I do my weekend shopping regularly on Jerusalem’s Gaza Street. With growing frequency, part of the street is blocked to traffic on weekends, and sometimes even on weekdays, because of the emotional demonstrations outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence.
Last Friday morning, the section of the street near Netanyahu’s residence was more hermetically blocked than usual. The reason was a silent, poker-faced demonstration of several hundred participants in support of the immediate release of the hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The demonstrators, made up largely of middle-aged Ashkenazi women dressed in white and holding white parasols, stood or sat on the street to the north of the intersection of Gaza and Metudela streets. They were surrounded by bored, armed border policewomen, waiting to go home.
When I entered my grocery store on Gaza Street, one grocer said to me: “Each demonstrator outside received NIS 900 to participate in the demonstration.”
“Where did you hear this nonsense?” I asked. He looked at me contemptuously, and said “From people.” The spokespersons of the home being guarded, perhaps?
Political game or humanitarian issue?
This was the first manifestation of dissonance I had experienced that morning, coming from a man who makes a living from serving residents of my Rehavia neighborhood, at least some of whom were among the demonstrators.
Sadly, the hostage issue has turned from a tragic and painful humanitarian problem into a cynical political game. All the polls show that a vast majority of the population favors the immediate return of the hostages, no matter how high the price.
Even though there are several members of the government who state that the return of the hostages is of the highest importance, the government itself, under Netanyahu, seems adamant on leaving the hostage issue way behind on the agenda, despite the fact that time is running out for the hostages.
Unless elections are held very soon, so that the feelings of the majority can be expressed and help decide the issue, the fear is that the majority, or perhaps all of the hostages, will perish before they are returned.
Elections must also be held to determine the future of the Gaza Strip. At the moment, it looks as if Israel is moving rapidly, at Netanyahu’s behest, toward the reestablishment of a long-term Israeli military administration in the Gaza Strip, which is opposed by former defense minister Yoav Gallant and most of the IDF top brass.
A long-term military administration will not only be exorbitantly costly in financial and manpower terms but will also act to the benefit of those who seek to reestablish controversial Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Before any such steps are taken, the people must be able to express their preferences regarding both issues.
Even though the current government holds a comfortable 68 majority in the Knesset, there is no chance that such a majority would reemerge if elections were held tomorrow. All the polls predict that the current coalition might even lose its majority.
Last Thrusday's decision of the International Criminal Court in The Hague raises another problem that requires immediate attention, and which is unlikely to happen without new elections. A vast majority agree that the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant is outrageous and totally disproportionate.
The fact that Israel refuses to accept the jurisdiction of the court further complicates Israel’s position, because there are 124 states, including all the 27 members of the EU, who are signatories of the Rome Statute that established the court in 1998 and are liable to comply with the ICC’s arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. The arrest warrants are based on allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian population there.
However, in addition to the immediate problem of the arrest warrants, with which Israel will undoubtedly contend successfully, there is another more urgent problem that could involve some fundamental decisions regarding Israel’s international modus operandi: Will Israel abide by international law or by God’s promises?
Beyond the question of how exactly international law relates to some of the unique features of the so-called “Palestine question,” it should be noted that the Palestinians never had a state of their own called “Palestine.” They failed to form a state on the basis of UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947 concerning the partition of British Mandatory Palestine.
Furthermore, the Palestinian state mentioned in the ICC decision of last Thursday is a rather enigmatic entity, especially with regard to the Hamas-led Gaza Strip. However, this does not mean that Israel does not have international law obligations regarding the Palestinian inhabitants of east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, one problem is that parts of Israel’s religious population do not recognize the validity of much of international law with regard to Israel. The Zionist movement, from its inception, based all its political activities regarding the attainment of Jewish national sovereignty in the Land of Israel on “public law,” and the legal foundations of the State of Israel are grounded in the 1947 UN Partition Plan. But Orthodox Judaism, and its political representatives, see the basis of the state’s existence and its territory in God’s promise to the Jewish people – not in international law.
Most of Israel’s state institutions to the present day, including the IDF, have legal departments that contain international law sections. However, there are growing parts of the Israeli population that do not accept this reality.
The question of whether Israel should follow God’s promises and commandments, rather than the rules of international law in running its international affairs, should at long last be decided by the public in general elections.
The writer worked in the Knesset for many years as a researcher, and has published extensively both journalistic and academic articles on current affairs and Israeli politics. Her most recent book, Israel’s Knesset Members – A Comparative Study of an Undefined Job