from our correspondent
TEL AVIV – This is not a third intifada. Or at least it hasn’t become one yet and I don’t think it will be. The size of the vast popular participation such as those of 1987 or 2000 is missing. Hamas from Gaza sets the pace for the military conflict. I was very impressed by the internal clash on the borders of Israel in 1948 between Arab citizens and Jews. We didn’t expect it to be so violent. Tom Segev speaks to us from Jerusalem. Author of some fundamental works on the history of Israel, commentator for the newspaper for decades Ha’aretz, Segev insists on the uniqueness of this new wave of violence.
What do you see new?
The intensity of the unrest in localities that are at the heart of the state. Lod, the old Arab Lydda where today the international airport is located: here gangs of children burned three synagogues. As well as the attacks in Ramla, Acre and Jaffa, just outside Tel Aviv. By 1948 the Israeli army had expelled virtually all of the old Palestinian community. Then for some of the original inhabitants it had returned. Over the decades they had become model places of coexistence, albeit with serious problems of poverty and drugs. I was genuinely surprised by the sacking of the Acre hotel, I didn’t think it was possible. Until a few months ago, our media enthusiastically talked about the fundamental role played by Arab doctors and nurses in hospitals mobilized for the Covid emergency. Arabs born and raised among us, Israelis in all respects. We had found that most of our pharmacies were run by Arab pharmacists. But, beware, I don’t think it is pogroms, or “Crystal Night”, they are serious organized violence as we have recently seen in France or the United States.
How do you explain it?
They are a minority. But aggressive, hostile. The police did not know how to counter it. In Lod, for example, the mayor has imposed a curfew. But no one respected him. Like a few months ago, the police were unable to force Orthodox Jews to wear a mask and stay at home. We have discovered that we are a country that is not very governable, almost anarchic. Jewish extremists also took advantage of this.
How?
Groups linked to the nationalist and religious right have acted in a coordinated way to attack the Arab areas. I am thinking for example of the “Familia”, which is the violent organization of the most fanatical and racist supporters of the Betar Jerusalem football team. They arrived by bus, hundreds of young people determined to vandalize, lynch, frighten.
They call it the third intifada.
No. I don’t think that’s correct. For now, the military confrontation between our army and Hamas extremists dominates. Almost a conventional war, with missiles, artillery and drones.
Who win?
For now Hamas. A very serious fact, they are very dangerous fundamentalists, terrorists who shoot on cities in the name of the holy war. They use aid from abroad to build weapons. They managed to establish themselves as the defenders of Jerusalem in the face of the Islamic world and the Palestinian cause. They forced us to close our most important airport and are effectively paralyzing civilian life. However, it remains an event limited to a few minorities of fighting fanatics. Not a generalized revolt.
The political consequences?
Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power, or at least it seems stronger than before. He made us believe that the territories occupied in 1967 could be annexed without too many problems and now we are paying the consequences. However, his policy of dividing the Palestinians at the expense of Abu Mazen’s PLO moderates and benefiting Hamas fanatics instead pays off for him in the end. Despite being on trial for corruption and politically very weak, Netanyahu now relies on the need for national unity in the emergency. The big news would have been the participation of the four deputies of the United Arab Party led by the super-pragmatist Mansour Abbas in the center-right coalition together with the parties of Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett. It would have been the only alternative coalition to Netanyahu’s Likud. But now it is no longer possible.
May 15, 2021 (change May 15, 2021 | 22:13)
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