According to Roelants, “ministers are coming to power who actually want to annex the occupied territories as far as the West Bank is concerned. This is done de facto by expanding the number of settlements and the number of settlers. This does not bode well. Violence has already increased significantly under the current government and violence is expected to only increase further under the new government. There is even talk of a third Intifada.”
Annexation
Roelants finds it remarkable that the far right is so popular among the Israeli population, “because many Israelis are completely insensitive to the situation in the occupied territories.” Roelants sees one possible explanation that the idea of annexation is gaining popularity in the country’s strongest position in the region.
“Israel has become much stronger in the Middle East, it is a significant power. You have a normalization with several important Arab countries, which have not even said that a solution to the Palestinian problem must first be found.
Judiciary at stake
Apart from the Palestinian question, there is something else afoot with the return to power of Netanyahu, suspected of corruption, and one of the main reform plans is what Roelants calls “the beheading of the Supreme Court”. ‘The intention is that the governing coalition – whatever it is – will have more say in the appointment of judges. Also, the plan is to create the ability to override Supreme Court decisions by the coalition.’
This would mean that not a three-quarters majority of parliament can overrule a judges’ verdict, but that a majority of exactly one member of parliament is needed to do so. A fact that is not negligible for a Prime Minister suspected of corruption, but who is not only inviolable as long as he is in power, but who can also annul judicial decisions concerning himself.