By Daniel Sokatch–
Just before the new year, the most hardline, ethno-nationalist government in Israel’s history took power. The list of new government officials is a rogues’ gallery of extremists. Until recently, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was once convicted of supporting a terrorist organization, hung a portrait in his living room of an Israeli who murdered 29 Palestinians as they prayed. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was arrested in 2005 for allegedly plotting to blow up Tel Aviv’s main highway in protest of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Smotrich alongside another high-ranking new official, Avi Maoz, have described themselves as “proud homophobe[s].”
These are the people leading Israel now—and they are working quickly to dismantle its democracy. They want an ethnonationalist theocracy where LGBTQ+ people, Palestinians, non-Orthodox Jews, and anyone else who doesn’t fit their mold is deprived of their fundamental rights. As the CEO of the New Israel Fund—the premier funder of civil society organizations and activists in Israel working for equality, justice, and democracy—I hold that this government is diametrically opposed to my values. I spend every day working to support the people advancing the fundamental rights of the most marginalized living in Israel and under Israel’s control in the occupied West Bank.
The extremist vision these officials have for Israel would make the likes of Ron DeSantis and Hungary’s Victor Orban blush. Recently, Haaretz, Israel’s newspaper of record, published an in-depth report that cited recordings of Avi Maoz and other leaders in his extremist movement saying how they will “cleanse the education system” of all things “foreign.”
( https://tinyurl.com/ywnudmnc ) For Maoz and his cadre, that includes the very notion that people can be anything but straight and cis-gendered. It’s “Don’t Say Gay” on steroids.
Maoz’s political party is now putting these opponents of theocracy on “blacklists.” One list includes LGBTQ+ members of the media. Another consists of people associated with the New Israel Fund. They’re targeting anyone who believes that progress is good and that we should strive to give everyone—be they Palestinian, Israeli, gay, straight, cis, or trans—equal opportunity and equality before the law.
These extremist leaders have also adopted the offensive and patently untrue conspiracy theory popular among the far-right in the U.S. that purports a connection between members of the LGBTQ+ community and child trafficking. The promotion of such a narrative is dangerous and can lead directly to violence against LGBTQ+ people.
What these hardliners want is a theocracy. They want their myopic worldview to govern the lives of all, regardless of whether they subscribe to that worldview. They think that there is one way to have a family. One way to love. One way to be with someone. They think that, in Israel, there should only be one language (Hebrew), one religion (Judaism), one permitted flag (Israel’s). They want to expel from the public sphere anyone who would dare to normalize LGBTQ+ people, Palestinians, or non-Orthodox Jews.
Until recently, these figures lurked on the extreme fringe of Israeli society. But now, they can exert a frightening amount of control over those who have the least power. Itamar Ben-Gvir oversees Border Police in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In other words, an ethnonationalist now runs a branch of the army in an area where some 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers live amongst 2.3 million disenfranchised Palestinians. He has already used his powers to curb freedom of expression, including waving the Palestinian flag (https://tinyurl.com/ywmy993z).
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has new oversight powers over the Israeli military units in the occupied territories. Avi Maoz has a new role as deputy minister in the prime minister’s office, and was handed responsibility for what this government termed “National-Jewish identity”; a kind of national inculcation project, where Maoz’s authority covers extracurricular programming in public schools.
But many Israelis are pushing back against these dangerous ideologies. They argue, correctly, that winning an election does not give a government a mandate to dismantle democracy. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in weekly protests. After the government took power, hundreds of concerned parents held an emergency conference to discuss how to push back against Maoz’s plans.
Meanwhile, over 17,000 people signed a petition opposing Maoz’s dangerous policies (https://tinyurl.com/2p9xbwvz).
Over 600 participants recently attended the first-ever conference of the “religious left” in Israel, to say that this government does not speak for them. Leaders from Israel’s hi-tech industry, financial sector, and legal profession are writing letters, symbolically striking, and speaking out to voice their profound opposition to the government’s anti-democratic, anti-equality policies.
In this moment when so much that we care about is at stake, we must say loud and clear that we are with the activists pushing back for equality, justice, and democracy for all. There are Israelis standing up against ethnonationalist theocracy and we must stand with them. At NIF, we will continue doing what we always have done—supporting the people holding power to account.
Daniel Sokatch is the CEO of the New Israel Fund: https://www.nif.org/
Jennifer Kroot and Robert Holgate curate the “Out of Left Field” column for the San Francisco Bay Times. Kroot is a filmmaker, known for her award-winning LGBTQ themed documentaries, including The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin and To Be Takei. She studied filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she has also taught. She is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Holgate, a humanitarian as well as a designer, is dedicated to critical social issues. With his hands-on approach to philanthropy and social justice, he supports the advancement of local and national social causes. For more information: https://www.rhdsf.com/
Out of Left Field
Published on February 9, 2023
Recent Comments