Alwaght- For several weeks, protesters have occupied the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities in the occupied territories to force Netanyahu's government into accepting the ceasefire with Hamas and bringing home the remaining Israeli prisoners held by the resistance movement since October 7 attack. Security and military forces gradually joined the protest movement and signed a petition to step up pressure on the PM to end the war.
Meanwhile, these anti-war demonstrations might give the global public the false impression that Israeli society is divided over the war or its devastating impact on the Palestinians in Gaza, driven by ethical or humanitarian concerns for peace.
This misimpression is such that even some compromising figures like Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, believe that if Hamas releases the Israeli prisoners without conditions, Israel's crimes will stop and the Israeli army will end its occupation of Gaza.
A question here presents itself: If the Palestinians did not have the trump card of prisoners and were not able to inflict casualties on the Israeli military on the ground, what would have been the reaction on the streets of Israel and would the Israeli public still be holding widespread protests to stop the war?
What do street protests challenge?
Answering this question and the misimpression brought up by the critics of Hamas about management of the prisoners case in the first place requires an examination of the nature of the anti-government and anti-war protests in Israel. Are these protests the same as the humanitarian protests arranged around the world against the US-enabled Israeli crimes since October 2023?
Senior Israeli affairs expert at International Crisis Group Mairav Zonszein in April 2024 in a piece published by Foreign Policy website warned that the recent Israeli protests have been deceptively exploited to whitewash Israeli society as a “humanitarian” society.
He points out that the thousands of Israelis who have taken to the streets are not protesting against the war and the brutal slaughter of women and children in Gaza, or against restrictions on humanitarian aid, and none of them are demanding an end to 75 years of military occupation. Rather, the main focus of the protests is against Netanyahu’s refusal to step down and against his obstruction of the prisoner swap deal.
In fact, the focus on Netanyahu’s guilt, who refuses to step down despite being on trial for corruption and leading Israel to its most critical situation in the past seven decades, has obscured the fact that Israeli society is still completely aligned with Netanyahu on anti-Palestinian policies. In all polls, the vast majority of them have supported the launch of a military operation in Gaza and the government's goal of destroying Hamas, even at the cost of killing civilians.
According to Zonszein, even if Benny Gantz, the former defense minister and army chief who has high popularity in polls, replaces Netanyahu, it is unlikely that the anti-Palestinian policies undergo tangible changes compared to those of Netanyahu.
This is while the nature of the protests in the global uprising against the Israeli regime rests on condemning the very unequal and inhuman war that the Israelis have waged against the people under siege in Gaza, and in defiance of international law, they have committed all kinds of crimes, from massacring women and children to bombing hospitals and schools and stirring famine and starvation conditions. These protests indicate that the world is losing patience with nearly 80 years of occupation and crimes in which every single Israeli, from military to civilian, from woman to man, from settler to capital resident, is a partner.
Power sanctification in Zionism DNA
But beyond the content of the street protests, analysts with survey of the sociological features and collective values of the Zionist society suggest that the Israelis know nothing but language of force in dealing with opponents.
In this regard, Donniel Hartman, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute and host of the program "For Heaven's Sake", one of the most popular Jewish podcast programs in North America, says: "Zionism and Jewish statehood demand the embracing and valuing of power. Without power—soft power and its currency of persuasion and influence as well as hard power based on access to coercive military and economic measures—Israel would never have been established, and it would not have survived in the hostile Middle East."
He adds: "In its early years, Israel's power was tenuous, bordering on the aspirational. But in the aftermath of its victory in the 1967 war, Goliath-like power became integral to Israel’s reality."
He further maintains that this power "catalyzed a newfound sense of Jewish pride and identity", and repositioned not just Israel, but the whole Jewish people as serious actors on the world stage.
Today, new forces have emerged in the occupied Palestinian territories that, citing chapters and verses of the Bible, glorify power in an unprecedented way and consider the moral principles imposed on the Israeli army as a sign of weakness and defeat. They see Israel’s power as a manifestation of God’s will.
The rise to the top of the cabinet of right-wing politician Itamar Ben-Gvir as minister of national security and his party, Otzma Yehudit (literally meaning Jewish Power), is an important sign of the growth of the sanctification of power in Zionist society. As the name of the party suggests, its members consider power a sacred goal and do not hesitate to exercise it in the most violent way possible.
On election night, Ben-Gvir proudly declared that his success would restore the Jews to their rightful place as the “owners” of the Palestinian land. For him and his supporters, domination over others—whether Palestinians or other Arab and non-Arab nations—is a sacred national right.
The dominant narrative in Zionist society is that it is God who fights for them, and as a result, all these wars and killings are justified. A growing number of Israelis see the power of the state as a “divine gift” and see Israel’s enemies as enemies of God.
It is no coincidence that the Otzma Yehudit party joined ranks with the religious nationalist party and entered the elections with a joint list. According to the director of the Shalom Hartman Institute, this mentality has created an atmosphere in which the rights of “enemies of God” are never recognized.
Language of force, the only thing Israelis understand
In 2015, poll published by the +972 magazine under the title "Israelis only understand force" showed that since the Second Intifada (revolt), Israelis almost always voted for right-wing cabinets.
More important admission by Israeli media is that this regime only yielded to dialogue or compromises as a result of wars.
The Yom Kippur War (1973) led to the Camp David negotiations (1977) and ultimately the peace treaty with Egypt.
The First Intifada convinced then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that the occupation must end, leading to the Oslo Accords.
The Second Intifada forced the regime to withdraw from Gaza.
In a comprehensive book on public opinion during the Second Intifada, Khalil Shekaki, Palestinian expert, and Yaakov Samir, an Israeli researcher, show that at the height of the unrest, public demands for withdrawal from the occupied settlements increased, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza took place after the intifada.
Conclusion
Experiences show that a large part of the Zionist society tend to violence and bullying and only understand the language of force. The anti-government protests are not arranged for demanding end to war. So, we should not develop a humanitarian reading of these protests and allow criminal Israelis whitewash their image.
