The niece of Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife accused the Israeli prime minister’s government of promoting violence, racism, nationalism, and fascism.
Ruth Ben-Artzi, an Israeli political scientist, railed against Netanyahu and his new far-right government in an interview with Haaretz.
“I am ashamed, sad, and angry. Ashamed that my relatives have no shame. That they are in a position of power that promotes and encourages violence, racism, nationalism, and fascism,” Ben-Artzi said.
In the interview published Saturday, Ben-Artzi criticized Israel’s historic policy of oppressing Palestinians and said the government had made it difficult for Israelis to understand their history.
“My generation did not have the tools to understand the history of the Palestinians, or the possibility to talk about the occupation openly. No one taught us about the Nakba or told us, ‘The Palestinians lived here before us before our families came here,'” she said in the interview.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading the most right-wing and religious government Israel has had since its establishment, with Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — two far-right politicians known for racist and Jewish supremacist rhetoric — serving as senior ministers.
Netanyahu’s fanatics ministers including Ben-Gvir and Smotrich adopt racist measures against the Palestinian people. These measures included filed executions, home demolitions, and suppressive measures against Palestinain detainees.
According to Palestinian figures, Israeli forces and settlers killed more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in 2023 than in any single calendar year since the Second Intifada.
At least 90 Palestinian people were killed in Israeli attacks across the occupied Palestinian lands, including at least 14 children.
During the first three months of 2023, Israeli occupation demolished 279 Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA).
The far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered the Israeli prisoners services (IPS) to take more punitive measures against Palestinian prisoners. The measures included controlling the amount of water used in the jails and reducing bathroom access.
Netanyahu’s government is currently facing widespread protests against a judicial reform bill that would give the parliament more control over Israel’s Supreme Court.
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