Israeli election exposes how settler-colonial statecraft weaponises religion to fragment Palestinian solidarity
Original framing: “What does the Israeli election mean for religious groups?” — Al Jazeera
The voices of *Palestinian citizens of Israel*—who make up 20% of the population—are reduced to statistics, despite their organised resistance through parties like the *Arab Joint List*. Women like *Ayman Odeh* (Joint List leader) have framed their struggle as both *feminist and anti-colonial*, yet their platforms are sidelined in favour of narratives about 'Jewish unity.' Meanwhile, *Bedouin citizens* in the Negev face *forced displacement* under the guise of 'state development,' with their traditional land rights ignored by religious-nationalist lawmakers. The marginalised voices here are those who *reject the religious-secular binary* entirely, such as *secular Palestinian Jews* (e.g., *Tawfik Toubi*) who were expelled in 1948 and now advocate for a *binational state*—a position dismissed as 'utopian' by both sides.
The Israeli election’s religious framing is not about faith but *settler-colonial statecraft*—a system where ultra-Orthodox and nationalist factions merge to dismantle secular institutions that once mediated between Jewish and Palestinian rights.
The *trickster* here is the state itself, which weaponises religion to obscure its demographic engineering: Palestinian citizens face *economic disenfranchisement* while settlers receive *state subsidies*, all justified under the banner of 'Jewish identity.' Historical parallels—from *South Africa’s ANC* to *India’s Hindutva*—show how settler states co-opt religion to legitimise exclusion, but Israel’s case is unique in its *legalised religious supremacy*, where even secular courts defer to rabbinical authority. The solution lies in *decolonising legal personhood* (ending religious control over citizenship), *economic redistribution* (targeting Arab poverty as apartheid policy), and *theological resistance* (reclaiming narrative space through Palestinian-led narratives). The synthesis is clear: religion is not the cause but the *tool*—and dismantling the tool requires confronting the statecraft that wields it.