The countdown to the fall of the current Israeli government began as soon as the coalition agreement was signed. Yet for now, this mishmash coalition
The countdown to the fall of the current Israeli government began as soon as the coalition agreement was signed. Yet for now, this mishmash coalition of right, left, centrist and religious parties continues to survive — but only just.
During the Knesset’s spring recess, the Shoura Council of the United Arab List or Ra’am Party, which is the advisory umbrella body of religious leaders, decided to freeze the party’s membership in the coalition following clashes between Israeli security forces and worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
For now, this is more a trial separation than a decree absolute. Nevertheless, it is the strongest sign yet of the government’s fragility and underlines the fact that its survival at any given time is dictated by events; and in a country where unsettling events occur with a high frequency, that survival will depend on the resolve and wisdom of the response to them.
One of the most notable achievements of this government has been the inclusion, for the first time in the country’s history, of an independent Arab party. Through this, it ended a political deadlock that lasted for two years and included four general elections.
The clashes on the Temple Mount during the holy month of Ramadan have put the Shoura Council and the leader of the Ra’am Party, Mansour Abbas, under considerable pressure from their supporters, especially in the face of what many Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line regard as the use of excessive force in response to stones being thrown from Temple Mount at buses taking Jewish visitors to the site.
As an Islamist party, any change in the status quo in terms of entry to Al-Aqsa forces Ra’am to balance its desire to remain in government and not waste its unique position of being a bridge between Jews and Palestinians inside Israel, as well as those living under occupation, with its need to respond to the wishes of its constituency.
In a governing coalition that is more a marriage of convenience than a meeting of minds, there is no love lost between its several components and harmony can be disturbed in the blink of an eye. Ra’am, a party that emerged from the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, is no exception. It is a partnership that is not easy for either side to maintain. But what makes it unique and promising is that it is sharing the running of this complex country in an inclusive manner, without sweeping the differences between its members under the carpet while not letting these profound differences wreck the coalition.
As Palestinian-Israelis, it is not an obvious or easy decision for Abbas and his colleagues to share government with a prime minister who is a former director of the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which supports settlements and the annexation of at least of some parts of the West Bank. It is likewise challenging for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to work with a party that supports the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Like the proverbial cat, the current Israeli government has proved to have quite a few lives at its disposal and might just scrape through this current difficulty.
Yossi Mekelberg
Equally challenging is Ra’am’s opposition to advancing legislation on LGBT rights while sharing power with the leader of the Meretz party, who is openly gay and wants the state to give the same legal status to unmarried couples, including partners of the same sex, as is granted to married couples.
This is a government that was established based on the need to square endless circles, and much depends on maintaining a fragile status quo while making incremental changes until the potential nemesis of this government, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, finally disappears from the Israeli political stage.
Let us not delude ourselves; had there been any way in which a government could have been formed with no Arab party included, sadly this would have been the first choice of every Jewish politician, with the probable exception of the Meretz party. Yet political realities forced Bennett and his opposite number from the Yesh Atid Party, Yair Lapid, to share power with Ra’am after Abbas eventually became a genuine kingmaker, and they have been obliged to make the most of it.
Abbas is an astute politician with a vision of ensuring the Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel, who comprise one-fifth of the country’s population, have a voice in the most important decision-making moments of the country, within the context of a Jewish state. He has gone so far as to declare that the “State of Israel was born as a Jewish state. That’s the people’s decision and the question is not about the identity of the state. It was born that way and that’s how it will remain.” He added that for him the major question is “What is the status of an Arab citizen in the Jewish state of Israel?”
His support for a government of endless contradictions and paradoxes is driven by the sole objective of advancing the cause of 2 million people who have suffered from neglect and discrimination since this state’s inception. While some of his opinions will continue to be controversial to large parts of the Jewish population, his decision to take part in governing the country instead of shouting from the sidelines deserves respect and appreciation for the immensely positive impact it could have on the Jewish-Arab discourse.
Moreover, the current government has already allocated unprecedented sums of money to economic development in Arab communities to fix crumbling infrastructure, for a national plan to combat crime and violence in these communities, and for the creation of a new bedouin city in the Negev. It has also consented to recognize three bedouin villages and is taking a more lenient approach to demolishing illegal buildings, which is a sore point in many Arab towns and villages. These are no mean achievements.
However, Abbas and other members of his party understand that despite the support of most Arab-Israelis for their participation in the governing coalition, that support is not unshakable. Freezing its membership in the coalition is more a case of showing a yellow card, rather than a red card, to this unlikely partnership, in hopes that things will calm down in the aftermath of the holy festivals. In doing so, it aims to avoid risking the considerable achievements of Ra’am’s participation in government and in bringing to the heart of the Israeli political-social agenda the rights and needs of its Arab citizens.
Like the proverbial cat, this government has proved to have quite a few lives at its disposal and might just scrape through this current difficulty — but it needs to learn how to prevent crises rather than having to react to them.
Fonte: Arabnews.com
