Palestinian forces are urged to cooperate against the Netanyahu government
Palestinian forces are urged to cooperate against the Netanyahu government
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Ramallah: Saying the new Israeli government is racist and extremist, intended to "deepen and strengthen the apartheid regime", a senior Palestinian political figure called for a coordinated uprising against it.

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative movement, urged all Palestinian groups to immediately unite in an effort to boycott and isolate the new Israeli government.

His comments came after the swearing-in of Israel's flamboyant veteran Benjamin Netanyahu, who was re-elected as prime minister for a sixth term on Thursday after being ousted from office 18 months ago.

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The Israeli Knesset elected former minister Amir Ohana as speaker after voting to approve his administration. Barghouti cited Netanyahu's earlier claims that only Jews have the right to self-determination and that all of Palestine belongs to them.

By insisting on upholding Jewish state law, he claimed, the new administration would strengthen and deepen the apartheid regime against Palestinians living in Israel and the occupied territories.

The policies that the Israeli government may adopt in the coming weeks are worrying Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip more and more.

Areas of particular concern include land grabs in the West Bank, changing the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and weakening the Palestinian Authority through military or financial means.

While the PA is preparing to deal with the changing political landscape, many Palestinians worry that its strategy and tactics will not be effective in overthrowing the Netanyahu administration.

There are growing concerns that the Fatah movement, the largest Palestinian party, is divided over who will replace Mahmoud Abbas, who is 87.

The PA can only threaten to stop security coordination with Israel to put pressure on it.

Some claim that Israel is no longer concerned about the threats made by the Palestinian president.

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Abbas announced on 27 December that he would lead a national committee of Palestinian diplomats and lawyers in a global campaign against the new Israeli administration.

According to Shavan Jabrin, director of the Al-Haq Foundation for Human Rights, the "extremist religious and ideological dimension" of the Israeli leadership is likely to transform the conflict with the Palestinians from a political disagreement into a violent religious rivalry.

This change is extremely risky, he declared.

But according to Jabrin, the time has come for the Palestinians to "reveal the real face of the Israeli occupation to the world and bring shame to Israel."

He claimed that Israel's leadership structure would be "an embarrassment to the EU and the US, as it would be difficult for them to take effective action against the policy and approach of this government."

According to an unnamed Hamas source in Gaza who spoke to Arab News, the movement views all Israeli governments as subversive. But compared to the previous administration, the new one is worse.

According to the source, the existence of such a government would allow Hamas to justify military action against Israel, which would be widely accepted and understood by neighboring countries.

According to Mukhaimar Abu Saada, professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, Palestinians have an understandable fear that the Netanyahu administration will seal off the West Bank and seize its resources.

He expressed concern that the administration would attempt to perpetuate the divide between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

According to Abu Sada of Arab News, "I don't think Israel will succeed in separating Gaza from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the increase in the West Bank."


After taking the oath of office, Netanyahu gave a speech outlining the main principles of the new government's agenda. He said: "The new government begins today in the midst of Israel's 75th year of independence.

"Over the next four years, we will work to make Israel a global power in the year we celebrate our independence. To accomplish this we need to accomplish three major tasks. Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons The first is to stop.

Developing the country's infrastructure, including building a bullet train, is another task, he continued. The third task is to expand the area of peace with the Arab nations to end the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Yair Lapid walked out of the Knesset without shaking hands with the outgoing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who changed his Twitter profile to read "Prime Minister".

More than 100 retired Israeli ambassadors and representatives of the foreign ministry expressed their worries about the new administration in a letter to Netanyahu that was signed by them.

Former diplomats, including those who served as ambassadors to France, India, and Turkey, expressed "profound concern" over the serious harm Israel's foreign relations, its reputation, and its core interests abroad would suffer as a result of the new government's foreign policy.

In addition, the letter raised concerns about "statements made by potential senior office-holders in the government and the Knesset," "some possible extreme and discriminatory laws," and "reports of policy changes in the West Bank."

With the support of several far-right figures who were previously relegated to Israeli politics' periphery, Netanyahu is reelected as prime minister.

Itamar Ben Gvir, who was previously imprisoned for inciting racial hatred and terrorism, will assume a newly expanded position as minister of national security, managing both Israeli police operations and some police activity in the West Bank.

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Bezalel Smotrich, the head of the Religious Zionism party, has been appointed finance minister and given the authority to choose the commander of an Israeli military division that manages Palestinian border crossings and permits.

Smotrich's radical legal reforms during his campaign were viewed as an attempt to compromise judicial independence by many detractors.

The former diplomats continued in their letter, "The recent developments will likely result in a strongly negative international reaction, serious harm to Israel's strategic relations, first and foremost with the US, (and) possible damage to the Abraham Accords."

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