Demotix\/Oren Nahshon. All rights reserved.While the world was mourning the
\nvictims of the terror attacks in Paris, Beirut, Egypt\u2019s Sinai desert, and elsewhere,
\nIsrael was occupied with other matters: how to make the best use out of these attacks
\nlocally, regionally, and globally. Let me explain what I mean.<\/i><\/p>\n
Globally, Israel used last week\u2019s attacks
\nto showcase its intelligence superiority. Israeli intelligence reportedly
\nwarned the US and UK about the possibility of these attacks, as stated in Israeli
\ndaily newspapers from both the Left and Right. <\/p>\n
This
\nis not only a security related matter, but also a marketing strategy and
\nbranding tool that aims to place Israel as a more powerful player on the global
\n\u2018counter-terrorism\u2019 map. When Arab countries claimed to have sent intelligence
\ninformation to France, the Haaretz correspondent said the \u201cwest
\ndoesn\u2019t trust Arab intel agencies\u2026the western intelligence community is
\nsuspicious of links between Arab regimes and terror groups\u201d.<\/p>\n
Israel, as the fourth biggest
\nexporter of weapons and highest per
\ncapita arms exporter in the world, also used the terror
\nattacks to showcase its military and surveillance technologies. Many of these
\nweapons and technologies are being tested on
\nthe Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip before being exported. Over
\nthe years Israel has been able to test military strategies, technologies,
\nequipment, and even weapons forbidden by international law, without any
\nramifications. <\/p>\n
Israel used the terror attacks to send
\na message to the world that more weapons are needed to defeat terrorism. However,
\nI argue that the world needs fewer weapons and military mind-sets to be more
\nsecure, not the other way around. The logical outcome of more weapons in more hands
\nis a higher probability of war erupting, and further usage of violent measures
\nto address political problems.<\/p>\n
Regionally, Israel will likely use
\nthe Paris attacks to blame the US administration for its negotiation and
\nreconciliation with Iran. But more importantly, Israel effectively plays two
\nparallel roles in regional calculations: the potential victim of Iranian
\nterror, but also a powerful actor in the fight against regional terror. In a
\nregion characterised by rapid and unpredictable changes, Israel is conveniently
\nable to shift quickly between the two roles. <\/p>\n
On the one hand, Israel requests
\nmore weapons and military aid from the US administration to \u201cdefend itself\u201d as
\na victim or potential victim of \u201cterror\u201d; on the other hand, Israeli Prime
\nMinister Netanyahu simultaneously offers his help to Russian President Putin on
\nSyria. It was reported that
\na security arrangement between Russia and Israel over Syria is in place in
\norder to facilitate the direct exchange of intelligence information and prevent
\nthem targeting each other\u2019s planes. <\/p>\n
On this occasion, Israel is playing the role
\nof a powerful actor in the \u201cwar on terror\u201d. Clearly, there is a tension between
\nbeing a victim of terror, but at the same time a powerful force in fighting it
\nregionally and globally, while practicing that same terrorism on Palestinians
\non a daily basis. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The move to ban the Islamic Movement may contribute directly to the expansion of support for it.<\/p>\n
At the local level, Israel used
\nlast week\u2019s attacks in Paris to further crack
\ndown on the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza as well as in Israel
\nitself, particularly relating to Palestinian citizens of Israel with Islamist
\norientation or ideology. On Tuesday, the Israeli government banned and outlawed
\nthe country\u2019s main Islamic Movement. <\/p>\n
Following the Paris attacks, it was a ripe
\nmoment for Israel to execute its policy of \u2018erasing the enemy\u2019. The Shin Bet, Israel\u2019s
\ndomestic intelligence service, also used the moment to reveal that
\nseven residents of an Arab town in Israel planned to join ISIS in Syria, and
\naccording to Al-Monitor,
\na senior Likud minister stated: <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Paris attacks provided the
\nCabinet with the support it needed to\u00a0outlaw the Islamic Movement\u2026as soon
\nas the scope of the Paris attacks became clear, it was obvious that this was
\nthe right time. The whole world was reeling from Islamic terror. Moves of that sort
\nhave legitimacy, and the focus would be less on us now\u2026It is just too bad we
\ndidn\u2019t do it earlier\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n
It was astonishing how quickly Israel was able to criminalise a socio-economic and political entity, raiding its head
\noffices and 17 movement-related charities and organisations. Israel based its banning
\nof the Islamic Movement on emergency
\nregulations from the British Mandate period. Adalah, the Legal Center for
\nArab Minority Rights in Israel, views this decision as a \u201cviolation
\nand crackdown on the Islamic Movement's rights to freedom of association and
\npolitical expression, and harms the Palestinian-Arab minority in Israel as a
\nwhole."<\/p>\n
Israel frequently uses military
\nregulation-based political actions to threaten parties and groups in addition
\nto the explicitly targeted one. This represents a further manifestation of the
\n\u201cmatrix of control\u201d that
\nIsrael deploys to sustain and tighten its colonisation and occupation of the Palestinians
\nand their lands. <\/p>\n
Despite the head of Shin Bet\u2019s objection to the
\nmove to ban the Islamic Movement, the Israeli government clearly favoured the
\ninternational dynamic over the local one\u2014in other words, using particular global
\nand regional events to act locally. It might not take so long until the Israeli
\ngovernment regrets this decision, as it may contribute directly to the
\nexpansion of support for the Islamic Movement, possibly
\nwith further underground radicalised actions. As the forbidden becomes more tempting,
\nIsrael seems to fail, once again, to learn from decades-long lessons. But it
\nmight also be argued that Israel intentionally initiates the vicious cycles and
\ncircles of conflict and violence. <\/p>\n
Regardless of one\u2019s views on the
\nIslamic Movement in Israel and its values, ideology and beliefs\u2014especially when
\nit comes to internal Palestinian politics, women\u2019s rights and role of religion
\nin life\u2014the attacks on the Movement is an attack on a major segment of the Palestinian
\npeople, and therefore it is an attack on Palestinian existence. This belief is shared by
\nthe leaders of the Joint List headed by Ayman Odeh. <\/p>\n
A similar incident happened not
\nlong ago on the \u2018other side of the Green line\u2019 in 2006, when Hamas, the Islamic
\nResistance Movement, won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative
\nCouncil elections. Arguably, if the international community had not boycotted
\nand sanctioned Hamas and
\nthe Palestinians at the time, today we would be in a different position,
\npossibly without an intra-Palestinian divide, and possibly closer to a lasting
\npeace and justice. <\/p>\n
This peace matters not only for the Palestinians and
\nIsraelis, but also regionally and globally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Demotix\/Oren Nahshon. All rights reserved.While the world was mourning the victims of the terror attacks in Paris, Beirut, Egypt\u2019s Sinai desert, and elsewhere, Israel was occupied with other matters: how to make the best use out of these attacks locally, regionally, and globally. Let me explain what I mean. Globally, Israel used last week\u2019s attacks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}