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Israel’s new PM: Good or bad news for Palestinians?

Published : Sunday, 13 June, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 865

Israel’s new PM: Good or bad news for Palestinians?

Israel’s new PM: Good or bad news for Palestinians?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's term as prime minister is finally coming to an end. There is an unwritten consensus among the various parties in parliament that Netanyahu, who is facing trial on various charges including bribery, fraud and breach of trust, should be removed from power.  Following this, a new coalition government is going to be formed which many have termed as Change Coalition. Naftali Bennett, leader of the New Right Party, is one step closer to becoming Israel's new prime minister.

Naftali Bennett was born on March 25, 1972, in Haifa, Israel. He is a Jewish settler of American descent. Their family moved to Israel from San Francisco, USA, a month after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. However, Bennett's family moved to the United States from Poland 20 years before the World War II. Bennett holds a bachelor's degree in law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As a student and as a young man, he was associated with Jewish religious organizations.

Bennett joined the Israeli army in 1990. He later served as a Major in the Special Forces and Commando Forces. He has participated in several military operations and wars in Lebanon. Bennett became the head of a coalition of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank municipalities. It is this alliance that has led the settlement movement in the occupied territories.

In 1996, during the battle with Hezbollah, Bennett destroyed 7 Lebanese villages and surrounding areas, killing hundreds of civilians. After retiring from the army, he made a lot of money in the software business for several years. He involved in politics in 2006. In 2010 he led a movement against the government's decision to stop the settlement. In 2012, he joined the Jewish settlers in the occupied territories and was elected leader of the party.

In 2018, Bennett and several MPs formed a new party, the New Right Party. But in the April 2019 elections, the new party did not win enough seats in parliament. The New Right Party allied with two other parties in the September elections of the same year. The alliance also won seven seats in the March elections.

However, Bennett's party is withdrawing support from the Netanyahu government and forming a new government in alliance with the opposition leaders in parliament. Under the terms of the alliance, Bennett will serve as prime minister until September 2023. The next prime minister will be YairLapid. However, this is evident from a statement by Naftali Bennett that how anti-Palestinian he is. In 2013 he said, 'I've killed lots of Arabs in my life and there's no problem with that'. He also incited the Israeli government and army to use cannabis and indiscriminately attack Palestinians in the West Bank.

Naftali Bennett served as a minister in various departments of the Netanyahu government. He was Minister of Religious Services in Jerusalem, Minister of Economy, Minister of Education, and most recently Minister of Defence. When he was the defence minister his biggest target was targeting Iranian-backed Shiites in Syria.

He repeatedly promised the people of his constituency that he would never form a coalition with the parties he calls the Left. But his coalition includes leftists as well as Israeli, Arab or Palestinian-led groups. By deciding to form a new alliance, he has undermined the far right supporters. The statements that Bennett made on the Palestinians branded him as an extremist, racist and religious leader in Israeli politics. The speech he gave in 2013 brought him into wide discussion.

Bennett has tried to build his image as an anti-Palestinian extremist politician, but his efforts have repeatedly failed due to self-contradiction. He has been a leader of the settlement movement but lives in an elite area inside the Israeli border on the Green Line. Although Bennett led a religious movement, his wife was known as a secularist.

Bennett was education minister during Israel's 2014 war with Hamas. At that time, Israel invaded Gaza. He then put pressure on the government to turn the Gaza Strip into rubble with all-out bombings. At that time he contacted Jewish priests working in the military to gather factual information about the war. Bennett claimed that the army and the prime minister did not inform the cabinet about the war.

Bennett is in favour of occupying the entire West Bank and Gaza, and he strongly opposes the idea of a Palestinian state. In January 2013, he once said that there would be no Palestinian state in the small territory of Israel. He made the remarks, claiming the entire area from the Jordan River to the shores of the Mediterranean as Israel. At the time, he said a Palestinian state would be a catastrophe for the next two years. In December 2014, a number of Israeli organizations called on the United States and the European Union to impose sanctions on Bennett and three other Israelis.

After Donald Trump was elected President of the United States in 2016, Bennett said that President Trump's victory raises hopes in his mind that a two-state solution to Palestine will not be materialized. The possibility of establishing a Palestinian state is running out forever. Analysts say Bennett's decision to become prime minister is bad news for Palestinians. They fear that his regime will inflict more horrific torture, oppression, killing and destruction on the Palestinians.
The writer is a student,
University of Rajshahi









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