The ISL, RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 22.10.2022
There is no doubt that Itamar Ben Gvir, a Kahanist and a leader of the Israeli far-right Otzma Yehudit party Known for his extreme racism, is a political propagator whose aim is to annex the West Bank and to expel the Palestinians citizens of Israel who oppose the 1967 occupation. His entire political life is of an extreme right winger. He first joined a right-wing youth movement affiliated with Moledet, a party which advocated transferring Arabs out of Israel, and then joined the youth movement of the even more radical Kach and Kahane Chai party. Thus Ben-Gvir was a follower of extremist Meir Kahane, whose party Kach was outlawed and deemed a terror organization. He had a framed picture of Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 murdered 29 Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, hung in his living room. He is openly for an apartheid state from the river to the sea. He carried out a series of far-right activities that have resulted in dozens of indictments. Ben-Gvir was indicted 46 times and convicted eight times, including for rioting, vandalism, incitement to racism, and support for a terror organization. Yet he was not sent to jail and allowed to be a member of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament).
Otzma Yehudit party ran independently in the 2013 elections, and as part of a list with ultra-Orthodox party Yachad in 2015. In both elections they did not manage to pass the electoral threshold. In the 2021 election, Otzma Yehudit ran on a joint list with the Religious Zionist Party and Noam, as part of a deal orchestrated by Netanyahu, that would include the list receiving an extra seat from the Likud list following the 2021 election, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of Otzma Yehudit won a seat, with the deal considered to have brought the party into the mainstream of Israeli politics.
For his racist activity he is popular among Jewish Israeli youth and according to last polls the Religious Zionist Party with which he merged his Otzma Yehudit party, would receive between 13 to 17 mandates in the November election.
In the current national elections, he joined forces with the Likud of Netanyahu and if the block of Netanyahu wins, he may become a minister of the government. The violence of the Zionist settlers In the West-Bank is encouraged by the Religious Zionist party and Ben Gvir. This happen almost daily and the Zionist army is protecting and assisting the Zionist settlers, for example today the 22 of October 2022:
“Settlers threw rocks and grenades at a Palestinian family of harvesters and stole their olives near the Palestinian village of Burin in the West Bank on Friday, according to videos released by human rights organization Yesh Din.The videos showed settlers throwing stones at the harvesters and stealing olives while another video shows what appeared to be an IDF soldier handing a settler a gas grenade and directing him where to throw it” [1]
While Ben Gvir and the far-right parties should have been smashed long ago, there is no force among the Israeli-Jewish society to do this. Zehava Galon of the Meretz party condemned the attack in twitter: “Ben Gvir’s military force has begun an organized attack against farmers,” she wrote. But writing in twitter instead of mobilizing thousands to defend the Palestinians and smash the right-wing extreme nationalist is useless.
And how can Meretz, a member of the government of Lapid that is responsible for killing Palestinians on a daily basis mobilize their supporters to smash the far right? This “only not Bibi” government has killed close to 200 Palestinians in the West Bank.
It will be a mistake to vote for the Lapid block in the elections, all of the parties in this block are responsible for the killing of the Palestinians and for the encouragement of the political atmosphere that increases the power of Ben Gvir.
It is also a mistake to believe that if Ben Gvir will be a minister, it will be a fascist government. It will be a right-wing nationalist acting in similar ways to Lapid’s government.
The ruling class of Israel does not need fascism. The capitalists are not afraid of the Jewish workers and poor uprising that are unable to fight against the Zionist capitalist system as long as the Jewish working class is Zionist.
Ben Gevir as a minister in the Netanyahu government will not function differently than Shaked or Bennet in the government of today.
There is no doubt that the Likud is responsible for making the Otzma Yehudit party a legitimate party and the propaganda of the parties in Lapid’s block is if you do not want Ben Gvir, is to vote for Lapid’s block.
The following data prove that Ben Gvir got more support during Bennet-Lapid government that further pushed the Zionist society to the right.
Otzma Yehudit in the various elections:
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | Status | |
| 2013 | Aryeh Eldad | 64,782 | 1.76 | 0 / 120 | Extra parliamentary | |
| 2015 | Michael Ben-Ari | Part of Yachad | 0 / 120 | Extra parliamentary | ||
| April 2019 | Michael Ben-Ari | Part of the URWP | 0 /120 | Extra parliamentary | ||
| September 2019 | Itamar Ben-Gvir | 83,609 | 1.88 | 0 / 120 | Extra parliamentary | |
| 2020 | Itamar Ben-Gvir | 19,402 | 0.42 | 0 / 120 | Extra parliamentary | |
| 2021 | Itamar Ben-Gvir | Part of the RZP | 1 / 120 | Opposition |
Since the only party we can be sure will not support Netanyahu or Lapid or Gantz is Balad we call to give critical support to this party.
No vote for any Zionist Party!
Vote for Balad!
Down with the Zionist apartheid from the river to the sea!
For a Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[1] https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-720257