Right-wing elections victory rules out serious solution to Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Palestinian analysts have ruled out any serious or real breakthrough in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his right-wing bloc secured a clear majority in the parliamentary elections held on November 1.

They said in separate interviews with Xinhua that the victory of the right-wing in the Israeli general elections was a result of the growing extremism in Israeli society, and will have a negative effect on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

On Thursday, the Israeli Central Elections Committee announced in an official statement that the Netanyahu bloc, consisting of the Likud and other right-wing and religious parties, obtained 64 seats in the 120-seat parliament, while the bloc of outgoing Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, won 51 seats. 

Hani Al-Masri, director of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Centre for Policy Research and Strategic Studies, warned that the return of Netanyahu’s right-wing forces to rule in partnership with “extremist symbols” was “worse than all expectations”.

“Forming a government by Netanyahu with the participation of religious right-wing parties is dangerous and will lead to the displacement of the Palestinians from inside Israel to the West Bank and from the West Bank to abroad,” he said.

Al-Masri expected a rise in “Israeli aggression against the Palestinians,” including “the Judaisation of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque at greater and faster rates and the imposition of Israeli laws on the West Bank”.

In the first official Palestinian comment on the election results, Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammed Ishtaye, said the Palestinian leadership and people have no illusions that the ballot boxes could produce a partner for peace (with the Palestinians). 

“The results confirmed what we were certain that we have no partner in Israel for peace amid the aggressive Israeli policies and practices our people are suffering from, which violate all international decisions and laws,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Sadeq Al-Shafi’ee, a political analyst from the West Bank city of Ramallah, expected the new Israeli government to “use the most extreme degree of excessive violence to deal with the Palestinians trying to confront occupation”.-Xinhua