Support for Israel compromises established Western liberal democracies — Part 4

22 Apr 2024

It’s hard to believe that Israel’s war on the Palestinians receives unqualified support from almost all states that are classified as democratic, in Europe and the US. Opponents of the war are experiencing increasing repression in many of these states.

Also read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

The war waged in Gaza is not between Israel and Hamas (who initiated the current conflict by piercing Israeli defences and killing and taking many civilians hostage). Although the Israelis would happily kill Hamas members/soldiers, the war is against all inhabitants of Gaza. All but a small proportion of the dead and wounded are civilians of Gaza or health and other humanitarian workers, some being volunteers from other countries.

Although the war has persisted for more than six months, there are few signs of plans to call a halt without the eradication of every individual and institution that belongs there. The official death toll at the time of writing is 34,000, mainly women and children, but an unknown number of thousands remain buried under the rubble.

Instead of drawing to a close, the genocide is spreading, with Israeli settlers in the West Bank killing Palestinians while accompanied by Israeli security forces, who do not try to stop this violence and are reported to sometimes participate in the unprovoked attacks on the local population (See here, here and here).

This is a crime for more than one reason – the occupation is an illegal aftermath of land seized in the 1967 war. Israeli settlers building on that land is illegal, since the Israeli state has no rights over the territory, and killing is illegal, whether called murder or genocide, especially on the part of settlers who are not legal occupants.

I do not repeat the reasons that the use of the term genocide is correct but refer to an earlier part of this series. Some may not know the details of what has been happening and continues, but the general contours of extermination and expulsion are broadcast daily throughout the world.

In general, Israel has been the sole actor in committing war crimes in Gaza. The US, together with Germany and the UK, have been the main suppliers of arms in support of the genocide. The UK, although in financial terms contributing lesser amounts, is nevertheless a key provider of certain components of Israeli weaponry.

Impact on democracy within states that are accomplices in the commission of genocide

There are certain factors in current politics that limit democratic life and they have been made even less democratic, in some cases more fascist, in recent times. For example, what Cornel West refers to as the duopoly in the US – the fact that the notion of politics is reduced to the contest between two major parties – means that people who are more progressive within Congress or the Senate still see politics as something which relates to elections. And this hinders official legislators from voicing support for the Palestinians and against the ethnic cleansing.

Insofar as they advance ideas within these institutions, they do not draw on the politics of people with very emancipatory ideas and try to bring the ideas of someone like West into Congress or Senate debates. West is an independent candidate for the US presidency, with no chance of being elected, but he has insights that are not being heard within Congress or the Senate.

Even the most progressive members of these institutions are generally not advancing the overall emancipatory and universalist ideas of progressive thinkers within the US and elsewhere. Even the war in Gaza did not initially attract the attention of more leftist members and one member of the “squad” (a group of prominent left-wing women legislators) was forced by the legislature to withdraw a slogan in support of the Palestinians, and neither US legislative house has called for a ceasefire. There is nothing to stop legislators – as some do – from drawing on West and other emancipatory thinkers in their contributions to debates.

Support for Israel compromises established liberal democracies

It’s hard to believe that this war receives unqualified support from almost all states that are classified as democratic, in Europe and the US. Opponents of the war are experiencing increasing repression in many of these states.

In Germany, the notion of atoning for the Nazi Holocaust has been depicted as realisable through total support for the Israeli state and clamping down on Palestinians and any manifestations of anti-Zionism (which is equated with “antiSemitism”, wherever Zionism has a presence).

This has led to a range of acts of repression against scholars and cultural workers, banned from entry into Germany or from taking up visiting academic posts. Pro-Palestinian activities have met with repression, most recently with speakers to a congress being barred, some delegates being arrested and the congress itself being banned halfway through.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel-Palestine War

In the US there is a growing witch hunt against pro-Palestinian scholars and leaders of universities, with the removal of the head of Harvard and pressures on Columbia University to explain “antiSemitism” within their institution before a House of Representatives [Congress] committee. Similar repression has been manifested in other universities with solid reputations that are not part of the “Ivy League”.

The legislatures are driving these processes in the US and other countries, often leading to widespread suppression of ideas that are critical of Israel.

Electoral contests are constitutionally required in the states, referred to as democratic but it’s been shown both in the US and also in South Africa to be wanting and insufficient in some respects.

Cornel West’s critique of empty electoralism is a message that has particular importance for this moment of a wider rise of anti-democratic trends, beyond those mentioned. The setbacks experienced in democratic life in a state like Sweden, with a fascist party being part of the ruling coalition, is a trend that is occurring in other parts of Europe, like Hungary, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands.

South Africa

Despite the barrenness of South African electoral politics, it did bring the pathbreaking case against Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – a South African government which in other respects is running down the state and eroding the basis on which people involved themselves in the liberation Struggle to achieve democracy and fundamental transformation of their lives. It is “politics without political debate”.

What is important is that there must be space for something that goes beyond the discourse of contesting electoral parties. It’s especially clear in the Gaza conflict, and it’s significant that the ANC – in launching the ICJ case – drew on traditions which preceded it becoming a conventional political party voted into leadership. In the ICJ case, it drew on traditions of universal freedom, solidarity, of support for the Palestinian struggle and the struggle in Western Sahara, for example.

Thus, one has in other respects a situation even in South Africa where one has to exert pressure on the ANC, if it remains in power, to be more than an electoral party. This is important not just for what it does as an electoral party, but also whether it will be the party that presides over or averts the collapse of the South African state. That state is threatened at this moment through key institutions being run down, affecting infrastructure that includes transport, power and water. Although all are affected by this collapse, the poor are hit hardest.

Israel’s accomplices waver

Returning to the question of who backs the Israeli genocide, it is a tragedy that there are parties previously enjoying democratic reputations, like the Greens in Germany, who have become the second-largest funder of the war effort of the Israelis.

But on the other hand, this is done inconsistently because there is still some residue of an emancipatory orientation, as can be seen in the reported argument between the Green Party minister of foreign affairs, Annalena Baerbock, and Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, over what has been done to the Palestinians, their hunger, and similar acts that are classified as genocide.

That hunger or starvation and lack of access to medicines or hospitals that are ill-equipped – if they are still standing – has been caused by the weaponry that the Greens have helped to supply to the Israelis. But at the same time, seeing its actual impact, the foreign minister has some element of conscience, which is not present within the Israeli or US government (see here and here).

It will be recalled, also, that the same foreign minister said that the 26 January ICJ decision had to be implemented. That never happened, and German arms continued to be supplied for the undermining of a binding ICJ decision.

The US has gone beyond ambiguity and has more than once declared that, from its evaluation, Israel acts in conformity with international law.

Building a counter force to a US-dominated unipolar world

It is important that the allies of the US do not speak with one voice and sometimes raise reservations about Israeli actions. But contradictions between the Western states is unlikely to be – in itself – the way in which this genocide will be reversed and the Palestinians become free.

At this moment, at an international level, the consensus in a unipolar world is dictated by the hegemonic power, in this case the US.

A counter to this is found in other state combinations that may exist or can be formed to combat this dominance. But if one considers these – in the Global South – they are contradictory. The states that still stand behind the Palestinians in some respects, who are part of the Global South, are also in many cases states in the Arab world who have formal relations with Israel, who want to tighten those relationships, and who also want close economic ties with Israel and the US.

We have had a situation where Israel attacks Iran (and thereby threatens provoking a wider war). Iran retaliates in a very mild way with drones. Among those who helped to bring down those drones are Jordan and other states which purport to stand with the Palestinians against the genocide. (It should be noted that the Queen of Jordan, Rania al Abdullah, called for a ceasefire some time back.

Within Jordan, like many of these states, there are demonstrations in support of the Palestinians because the population of Jordan, which includes many Palestinians, is not satisfied with this hedging of bets and believes that Jordan must come out more clearly in support of the Palestinians.

The mass factor in stopping the war and achieving Palestinian freedom.

In the final analysis, the emergence of mass protests in support of the Palestinians may be the strongest factor leading to a new consensus. At this point, it can only be in the long term. Even in the short term, however, the public and media exposure of the repression of pro-Palestinian actions in Germany and other countries is being driven by mass activities, which include some of those people and organisations against whom the Germans are acting. Many of these are Palestinian-driven organisations or movements, Palestinians being the largest refugee group within parts of Germany.

At the time of writing protests continue almost every week throughout the US and many parts of Europe and the Middle East. Long term as this may be, this is where hope of a resolution of the conflict and achieving the aspirations of Palestinians may lie. DM

This article first appeared on Creamer Media’s polity.org.za

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