In the past couple of days, the postponed “Flag Parade” in East Jerusalem has been a hot topic of discussion in government and police circles. The organizers, who each year on Jerusalem Day bring thousands of people to march through Arab neighborhoods in the Eastern part of the city, have decided that the march should take place now. However, such events need the approval of the police and the Commissioner decided yesterday that at this point in time, a march like this, and with a trajectory as is planned, will only heighten tensions between Jews and Arabs, and not only in Jerusalem but also in other “mixed” cities in Israel and the police needs more time to get organized since tensions in these areas are still high anyway, and large numbers of troops would be required to be able to assure the safety of the march and the people who will get caught up with it in the narrow streets of Jerusalem. And he decided not to allow the march to take place.
At that point, Netanyahu, (who is still Prime Minister) intervened and after the Attorney General reminded him that a decision by the police in a matter like this can only be cancelled by the Security Cabinet, a new decision was reached whereby the march will take place, but not this Thursday as originally planned, but next Tuesday. Hint: the new government will be sworn in on Sunday afternoon, so this hot potato will fall into the lap of Naftali Bennett, the new Prime Minister.
A short reminder of the events of the past month. Tensions in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah have been high for quite a while due to the pending eviction of Palestinian families from homes that purportedly belong to Jews. Hamas, he terror organization in the Gaza strip, who is eager to get a foothold in Jerusalem and the Occupied West Bank, vows to “protect” Palestinian interests in Jerusalem. The resulting riots near the Damascus gate quickly spilled over into the Temple Mount and the response of Israeli riot police was swift and harsh and included police entering the El Aqsa mosque to remove rioting Palestinians. Hamas responded by shooting a number of rockets in the direction of Jerusalem (they reached the outskirts only but caused the alarms to go off also in the Knesset generating laughable pictures of Knesset members running to shelters), and very quickly the situation deteriorated, Israel responded in the Gaza strip with aerial bombardments and the Israelis living in the area around Gaza (and this time also way beyond Gaza, including Tel Aviv) found themselves running for the shelters (again). Eleven days of fighting, no tangible results for either side (don’t believe the big victory stories of either Hamas or Israel) and the only real question in the air: when will be the next round?
So, three weeks on, the Jewish extremists have rediscovered their nationalist dreams and have decided to hold the flag parade. The reaction of Hamas was clear and obvious: the march will reignite the hostilities and this time “it will end differently”. In addition, also Hezbollah, in Lebanon threatened that any Israeli action in Jerusalem will “cause a regional war”. So, when a decision was made that the march cannot take place or a least not with the original trajectory through the Damascus Gate, voices were raised in Israel referring to the “deterrence” that was achieved during the fighting last month; demands that Israel assert its sovereignty over all of Jerusalem; and it is impossible that Israel will succumb to pressure and threats from a terrorist organization. Cooler minds, including the security forces, welcomed the decision not to let the march take place, but when it comes to nationalism, cooler minds hardly ever have a say in Israel and combining this nationalism with politics, the decision by the Security Cabinet to postpone the march to Tuesday is a win-win situation for Netanyahu. Either Bennett will allow the march to take place and risk being responsible for a renewed bout of fighting or forbid the march from taking place and be called a leftist, a coward and a weakling, and his government may well not survive either scenario.
The argument that Israel cannot make decisions under the threats of a terrorist organization like Hamas is in principle reasonable and indeed Israel should use its sovereignty and its strength to make a well-considered decision and this should hold true not only for such a ridiculous thing as a Nationalist march. But such a well- considered decision can only lead to the scrapping of the ridiculous idea of this march. Does Israel really need the running amok of a group of racist fascists in East Jerusalem? Is Itamar Ben Gvir making the decisions for Israel today? Or May Golan, an attention seeker who entered the Knesset only because the Likud needed an emptyheaded loudmouth to do its dirty work (as if in the Likud there is a lack of such nobodies). The march was rescheduled for one reason only. To provoke both the Palestinians as well as the new government and cause renewed unrest. We cannot count on the Palestinians to ignore Ben Gvir, but at least the Israeli government should be able to distance itself from him and make decisions that consider the safety and security of the Israeli people, before considering nationalist fascist ideas.
But even when considering who Ben Gvir really is, and what his motives are, why do still so many Israelis feel the need to take part in such a provocative and dangerous event. Is nationalism the only factor being played out here? It sometimes gives the impression that uncertainty also plays a major role here. Many people will take part in such fascist events to convince themselves they are right. To make themselves believe that suppressing another people to feed your own nationalist hunger is allowed and not as inhuman as it sounds. The echo of the fascist screaming in their ears will drown out their conscious and strengthen them in the conviction that they are right and everybody else is wrong. A shrewd “leader” like Ben Gvir realizes this dilemma very well and knows the conscious of the masses must be drowned out if his racist ideas are to succeed.
The “compromise” that was reached to postpone the march to Tuesday includes a short note that the final decision rests with the police. And this may be considered a victory for Benny Gantz who reached this compromise with Netanyahu as well as a victory for the new government because the decision was in fact taken out of their hands and the police was against the march already so changes are good this nonsense will not go through at all.
It does not mean however that nationalism and fascism has been cancelled.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
If you register on the site, you will be receiving a notice when new articles are posted.
