"Third Israel" – Transformation to a Religious Colonial State

More than a decade and a half ago, Israel started to witness continuous escalation in the power of the right wing, religious colonial movement, which is being reflected in its attempts to dominate and control the future of Israel by resolving two major issues: the first is ending the conflict with the Palestinians and determining the future of the occupied territories in 1967, while the second is the identity of the state, and declaring it a Jewish nationalist state.

 

Netanyahu’s government has relentlessly been trying to resolve these two issues by imposing a one-sided de facto solution, that would lead to the annexation of vast C areas in the West Bank and the settlements there. This is being done through direct and indirect acts aiming to expand Israeli sovereignty in settlements, and integrate them gradually in the State’s infrastructure, institutions and legal structure, in return for strengthening the Palestinian Authority’s status in its current function, and increase some of its powers and authorities, to realize the idea of a “non-sovereign state” which Netanyahu is calling for. This means that Israel will always have full sovereignty in all matters related to security,

while it will remove itself from the management of the daily lives of Palestinian populations. In reality, this would mean that the Palestinian authority will turn into a civil administration that would replace what is known as “Minus State”, while Israel would continue to control the main keys in the occupied territories adjacent to settlements, and the strategic areas such as Jerusalem and Jericho.

While the conflict is being resolved in front of the Palestinians in the territories occupied in 1967, they are also determining the issue of Israel’s internal identity as a Jewish nationalist state in relation to Palestinians living there. This is done through resorting to legislations, laws and disciplinary policies that strengthen the citizenship hierarchy on ethnic basis, putting Jews on top of the Pyramid and Arabs at the bottom, and through following policies that encourage the individual integration of Arabs on the basis of Israelisation of state and accepting this hierarchy.