In his utopian novel Altneuland, Theodor Herzl depicted a fictional election in the future ‘New Society’. Among the candidates was a certain Dr. Geyer, a religious fanatic and racial nationalist described as a ‘demagogue who spouts slogans designed to flatter the masses’. Herzl’s protagonist, Professor Steineck, issued a warning that remains chillingly relevant today: ‘You must preserve that which makes us a great nation: freedom of thought, tolerance, and the love of mankind… If you elect a representative like Geyer, you are unworthy of our Holy Land’.

This unequivocal rejection of ethno-nationalist racism was once a foundational pillar of the Zionist movement and specifically of the Likud. Today, however, as the ‘Geyers’ of our time – embodied by Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party – ascend to the highest echelons of power, it is clear that this legacy has been systematically dismantled.

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