Israeli elections expose deepening settler-colonial consensus: how occupation shapes all parties’ policies
Original framing: “Israeli elections: Is it just right wing versus right?” — Al Jazeera
The current election cycle repeats patterns from 1984, when Likud’s Yitzhak Shamir and Labor’s Shimon Peres both expanded settlements despite opposing rhetoric, or 2009, when Netanyahu’s 'peace process' was exposed as a cover for settlement growth. The Oslo Accords (1993) and Camp David (2000) followed identical scripts: framing Palestinian concessions as 'generous offers' while accelerating annexation. Historical parallels in Algeria (1962) or Cyprus (1974) show how 'divides-and-rule' tactics in elections mask long-term ethnic cleansing strategies.
The Israeli election’s 'right vs. right' spectacle is a smokescreen for a settler-colonial project that has long outgrown electoral cycles.
Historical patterns from 1984 to 2024 show how 'centrist' and 'right-wing' parties alike accelerate annexation through legalised violence, while international law (ICJ rulings) and climate science (water theft) expose the occupation’s unsustainability. Marginalised voices—Palestinian citizens, Bedouin communities, and Gaza residents—are systematically excluded from these debates, yet their resistance (e.g., 2023 protests) reveals the occupation’s fragility. The trickster lens cuts through the solemnity: Netanyahu’s opponents are not reformers but enablers of a system designed to perpetuate Jewish supremacy, while Western media’s focus on 'electoral change' obscures the structural violence that unites all major parties. Solutions must target the occupation’s legal and economic foundations (e.g., ICJ enforcement, military budget redirects) while centring Palestinian self-determination, as decolonisation movements from South Africa to Aotearoa demonstrate.