel’s Prime Minister
That means one thing: the deadly status quo of Israeli apartheid will continue, even without Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm.
While the face of Israel is different, both Benjamin Netanyahu and Bennett agree on entrenching Israeli apartheid.
Think of the change from Netanyahu to Bennett as Ted Cruz replacing Donald Trump.
Bennett is a far-right religious nationalist who once led the Israeli settler movement, is opposed to a Palestinian state but supports unilateral Israeli annexation and once boasted, “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that.”
Bennett became Israel’s prime minister with the help of Israeli politician Yair Lapid, who supports permanent occupation of the Jordan Valley and permanent Israeli control over all of Jerusalem.
Israel’s other new ministers are also apartheid supporters:
Ayelet Shaked, who in 2014 quoted on Facebook an article that referred to Palestinian children as “little snakes” and called for genocide, will serve as interior minister.
Gideon Sa’ar, who supports official Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, will serve as justice minister.
Bennett & Sa’ar reportedly assured settler leaders that there will be no freeze in settlement building on Palestinian land, and the coalition is committed to “significantly advance construction in Jerusalem,” including occupied East Jerusalem.
Netanyahu may be gone. But for Palestinians, Israeli apartheid remains.
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Israel’s Attorney General essentially just paved the way for ethnic cleansing by declining to intervene in the Sheikh Jarrah case, giving Israeli settlers a green-light to forcibly displace Palestinians in the Jerusalem neighborhood.
The Attorney General could have stepped in and regarded the case as a public policy issue, but instead is refusing to get involved, implicitly accepting the argument that what’s happening in Jerusalem is a “real estate issue” instead of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.
Because of the Attorney General’s lack of action, three Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah could face forced displacement soon.
THREAD: Who is Israel’s next Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett?
Bennett is a far-right ultranationalist who staunchly opposes Palestinian statehood or self-determination of any kind in Palestine/Israel.
In 2020, Defense Minister Bennett ordered a stop to Israeli army-run testing of Palestinian residents for COVID-19 in the Gaza Strip in the midst of the pandemic.
Not a settler himself, from 2010 to 2012 he was head of the main political body (Yesha Council) that represents Israeli settlers living on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law and is a staunch supporter of Israel’s settlement enterprise.
Today, May 15th, marks the anniversary of the Nakba, when Zionist militias ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948 in order to create Israel. #Nakba73
But the Nakba did not stop in 1948. In 1967, thousands more Palestinians were forcibly displaced by Israel, considered “absentee” and dispossessed. And so the number of Palestinians ethnically cleansed by Israel grew.
As a result of Israel’s ethnic cleansing, there are over 7 million Palestinians refugees (the expelled & their descendants) worldwide. Though they have the internationally-recognized right of return, Israel refuses to allow them to return home.
1) Israeli airstrikes continue to rain terror down on the 2 million men, women and children of Gaza. Israel’s military escalated its violence by bombing a number of apartment buildings.
2) As of now, 48 Palestinians have been killed, including 14 children, and 300 have been wounded in Gaza.
THREAD: The latest on Israel's assault on Gaza: The Israeli army chief of staff is promising an “indefinite” war. That means one thing: continued death and destruction targeting civilians in Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 26 Palestinians in two days. Nine of the dead are children.
Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem to Lydd (within Israel) continue to protest Israel’s aggression on Gaza.