Will "Hilltop Youth" co-opt rent protests?
We've already noted that the angry rent protests Tel Aviv hold the potential for an historic and truly threatening (to the power structure) convergence of the global econo-protests (most advanced in Greece and Spain), the Arab Spring, and the Palestinian struggle. But we've also noted how, if the movement fails to explicitly solidarize with the Palestinians, it can be derailed by the lure of fascistic pseudo-solutions. Here, alas, is evidence for this latter tendency. Ha'aretz reports Aug. 3 that a group of far-right West Bank settler activists who call themselves the "Hilltop Youth" have established their own camp within the Tel Aviv tent town.
We are told they are wearing shirts with slogans such as "Tel Aviv is Jewish" and "Jews, let us be victorious." Meir Butler, one of their leaders, told Ha'aretz, "We can came here to say 'yes' to the social protests, but to also say that there is a solution." The solution, he said, "is to build in Judea and Samaria."
When they held a march, the chanted slogan was "No to bringing down the government, yes to solving the crisis."
This is practically a textbook case of classical fascism—assuming a bogus populist stance that actually channels anger away from the appropriate targets (the rulers), in favor of a program of what the Nazis called lebensraum—seeking "living room" for the "master race" (in this case, substitute "chosen people") on lands in the east, where an inferior people can be pushed out of the way by military means.
Before you call Godwin's Law on us, please explain the flaws in our analogy.
We'll be waiting.
About the Author
Bill Weinberg is an award-winning 25-year veteran journalist in the fields of human rights, indigenous peoples, ecology and war. He is the author of Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico, now available from Verso Books, and War on the Land: Ecology and Politics in Central America (Zed Books, 1991).
Comments
This is a strange post.
This is a strange post. The issue of how the housing protests might effect policy is an interesting topic, and should be discussed. The conflict of interests within the protest movement will play a role, though likely other factors -- the governing coalition and within the administration -- will play a larger role. The far-right group you mentioned is likely completely irrelevant. Netanyahu doesn't need them in order to push for further settlement expansion, as he responds to protests against high rents and living expenses with an argument that there is a housing "shortage".
But as I read further along in your short post, I realize you aren't even interested in that discussion at all. Your awkward diatribe reveals that you are simply only looking for an excuse to call zionism "Nazism". The last two lines are quite hilariously revealing:
"Before you call Godwin's Law on us, please explain the flaws in our analogy.
We'll be waiting."
Ha! So you try and lure people in with an interesting topic and then you try to bait them into some absurd debate. What's the point of this nonsense?
And a strange response
You failed to point out the flaws in my analogy.
So I'm still waiting.
"Zionism=Nazism" Equations don't deserve responses...
That's right, the marginal participation of a right-wing group is a mere means to push dogmatic equations of West Bank Settlement construction with Nazi "Lebensraum" policies. Such absurd "analogies" don't deserve responses. You prove your incapacity to reason by promoting such nonsense. And you ruin your reputation by instrumentalizing the housing protests for that ideological crusade.
Except nobody made any "Zionism=Nazism" equations
"Analogy" and "equation" are not synonymous. I challenged you to point out the flaws in my argument instead of Godwin-baiting. You seem incapable of doing so.