11 April 2019
Benjamin Netanyahu is now heading towards his fifth term as Israel’s Prime Minister, built on a coalition of far right and extremist politicians.
In what has proven a winning strategy, Netanyahu’s last minute pre-election statements promising to annex illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and thus prevent any possibility of a separate, viable Palestinian state, have garnered him the support he needed.
“This outcome means that Israel will continue to become a more extreme apartheid state than it is now,” says Hilmi Dabbagh, Convenor of BDS Australia.
“All the cards in this game are stacked in Israel’s favour. Not only has Netanyahu won again, he has Trump’s backing in every way to claim Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and now even the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“Israeli Likud Party politicians have long maintained that all of greater Palestine would become Israeli territory and there would never be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. It’s in Likud’s charter. This has been downplayed, but is no secret, and shows that the diplomatic world has turned a blind-eye, maintaining a pretence to permit this very outcome of formally annexing the West Bank. Netanyahu’s election promise means they no longer feel the need to mask their contempt for a Palestinian state. Clearly now there’s no plan or even rhetoric for any kind of two-state solution on the part of Israel.
“We in BDS Australia know the only way out of this dreadful situation is for the international community – as it did in South Africa a generation ago – to institute boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel and the international companies and organisations which support this regime.
“International support for BDS against Israel was called for by a huge coalition of Palestinian civil society organisations in 2006. We in BDS Australia are part of the international BDS movement guided by Palestinians’ calls for peaceful, non-violent action to force Israel to abide by international law and to respect human rights.
“Netanyahu’s election win simply means we in BDS Australia, with our global counterparts, will institute BDS campaigns against Israeli apartheid all the more vigorously.”
For further information:
Bruce Knobloch – Campaign organiser
0425 282 450 | [email protected]
