The Israeli security forces do not spare the insults to the holy places of the Palestinian people and the Islamic religion. Author: Radio France International

The political leader of the far-right Likud party cast aside all doubts to win over the leadership of the main ally and the largest recipient of US economic and military aid in the Middle East for the sixth time.

By forging an alliance with extremist, ultra-Orthodox and ultra-nationalist politicians, supporters of ethnic cleansing and the total expulsion of the Arab population of Palestine, Benjamin Netanyahu achieved the necessary parliamentary majority and handed over power to the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in the history of the country, but it set off a political spark that could ignite the region.

In little more than 100 days in power, the controversial 74-year-old politician is once again embroiled in a serious political crisis that still has no way out.

Netanyahu promised his new allies to prioritize the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the Arab-occupied West Bank since 1967, to provide huge subsidies to his ultra-Orthodox allies, and to push for a radical reform of the judiciary that would guarantee the legitimate supremacy of state power. , but, according to its opponents, will jeopardize the alleged and vaunted democracy of the entity created in 1948, which still lacks a constitution.

The prime minister currently leads a government composed of an ultra-nationalist religious party dominated by settlers from the West Bank, two ultra-Orthodox parties and their nationalist Likud party. In short, the prototype of an exclusive, racist and colonial theocracy.

Israel took over the West Bank in 1967, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, territories that, according to several United Nations resolutions, were supposed to correspond to an independent Palestinian state.

However, successive Zionist governments have facilitated the expansion of dozens of “illegal” Jewish settlements, according to international law, which already have over 500,000 settlers, mostly from Eastern Europe. Lured by promises of a return to the “promised land”, a concept deriving from divine right, they arrive feeling their own.

In this way, they plunder the lands of more than two million 500,000 indigenous Palestinian Arabs and lock them up in real ghettos, isolated and subject to an occupying military power, under a system of colonial control similar to that practiced in South Africa. . Protest and rebellion are inevitable, especially when domination reaches the religious foundations sacred to Islam.

Al-Aqsa Mosque invasion

After weeks of mass protests by Israelis against his planned reform of the judiciary, which seeks legal means to get away unscathed from a pending trial that could rule against him, Prime Minister Netanyahu has had to pull himself out of the quagmire. they put him in the ranks of provocative ultra-religious elements seeking to impose their power on the Temple Mount, a place of pilgrimage for Muslims who call it the Haram ash-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary.

This complex houses two Muslim shrines: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa or Qibli Mosque, built in the 8th century AD, the third most important for Islam after Mecca and Medina.

Palestinians, like the rest of the world’s Muslims, began on March 22 the annual fasting month known as Ramadan, a period of prayer and remembrance from sunrise to sunset. This year, this period has been extended until April 21, when the religious holiday of Eid al-Fitr begins, which lasts three days.

Last week, Israeli police carried out a brutal search of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, using large amounts of tear gas, rubber bullets and repressive paraphernalia, alleging that Palestinian “rioters” had barricaded themselves inside along with worshipers.

According to press reports, Islamic believers were outraged by reports that Jewish extremists planned to sacrifice a goat on the Temple Mount during Passover, as was done in biblical times before the Romans destroyed the temple. This is not the first time that the Zionist occupiers have attempted to violate Islamic traditions in their quest to Judaize Jerusalem, which has been proclaimed the capital of the State of Israel.

In 2000, the notorious General Ariel Sharon, who led the occupation of Beirut in 1982 and allowed and oversaw the massacre of thousands of defenseless Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps, later became the leader of the main opposition Likud party in that Atta. For a while he led a group of legislators from his group to the Esplanade of Mosques, where he assured: “The Temple Mount is in our hands and will remain in our hands. It is the holiest site in Judaism and every Jew has the right to visit the Temple Mount.”

Palestinians protested and violent clashes ensued, leading to a period of hostilities in the occupied territories dubbed the Second Palestinian Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

More than 3,000 Palestinians and about 1,000 Israelis died in this unequal confrontation.

Following the recent military incursion into Al-Aqsa, the Council of Religious Authorities (Islamic Waqf), which runs the esplanade, called the police incursion “a flagrant violation of the identity and function of the mosque as an exclusive place of worship for Muslims.”

The brutal footage of Israeli police invading the Al-Aqsa Mosque to apprehend the “rioters” this week provoked a strong reaction not only in the Palestinian territories, but in the Muslim world as a whole.

In the early hours of April 5, at least nine rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Israeli forces responded with a series of airstrikes that resulted in no deaths but significant property damage.

The Palestinian Authority has expressed its opposition to the Israeli invasion and “continuous Israeli provocations and attacks on believers, in particular in and around the Al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) area during the most sacred month of the year.”

Under pressure from a dangerous turn of events, Netanyahu decided to ban Jews from the Temple Mount during the last 10 days of Ramadan. But Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the hardline racist who heads the Jewish Power party, criticized the move as a “serious mistake” that could escalate tensions further.

Faced with the need to temporarily put judicial reform on hold, Netanyahu felt that a final agreement was necessary if his government’s coalition would remain united, promising Ben Gvir that the state would continue to build a national guard under him, dubbed by some commentators as Ben Gvir’s private militia. .

Such a decision guarantees an extremist escalation encouraged by the government against the Palestinian population. New protests, new crimes, under the protection of Washington, which does not see the violation of human rights in Israel.

This agreement says it all about the close relationship between the two crises that simultaneously affect Israel: internal polarization due to judicial reforms and extremist escalation promoted by the government against the Palestinian population.

Source: Juventud Rebelde