The results of the Israeli parliamentary elections, held on Tuesday, confirm the racial character of the state of Israel and its society, which continues to give the majority of its votes to extreme right-wing parties, Palestinian National Initiative Chief Mustafa Barghouti said Wednesday morning as the final tallies hit the news. 

Dr. Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian parliament, said that Netanyahu’s announcement rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, his pitting of Zionist parties against each other in a bid to push for further settlement expansion, and his “racist babble” against Palestinians in the occupied territories and in present day Israel made clear the degree to which racism is now the political mainstream in Israel.  Barghouti also touched on Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s threats, made last week, to cut off the head of Palestinian citizens of Israel deemed to be disloyal to the state. All of these factors, argued Barghouti, show “the degree to which racial decadence has made the Israeli apartheid system the worst in the history of mankind.” 

Israeli society and its politicians will only be deterred, argued Barghouti, by rendering the costs of occupation and racism larger than the gains. Barghouti said the only way to do so is “through acts of resistance in conjunction with boycott and sanctions efforts against Israel, especially after the collapse of the dreams of the those who bet on a new round of fruitless negotiations.” 

Barghouti maintained that the image of Israel as a racist occupier is now clearer than ever before, and that now is the time for the unification of all Palestinian efforts and forces to properly combat it.