The Guardian says Israel\u2019s October 27 election is not only a contest to form a government, but could also have a decisive impact on the future of Palestinians and the course of developments in the occupied West Bank. The newspaper says critics warn that the result could have profound consequences both for Israel\u2019s domestic political system and for the condition of the Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Freedland, a Guardian correspondent, said in a report after visiting the occupied territories that some of the Israelis he spoke to described the election as the most important in Israel\u2019s history. According to him, some of them fear that if Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing alliance returns to power, this election could be Israel\u2019s last.<\/p>\n
In his report, Freedland pointed to signs of what he described as the \u201ccollapse of political life.\u201d Among other things, he referred to Netanyahu\u2019s support for calls to strip Israeli filmmakers of their citizenship after they were targeted for making a film critical of the Israeli army\u2019s actions in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
The author says these allegations are part of a political campaign based on misinformation and the promotion of conspiracy theories, aimed at diverting public attention from Netanyahu\u2019s failures. He also quotes Israeli activist Yehuda Shaul as saying that Israel\u2019s official institutions and courts, despite their weakness in defending Palestinian rights, still retain the ability to change course, and that their collapse could push Israel to the \u201cbrink.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Guardian also described the expansion of settlements in the West Bank as one of the major consequences of political developments in Israel. According to the report, around 250 new Israeli settlements and outposts have been established since 2023, which the author says have turned Palestinian towns into \u201cisolated islands\u201d and destroyed the geographic continuity needed to form a stable Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
Freedland wrote that Netanyahu\u2019s cabinet has pursued settlement expansion while the influence of Bezalel Smotrich, Israel\u2019s far-right minister, has grown, and has turned a blind eye to violence by extremist settlers. The West Bank is one of the main Palestinian territories and has long been at the centre of the dispute over settlements and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Guardian says Israel’s October 27 election could shape the future of Palestinians and the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}