Prior to this current Israeli government, which has been in office for less than a year though it feels like forever, there was a government dubbed "the Change Government."
After over a decade of Netanyahu rule, and following three elections in under four years, a coalition of parties from the left, centre, and right, and an Arab party formed government, with Naftali Bennett of the Yamina party as prime minister and Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party as rotational prime minister.
There was a lot to celebrate in this coalition. Mainly, that Netanyahu was no longer in charge and that the parties were able to reach a majority. It was also an incredibly diverse coalition and marked the first time that an independent Arab party was an official member of the governing coalition.
But behind the think pieces and analyses, the smiling pictures of this rag-tag coalition, and cautious optimism from those looking to climb out from under Netanyahu's rule, an ugly truth remained --
This coalition, with all its differences and diversity and political ideologies, couldn't - and wouldn't - touch the thorniest issues affecting Israeli society. The occupation, creeping annexation, systemic inequity.
They were committed to simply maintaining a "status quo" on those issues, and dealing with domestic issues like cost of living, housing affordability, and public transportation.
But status quo can only be maintained if all those under your rule agree to it. And under this change government, with no progress made on negotiations with Palestinians (despite Yesh Atid's position in favour of a two-state solution), settlement expansion continued, settler violence increased, and the Palestinians were largely ignored at best, and oppressed at worst.
That there could ever be a "status quo" to a relationship as imbalanced as that of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship is nothing more than a mirage that many want to believe when dealing with the intractability of the situation becomes too much.
Maybe it felt like a status quo was being maintained - Israeli and Jewish media largely ignored the day-to-day issues in the Palestinian territories, and as long as terrorism within the green line remained mostly at bay, and Israelis busied themselves with worrying about how they'll pay rent, and how they'll raise a family in an increasingly expensive country, it was easy to believe in the status quo.
What has now been revealed under this current Netanyahu government is that there has never been a status quo and ignoring the deteriorating situation in the occupied West Bank has ramifications on Israelis within the green line.
What we saw over Yom Kippur, an attempt to impose gender segregation in public spaces in direct contravention of court orders is simply the next step in the extremist right-wing's agenda.
Is it surprising that those who terrorize and attack Palestinians in their village that they've called home for generations with impunity, to the point that they pack up and leave, quickly turn their attacks on Jews with whom they do not agree?
When extremists can build illegal outposts and settlements on private Palestinian land with no ramifications, is it surprising that they feel the same entitlement to build mechitzot in public squares?
When the rhetoric used against Palestinians by elected officials -- that they are all terrorists, all funded by Iran, all antisemitic -- turns on pro-democracy Jewish protestors, why are we surprised?
Tomorrow when Shabbat and Simchat Torah end, Jewish settlers are planning to dance with Torah scrolls at the entrance of the Palestinian village of Huwara. This follows settlers, led by MK Tzvi Sukkot, setting up a Sukkah and conducting Torah study on a street in Huwara, which resulted in a 19-year-old Palestinian being shot by the IDF.
To many, the pogrom in Huwara in late February was a one-time horrific occurrence by "a few bad apples." In reality, Huwara is a consistent flashpoint in the occupied West Bank, situated at a junction where the separate roads for Jews and Palestinians meet. It is therefore not surprisingly a source of constant tension and violence, and it is also not surprisingly not the result of "a few bad apples."
It is, after all, a sitting member of Knesset who initiated the Sukkah building in the town. It is, after all, the IDF who protect the extremists when they descend on Palestinian towns with weapons, and rage, and a desire to abuse. It is, after all, the minister of national security who repeats his claim that the lives of Jews are worth more than the lives of Palestinians.
There can be no status quo when those in power oppress, abuse, and intimidate stateless, powerless, Palestinians. We therefore should not be surprised that there can be no status quo when those in power oppress, abuse, and intimidate secular Israeli Jews, LGBTQ+ Israeli Jews, women, and asylum seekers.
We fight the occupation because it is a human rights issue that must end. But we also must fight it, and stand in solidarity with our Palestinian siblings, because its effects are coming home to roost.
Disconnecting from Israel will only help the extremists in power gain more power. So we ask you to engage deeper, now more than ever. You can find a list of events throughout Canada on our website that boldly fight for democracy, for the end of the occupation, for peace, justice, and equity in Israel-Palestine, and we hope you'll join us.
As the anti-occupation bloc often repeats at the protests: we were silent in the face of the occupation. We got a dictatorship.
Let us be silent no longer.