What is the Significance of the Mass Demonstrations in Israel?

 

By Steve Halpern

Recently we have seen mass demonstrations in Israel protesting Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to strip the Israeli judicial authorities of much of their power. The protesters argue that these measures would end Israel’s so-called “democracy” that the protesters think they have. Clearly these protesters are not advocating for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to have the right to vote. No, they don’t want that kind of democracy. So, what is the significance of these demonstrations? 

The so-called “democracy” of the United States of America

I was one of the millions of students in this country who was taught that the United States was the greatest democracy the world has ever known. This idea is known as “American exceptionalism.” However, when we look at the history of this country, we see another reality.

Many of the so-called “founding fathers” of this country were enslavers who routinely tortured and brutalized Black people for monetary gain. Then, there were the genocidal wars against the first nations who lived here. These wars weren’t just about stealing land. The government was tenacious in their attempt to eliminate the diverse Native American cultures.

After the revolution of the thirteen colonies, the new government also went to war against veterans of the Revolution to defeat Shay’s Rebellion. Veterans who were starving demonstrated for relief. The government responded with military force.

There was a positive side to this revolution. In feudalism royal families ruled with the consent of religious clerics. With the Revolution the church was separated from the state, and for the first time there was the idea that people had individual rights and governments had power because of elections. 

However, with the new government only property owners who were men could vote. In this system the President was elected by the electoral college. The Supreme Court was appointed. The Senate was initially elected by state legislatures. The Congress was the only branch of government that was voted in because of municipal elections. However, in order to be elected to office congressmen relied on large contributions from the affluent.

The basis for the statement that this country is a “democracy” rests on the idea that people have the right to vote. However, history tells the story of how the government was and continues to be persistent in their efforts to deny people the right to vote. 

Black people, who had been enslaved, allegedly won the right to vote after the Civil War with the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. However, when the federal government effectively gave political power to the Ku Klux Klan in 1877, most Black people lost their right to vote. 

Women didn’t win the right to vote until 1920. Black people needed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to gain the right to vote again. Native Americans have continually had problems with their right to vote. Prisoners never had the right to vote. 

The pioneers of capitalism understood that allowing the majority of the population to vote would get in the way of the capitalist drive for profits. Most people believe that human needs are more important than profits for billionaires. This is why the so-called news media gives a tremendous amount of publicity to democratic and republican politicians, while ignoring the third-party candidates. 

Historically change in this country came with the mass movements advocating for the rights of labor, women, Black people, gays, and in the mobilizations against wars.

What is happening in Israel?

Just as the ruling powers denied Black people the right to vote for decades, the Israeli power brokers have denied Palestinians in the Occupied Territories the right to vote. In both the United States and Israel, those ruling powers refuse to acknowledge that the source of the problems affecting the working class is the capitalist drive for profits.

So, if the United States and Israel have never been genuine democracies, what are the recent demonstrations in Israel about? To answer this question, we need to look at a bit of history.

The United States

There was a time in the United States when Black people didn’t have citizenship rights. Then a young Black woman named Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of a bus. About ten years after Rosa Parks’ protest, the President of the United States signed the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts that abolished Jim Crow segregation.

During those years, President Johnson looked at the mass civil rights movement and began to understand that the only way to maintain stability in this country would be to abolish Jim Crow segregation. We might consider that Johnson lived in Texas, a state where Jim Crow was the law. However, the changing times convinced him to become critical of George Wallace and others who wanted to preserve the Jim Crow system.

Algeria

Algeria was once a nation ruled by France. There might have been about one million French people who lived in Algeria during those years. The Algerian people experienced a similar kind of routine vicious discrimination as Black people experienced in this country.

The Algerian liberation movement gained popular support and the French President Charles de Gaulle advocated for reforms in the French colony. The French Algerian settlers violently resisted de Gaulle’s proposed reforms. Eventually de Gaulle negotiated for a complete French withdrawal from Algeria.

South Africa

 The former apartheid system of South Africa denied Black people basic citizenship rights. A liberation movement erupted led by Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress. As a result, differences developed between the government officials Pik Botha and Frederik de Klerk. Botha wanted to maintain apartheid. De Klerk became convinced that the apartheid government needed to negotiate with Nelson Mandela. Those negotiations and the mass movement of South Africans led to the election of President Nelson Mandela.

Conclusion

So, we see in these three examples that the movements for genuine liberation convinced the ruling powers that basic change needed to happen. If those changes didn’t happen the mass movements would create an unstable environment for capitalist investment.

Clearly in these three examples fundamental change did not happen. However, significant change did happen. Black people in this country and South Africa gained rights they never had before. In Algeria French rule of that country ended. 

We might also consider that over 100,000 Palestinians live in the United States. Clearly there are profound problems in this country. However, Palestinians citizens have the right to travel to any part of this country. They have the right to live or own a business in any part of this country. Palestinians who live in the Occupied Territories of Israel do not have these rights. Yet the United States government gives Israel billions of dollars every year.

We might also consider that a top priority of the Israeli government is to build homes and an infrastructure for Israelis who live in the occupied West Bank. Affluent Israelis who could not afford a large home in Israel, now live in spacious homes in the occupied West Bank. Yet the vicious repression against Palestinians is routine. 

We might also consider the Zionist argument that Jewish people need a homeland because of the anti-Semitism in the world. Clearly Black people in the United States have a long history of horrendous discrimination. Marcus Garvey led a mass movement arguing that Black people would not be liberated in this country and needed to establish a homeland in Africa. The parents of Malcolm X were supporters of Marcus Garvey. However, Malcolm argued that Black people need to develop control of their communities here, and that they need to defend themselves "By any means necessary."

My opinion is that Jewish people need to learn this same lesson. The international battle against anti-Semitism is a cause working people need to support. However, Israeli Prime Ministers never support demonstrations protesting anti-Semitism. Instead they advocate for Jews to move to Israel and join the so-called Israeli Defense Force that routinely brutalizes Palestinians.

So, when we look at the demonstrations in Israel today, we are looking at the same kind of divisions we saw in the United States, Algeria, and South Africa. While most of these demonstrators are not advocating for liberation for Palestinians, they show how Israeli society is beginning to break apart. The only way out of this crisis will be to give Palestinians inside and outside of Israel the same rights that Palestinians have in this country.