Netanyahu’s far-right government is pursuing its dictatorial agenda to consolidate its Greater Israel policy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is accelerating efforts to create an authoritarian state while waging a war to annihilate the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Unable to achieve the dual goals of establishing Jewish supremacy in “Greater Israel” and of preventing any possibility of the emergence of a Palestinian state alongside Israel within Israel through democratic means, the Zionist state must oppress its own citizens, including Jews.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) talks with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ronen Zvulun)

The Knesset (parliament) ignored massive opposition to the government’s “judicial overhaul” and passed a key piece of the legislative agenda last year that aimed to limit the Supreme Court’s power to invalidate legislation that conflicted with Israel’s Basic Law, the closest thing to a Zionist state constitution. However, it was later invalidated by the Supreme Court.

Undeterred, Justice Minister Yariv Levin refused to submit for approval to the Judicial Selection Committee the nominations of a new Supreme Court chief justice and two new Supreme Court justices to replace several retired ones, because the government lacks the majority to push through its nominees. This workaround ensures that the government now has the necessary right-wing majority on the Supreme Court to pursue its dictatorial agenda.

The government has introduced a series of new, anti-democratic laws, tightening surveillance over Palestinians and Israeli citizens and restricting freedom of speech.

The new laws give the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic spy agency that reports to the Prime Minister’s Office, greater authority to hack into private computer systems used to operate CCTV cameras and delete, modify or disrupt the material on them, without the knowledge of the computer owner or court approval. This is allegedly allowed in cases that could threaten “national security or the continuity of the IDF’s operational functioning in relation to military operations in war,” when it is urgently necessary and when access cannot be obtained “in other ways that are less intrusive.”

The government has tabled another bill that would allow the Shin Bet to search computers and cellphones without the knowledge of their owners. This would allow Israeli spies — with the prime minister’s permission and a legal opinion from the attorney general — to access databases of public bodies, including government ministries, the police and the National Insurance Institute, and to use spyware such as Pegasus to search computers and phones containing private correspondence.

With journalists also under the Shin Bet’s control, the government is trying to further restrict press freedom. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi is trying to take control of Israeli media, including Can public broadcaster. Two months ago the government closed Al-Jazeeraoperations in Israel/Palestine, calling it a “Hamas mouthpiece” and a “threat to Israel’s national security” and accusing it of inciting against Israeli soldiers. It was confiscated Al-Jazeerabroadcasting equipment and blocked its websites. The network covered Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza extensively, maintaining 24-hour coverage in Gaza even as Israel’s criminal campaign killed and wounded members of its staff.

Jewish National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has attempted to mobilize vigilante gangs to hunt down Palestinians and drive them from their homes and lands in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He has distributed some 30,000 assault rifles to anyone classified as a “community security guard,” not only in border towns and villages but also in cities across the country, and has approved applications for thousands of people without permits or training. It is now a common sight to see people in city centers walking around with weapons slung over their shoulders. Ben-Gvir has attempted to relax the rules on opening fire.

He sought to halt anti-government protests by demanding a hostage deal and a ceasefire, demanding that police stop the demonstrations, often violently using tear gas and water cannons. The clampdown on demonstrations was directed primarily against Palestinian citizens of Israel, with Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai declaring: “Anyone who wants to identify with Gaza is invited to get on the bus.”

Police have repeatedly blocked demonstrations in Arab cities, citing laws on incitement and disturbing public order, and the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against a petition challenging a ban on demonstrations in Sakhnin and Umm al-Fahm. Hundreds of Israeli Palestinians have been arrested for expressing solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, opposing the war, or taking part in peaceful protests. Authorities have detained four former lawmakers planning to demonstrate in Nazareth, including the chairman of the Higher Arab Monitoring Commission, Mohammed Barakeh.

In addition, authorities are clamping down on free speech by monitoring nearly all social media comments for “incitement to terrorism.” Under the Justice Ministry’s tough online incitement policy, police have filed more than 130 indictments, mostly against Palestinians in Israel, since Oct. 7, compared with just 88 such indictments in the four years from 2018 to 2022. There is no longer a requirement to obtain the State Prosecutor’s Office’s consent to investigate suspicions of incitement, and proceedings against anyone suspected of posting comments supporting terrorism will be expedited, even for a first offense.

The bill amending the “Counter-Terrorism Law” expands the scope of activities considered to support or incite terrorism and creates a crime, punishable by up to one year in prison, for repeatedly accessing content produced by Hamas or ISIS. Universities rushed to initiate disciplinary proceedings against students who praised Hamas or opposed the war. Shortly after the war began, 30 universities and colleges initiated 120 proceedings against students, mostly based on reporting comments by other students, with little or no consideration of the actual content or context of the posts or remarks.

Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the Sde Teiman detention center in the Negev and other Israeli prisons can be compared to the infamous U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Shocking CNN A report last May revealed that Gazans held there — held without charge or legal representation for “national security reasons” — are blindfolded, forced into stress positions, beaten, insulted and unable to speak for long periods of time. Prisoners have had limbs amputated because of their injuries.

The prisons are so overcrowded with prisoners from Gaza that Israel fired hospital director Shifa and 50 others after six months due to lack of space and a Supreme Court decision to close the Sde Teiman detention center.

The UN International Commission of Inquiry report on Israeli prisons cited numerous examples of Israeli forces publicly stripping women of their clothes and veils and subjecting them to sexual abuse in front of their families during ground operations in Gaza, as well as men being subjected to sexual violence and humiliation in Gaza and the West Bank. It concluded that the frequency and severity of sexual and gender-based violations were so high that they were likely “part of (Israeli security forces) operational procedures.”

In the West Bank, Israeli Finance Minister and religious Zionist Bezalel Smotrich legalized five settlement outposts established illegally under Israeli law and approved the construction of a record 12,855 housing units in settlements since January. He imposed restrictions on the movement of senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and authorized Israel to enforce the law against “illegal” Palestinian construction in Area B, which is jointly administered by the PA and the Israeli military, in violation of the Oslo Accords. All the while, the army stands guard, protecting far-right settlers who terrorize Palestinians.

Smotrich is working to bring down the PA by handing over only a small portion of the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the PA. He has sought, so far unsuccessfully, to halt an exemption—in place since 2016, which shields Israeli banks from lawsuits for supporting terrorism—for Palestinian banks that allows Israeli banks to do business with them. The exemption is crucial to the PA’s imports of essential goods, payments for basic services and salaries, and all banking activities. Without it, the PA and the West Bank economy face a financial collapse that could destabilize the West Bank and the entire region.