ISRAEL/PALESTINE: RELAPSE INTO EXISTENTIAL CONFLICT

Gudrun Harrer in conversation with Muriel Asseburg

ISRAEL/PALESTINE: RELAPSE INTO EXISTENTIAL CONFLICT
A real-time escalation

The new right-wing religious cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to reorganise Israel internally. Among other things, it has announced comprehensive reform plans and has begun to introduce a judicial reform that will undermine the independence of the judiciary and its authority to review standards. At the same time, the Israeli government is striving for Jewish supremacy and permanent control of the West Bank. It has definitively turned its back on a two-state settlement. The Palestinian Authority is visibly losing legitimacy and control. New armed groups have emerged, particularly in the northern cities of the West Bank. As a result, conflicts within Israel and with the Palestinians are coming to a head. What is the background to this, what developments are emerging and what options does Europe have for action?

Muriel Asseburg, political scientist, Senior Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, Africa and Middle East Research Group
Gudrun Harrer, Senior Editor, Der Standard; Lecturer for Modern History and Politics of the Near and Middle East at the University of Vienna and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna