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Israel is redefining its own impunity

August 9, 2016 at 3:35 pm

Israel’s preoccupation with its image within the international community has resurfaced once again, this time articulated by the Director General of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Sima Vaknin. Reinventing narratives has sustained Israel’s settler-colonialism in Palestine and the same tactics are set to be applied to the imposition of yet another “alternative narrative” to promote across the international community.

According to Haaretz, during a meeting of the Special Committee for the Transparency and Accessibility of Government Information, Vaknin expressed her ambition for the international community to alter its perception of Israel. “Victory for me will be a change of narrative in the world towards Israel; that the narrative in the world won’t be that Israel equals apartheid,” explained the former Israel Defence Forces brigadier-general. “Our goal is that in 2025 no one in the world will question Israel’s right to exist.”

Given the exaggerated importance attached to the two-state compromise, as well as the Zionist violence that culminated in the Nakba and establishment of the colonial state, Vaknin’s argument is deceitful and invalid. The apartheid label, which so far has been more or less restricted to activist circles, does not entail non-recognition of Israel. Likewise, the international community has given Israel both recognition and a licence to act with impunity. Hence, a more accurate change in the narrative would be an affirmation from international organisations and leaders that Israel’s existence is contrary to the prohibition of colonialism.

While Israel may still want to embark upon misguided rhetoric about changing narratives, it would be far more precise and authentic if it was to assert that the ambition of annihilating any and all questions about Israel’s existence is tied intimately to colonial expansion. The intention is to achieve unrivalled and unquestioned recognition at the expense of colonising, displacing and massacring Palestinians.

Vaknin refused to disclose the budget allocated for the ministry’s strategy to counter the “delegitimisation of Israel” and also advised Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan to refrain from public comments. “We want most of the Strategic Affairs Ministry’s work to be classified,” she insisted. “A large part of what we do is under the radar.”

Her comments may be construed as targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. However, despite its successes in raising awareness and obstructing investment in Israel, there is no clear indication that BDS is against formal or informal recognition of Israel. Vaknin’s admission that the ministry is “currently working on establishing a legal definition of the term” — with reference to the delegitimisation of Israel — is an indication of the current leniency in interpretation which will be implemented legally, in order to widen the state’s repressive tactics at home and abroad.

One point to keep in mind however, is the fact that Palestine is already politically isolated in the international community. Activism can refine and stretch its imagination to the limits in order to oppose Israeli propaganda, but Palestinians cannot combat the repercussions assuming the same liberty associated with the international community. The dangers of separating 1967 from what happened in 1948 are all too apparent. Israel will continue to play upon the separation of narratives to the detriment of the indigenous population. Since it deems itself unaccountable to either date, the perfunctory and preferred date of 1967 as the start of the occupation will continue to be exploited as the premise for the purported will to negotiate. Overtly, though, Israel will continue to define its existence through accelerated colonisation and impunity, this time by seeking to silence whatever shreds of opposition are voiced by the international community.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.