[ Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is doing acrobatics to outflank
Trump as the most uncritically pro-Israel GOP candidate. His brutal,
repressive vision for America is a perfect partner for Netanyahus
vision for Israel and the Palestinians]
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DESANTIS AND NETANYAHU: SHAMELESS, DANGEROUS ANTI-DEMOCRATIC
BROTHERS-IN-ARMS  
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Donna Nevel
April 27, 2023
Haaretz
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_ Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is doing acrobatics to outflank Trump
as the most uncritically 'pro-Israel' GOP candidate. His brutal,
repressive vision for America is a perfect partner for Netanyahu's
vision for Israel and the Palestinians _

Credit: Photos: Saul Loeb/ AFP, Kimimasa Mayama/ AP, Ingimage Artwork
by Anastasia Shub / Haaretz,

 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, ahead of his expected presidential run,
flew all the way to Israel to give the keynote address at an event at
the Museum of Tolerance Thursday.

A press release announcing the speech said he was going to
“introduce changemakers to those who embrace tolerance and
acceptance.”

Though it’s hard to believe, this is actually not a joke.

DeSantis, who is well-known for his lack of tolerance (and that is
being extremely generous) and for leading Florida down a path of
breath-taking anti-democratic measures
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extreme repression has arrived in Israel just as the reality of
Israel’s unjust system--and its intolerance (again, that’s
extremely generous) -- couldn’t be more visible.

For four months hundreds of thousands of Israelis have
been protesting Israel’s increasingly repressive actions and
policies,
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specifically the government plan under the leadership of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to overhaul its judiciary. As Palestinians
and many others have made clear, they should also be protesting (and
some are) Israel’s ongoing inhumane treatment of its Palestinian
citizens and those living under its military occupation without the
most basic of rights.

 

Israelis protesting plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
government at a March demonstration in Tel Aviv.  (Photo:  Ohad
Zwigenberg /AP  //  Haaretz)
In fact, many of Israel’s fundamental laws and policies are
antithetical to equal rights—and always have been. Palestinian,
Israeli , and international human rights organization
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have documented
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inhumanity and injustice of Israel’s apartheid system (which echoes
what Palestinians have been saying for decades).

The Museum of Tolerance
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downtown Jerusalem, where DeSantis spoke at a “Faces of Israel”
conference sponsored by The Jerusalem Post, was built on top of the
Mamila cemetery, an ancient Muslim burial ground and historic site
believed to date back to the 7th century. Years ago The Simon
Wiesenthal Center, flexing their fundraising muscle, decided to build
a version of their Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles in the heart of
Jerusalem. They could only do so once a section of the cemetery was
destroyed and desecrated. Another brutal irony.

This is not the governor’s first trip to Israel in his official
capacity. He chose Israel as the setting of his very first cabinet
meeting in April 2019. DeSantis proclaimed with pride during his
gubernatorial campaign that he would be the “most pro-Israel
governor in America.” His close relationships with, and vociferous
support for, Israel’s violent settler movement and its government
are a testament to that commitment.

DeSantis boasts of how important to him his relationship with Israel
continues to be. What he wants for Florida, and indeed for the U.S.
given his national aspirations, is what Israel’s leaders are also
committed to: further cementing an authoritarian, anti-democratic,
repressive government that has absolutely no regard for human rights,
international law, or justice.
 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis waves as he arrives to a conference at
Jerusalem's Museum of Tolerance on Thursday.  (Photo: Maya Alleruzzo
/AP  //  Haaretz)
The “tolerance” DeSantis intends to applaud in Israel, his
repressive notions of “freedom,” like Israel’s, seem to require
that ugly histories of racism, settler colonialism, and injustice
(rooted in white supremacy in the case of the U.S. and Jewish
supremacy, in the case of Israel) be whitewashed and built over.

His relentless assaults on, and pushing of legislation that harms,
students, trans and queer people, immigrants, Black people and anyone
concerned about the rights of all human beings to live in dignity go
hand in glove with his support for Israel’s denial of rights to the
Palestinian people.

The threat posed by DeSantis and by his counterparts in Israel, i.e.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, cannot be minimized.
DeSantis and Netanyahu are expected to meet
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They are bulldozers and have no shame.

But, at the same time, the resistance is strong and principled, and
this cannot be underestimated.

People from Florida to Palestine/Israel are fighting with conviction
to resist the tide of fascism and to say no to repression and to
inhumane and anti-democratic policies and actions. Immigrant rights ,
racial justice and education groups, and others—through walk-outs,
protesting on the streets, opposing draconian legislation, and
building powerful, interconnected resistance movements—are standing
up to DeSantis’s full-fledged attacks on trans and queer people, on
Black people and all people of color, on his censorship, and on his
attempt to destroy public education and to erase the histories and
lived experiences of marginalized students.

Meanwhile, Palestinians and supporters of Palestinian justice,
continue to organize globally, resisting in every way possible,
including calling for boycott of Israel until it complies with basic
principles of human rights and international law, and ceases to
torture and kill Palestinians, demolish their land, steal their homes,
and deny them their fundamental right to freedom, justice, and
dignity.

In positioning himself as a contender in the upcoming presidential
election and working to secure his base, DeSantis is doing acrobatics
to outflank Trump 
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his support for Israel's brutal government. This is not a stretch for
him because his vision for Florida and for the United States, and the
Netanyahu government's vision for itself, couldn't be more
compatible—or, I might add, dangerous.

_[DONNA NEVEL, a community psychologist and educator is co-director of
PARCEO, an education and research center that is currently completing
a curriculum on antisemitism from the framework of collective
liberation and recently partnered on a curriculum, created by
Project48, on the Palestinian Nakba.]_

_Thanks to the author for sending this to xxxxxx._

* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Ron DeSantis
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* Donald Trump
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* GOP
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* Republican Party
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* Israel
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* Palestinians
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* Israeli judiciary
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* Israeli politics
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* Israel protests
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* 2024 Elections
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* MAGA
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