Even by Israel’s abysmal standards, provocations against the people of Palestine have seen a dramatic

escalation since the arrival of Bibi Netanyahu’s new government three months ago: Hundreds of innocent civilians

murdered, including many children, an outright anti-Palestinian pogrom in the west bank that was cheered on

by the minister of interior, a brutal attack on worshippers inside one of Islam’s holy sites in the middle of Ramadan,

as well as statements by a key government official declaring that the Palestinian people simply does not exist.

At the same time, a historic wave of protests contesting the new government’s attempts to temper with the role

of the judiciary claims to defend democracy in the holy land without a single mention of the central question of Palestinian civil

and human rights. We asked asked prominent Israeli historian Ilan Pappe for his take on these recent developments.