Recollections of 1971 insurrection

• Analysts say Tamil youth in N-E inspired by uprising of their Southern counterparts
• CBK was trapped by JVP to bring in 17A which bridled Executive PreSIDENT through independent commissions
• JVP pressed CBK to dissolve UNF Govt. and thereby prevented Govt.-LTTE talks on ISGA

April 5 is an important day in Sri Lankan history. It was on this day in 1942 – during World War II – that the Japanese Air Force bombed ColomboHarbour. It was Easter Sunday and the bombardment was called ‘Japanese Easter Air Raid of 1942.’

5 April 2019 

It was also on April 5 that the first insurrection of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) broke out against the newly-elected government of the world’s first woman Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike. 
One of the significant facts of the 1971 JVP insurrection or the first JVP insurrection was that it was the first-ever armed rise up by a group of ordinary people against the government in power, after the famous Matale rebellion against the British rule in the country in 1848. 
Interestingly, the JVP insurrection of 1971 too was officially considered a rebellion against the Queen of Great  Britain. The suspects arrested in connection with the insurgency had been indicted before the specially instituted Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) in 1972, for conspiring and rebelling against the Queen’s government, in spite of the fact that Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then called) had been considered to have gained independence from Britain as far back as 1948. 

The JVP and its insurrection of 1971 are unique in many ways in Sri Lankan history. At a gathering of those involved in the insurrection (but dissociated with the JVP now), held on April 5 two years ago in Colombo, Saminathan Wimal, a lecturer of the Jaffna University who had been invited as the guest speaker told the 1971 insurrection had been the cradle of violent uprisings against the establishment and brutal suppression of such uprisings in the recent history. 
Many analysts have stated that Tamil youth in the North and the East, who took up arms against the State in a few years following the 1971 insurrection, had been inspired mainly by the uprising of their Southern counterparts. It also had been an inspiration to another rebellion of Southern youth led by the same group, the JVP in 1988/89 which claimed nearly a hundred thousand lives. However, unlike the Southern rebellions which were brutally crushed by the armed forces within months, the Northern uprising lasted for more than thirty years claiming another hundred thousand lives. 

"Although the JVP had been brutal, the brutality of other parties  during the two Southern rebellions had been no different"

Despite the JVP surviving two bloody crackdowns by the armed forces which claimed a huge number of lives and still active in politics making daily headlines in the media, the possibility of the party coming to power in the country is remote. Yet, it has thus far made a tremendous impact on Sri Lankan politics compared to the impacts of the two main political parties and the old Left Movement led by the political giants such as Dr. N.M. Perera, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva and Dr. S.A. Wickramasinghe. 
On the very next year after the 1971 insurrection, Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike had to introduce a land reform scheme apparently responding to the insurrection of the previous year. Many of those involved in the insurgency had been from poor families in rural areas and the government seemed to have thought to address their problems through this land reform. 
On the political front too, the JVP had been arguing then that Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948 was a farce since the then Governor General was responsible for the British Queen and the highest court of the country had been the Privy Council in London. And the United Front Government of Mrs. Bandaranaike responded to this argument with a new Constitution which severed all administrative as well as judicial links with the British Raj and made Sri  Lanka a Republic in 1972. 

Even after its second insurrection of 1988/89 – in which almost the entire politburo including its founder Rohana Wijeweera was murdered – the JVP has been able to change the course of the country’s political history; sometimes manipulating the rivalries of the two main political parties. The party which has been the only political entity that unwaveringly opposed the executive presidency since the inception of that mode of governance was successful in at least clipping the wings of the executive president to some extent through the 17th Amendment to the Constitution in 2001. President Chandrika Kumaratunga, whose government lost the majority in Parliament and faced a no-confidence motion, was trapped by the JVP to bring in the 17th Amendment which somewhat bridled the Executive President through the independent commissions. 

Again in 2004, when peace talks between the UNF Government and the LTTE had taken a dangerous turn with the government beginning to give into almost all LTTE demands including the one for an interim administration for the Northern and Eastern Provinces called Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA), the JVP intervened. They pressed President Kumaratunga to dissolve the UNF Government and thereby prevented talks between the government and the LTTE on ISGA which was in fact a blueprint for a separate State. 
A year later, the Southern rebels again made history by preventing the administration of the Northern and the Eastern  Provinces falling into the hands of the LTTE. The LTTE had submitted a proposal called Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) which provided for the administration of those two provinces to be placed under them and the Chandrika Kumaratunga Government inked the P-TOMS agreement with the Northern rebels. JVP withdrew from the government it had formed with Kumaratunga forcing the 
agreement to be inactive. 

"Despite the JVP surviving two bloody crackdowns by the armed  forces which claimed a huge number of lives and still active in politics  making daily headlines in the media, the possibility of the party  coming to power in the country is remote"

The contribution by the JVP towards the defeat of President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2015 presidential election, creating public awareness against the Central Bank bond scam and defeating the recent “constitutional coup” is well-known. Besides, it has introduced a distinct culture into Sri Lankan politics. The incredible selfless dedication for the cause by the majority of JVP members has been unparalleled. Many members of the party still give up their higher education, highly-recognised and well-paid employments, in order to become full-time cadres of the party. It is unimaginable in the present circumstances for a Member of Parliament, Provincial Council or a local government body to subscribe his monthly salary and other perks to a common fund run by his party and live a life with the help of party members and supporters. 

Yet, interestingly, the JVP has not been able to assume power at least in a local government body, except for twice in the Tissamaharama Pradeshiya Sabha. Some analysts attribute this failure to the brutality the party showed during its two insurgencies. Although the JVP had been brutal, the brutality of other parties during the two Southern rebellions had been no different. The main reason for people to not vote the JVP into power seems to be that the majority of ordinary people want to be with the winners and the JVP does not show signs of victory in elections, local or national. Hence, the party always remains a powerful opinion-maker and a pressure group. 

Undue delays, denial of justice

Friday, April 5, 2019

 

There were shocking revelations about the inadequacy of legal provisions to release prisoners who are unable to pay small fines or remand prisoners who are unable to deposit money or sureties to fulfill bail conditions. According to some lawmakers, more than 50% of the prisoners and remanded suspects languishing behind bars in abject surroundings due to above two reasons.

According to statistics, the cost of providing meals to a prisoner cost the government Rs 671 per day. When a suspect who cannot furnish a surety of Rs 10,000 is kept in prison for 15 days it will cost more than Rs 10,000.

However, the suspect cannot be given bail under the existing legal provisions. Another instance revealed in Parliament was about a Buddhist monk who was to be bailed out with the condition that he should produce blood-relations as surety. The monk’s parents had expired and he did not have any siblings. For a monk vowed for celibacy, there cannot be children. “How can he find blood-relations?”, an opposition member asked.

These are a few examples of the need for early legal reforms. The suspects are remanded for years as it might take years to complete the legal process. Sometimes, the verdict and the crime are decade or more apart. Over-crowded prisons are bursting at seams, while no serious efforts could be seen to amend the outdated laws, some of which we had inherited from Roman Dutch Laws imposed by colonial rulers over a century ago.

Pathetic conditions

Many disclosures were also made during the debate about pathetic conditions in prisons, lack of sanitation, cruel treatment meted out to suspects and prisoners, corrupt practices of prison guards and rot in the whole system. Although, the ministers in charge of prison reforms in the last few decades, assured Parliament about their commitment to make the prisons system more humane and effective by adhering to the UN international standards, so far no serious reforms had taken place.
According to some members who spoke in the parliamentary debate last week, the proposed relocation of the Welikada Prison has been unduly delayed. The hardened criminals were to be transferred to prisons outside cities, but they have effectively resisted such efforts as those influential prisoners have a well-organised system in the prison to get telephones, drugs, liquor and other requirement by bribing some prison officers, they alleged.

The prison guards also are under stress due to heavy staff shortage. The statistics revealed that nearly half the prison guard vacancies have not been filled, thus adding a heavy burden on existing staff. A recent survey conducted by en eminent team of psychologists stated that 38% prison guards were suffering from stress disorders, adversely affecting their performances.

A senior official acknowledged the problem. “Using modern technology for security measures in prisons, professionalizing the staff at the Prisons Department, improving the rehabilitation programmes provided for prisoners are the other areas that we are focusing on to improve the standards of the prisons system in this country.”

The problems such as overcrowding of prisons and lack of sanitary and health facilities result in outbursts by prisoners, sometimes they even turn into violent riots.

 

Welikada prison has become the scene of repeated protests by women. In the recent past, a group clambered onto the roof to protest living conditions, and delays in court hearings. One of the reasons for the riot was that the hardened women prisoners wanted the prison authorities to cancel the transfer of senior female jailor. It was alleged that the prisoners wanted that officer to remain because she was linked to the system that facilitates the illegal activities of prisoners.

Recently a video footage depicting prison officials brutally assaulting unarmed inmates at Angunakolapelessa Prison was released in social media depicting it as evidence of what life within prison walls is like. Following which, Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners’ Chairperson lawyer, Senaka Perera said that incident too showed the imperative requirement for early prison reforms.

Two years ago, United Nations Special Rapporteur Juan E. Mendez, who visited Sri Lanka said the prisons were notorious for being congested, poorly supplied and badly funded. He also referred to acute lack of adequate sleeping accommodation, sanitation, extreme heat and insufficient ventilation and inadequacy of medical facilities, recreational activities and educational opportunities.

Overcrowding prisons

Citing the issue of overcrowding, the UN official said number of inmates exceeding capacity by well over 200% or 300%. Vavuniya Remand Prison in particular was a striking example of overcrowding. One of its halls hosted 170 prisoners when Mendez visited, which gave 0.6 metres of space per person. In the same building, other prisoners were forced to sleep on the staircase for lack of space in the detention areas. In addition, cells designed for one person were occupied by four or five inmates.

In these circumstances, there is an urgent need to take measures to make more non-violent offences bailable and to experiment with alternatives to incarceration. One minor amendment could be the imposition of a few days or prison sentence instead of a small sum of money that could not be afforded by some suspects. If a suspect has already served few days in remand custody, that could off-set the short imprisonment period and he or she could be bailed out without surety, at least in case of minor offenses.

Another proposal made was to install pay-phones in each prison so that prisoners had a way to communicate with their families, especially if they lived far away. Furthermore, the prison authorities could keep a record of those calls. This would also reduce the demand for mobile phones that are routinely smuggled into prisons. However, one has to acknowledge that this may not prevent the drug smugglers from using mobile phones to continue their illicit deals from within prison walls.

Royal Institute: Recruitment Of Retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne Backfires – SC Orders Nugegoda Branch Demolished

Gunaratne

APRIL 4, 2019

Royal Institute’s gamble of recruiting Retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne as its Administration Director to boost its business backfired, as besides unlawfully terminating children and causing disharmony among parents, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in a ruling ordered the demolition of its unlawfully erected Nugegoda Branch building and cancelling of its operating license yesterday.

Businessman Chairman of Royal Institute G.T. Bandara’s recruitment of an Administration Director in retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne continued to make negative media headlines ever since he was hired.

In series of articles published recently, Colombo Telegraph revealed as to how the Retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne began unlawfully terminating school children, incarcerating and intimidating kids for nonpayment of school fees and attempted to muscle his way using emotional blackmailing tactics to extort exorbitant school fees from parents.

The enormous hiking of school fees annually against contractual obligations, to incarcerating and intimidating children in classrooms and refusing them to follow classes for non-payment of school fees and the illegal termination of two children whose parents were the spokespersons for their kids respective branches brought negative publicity to Royal Institute, which has been in business since 1971.

One such tactic that the Retired Major General Gunaratne attempted, saw the wrath of many parents who went in numbers and filed cases against the school at the Women and Children’s section of the Mirihana Police Station for the unlawful punishment meted out to their kids, besides having them subjected to intimidation by external Security Personnel specially brought in for the day for this purpose.

Cases have now been filed against the school at the Children’s Court in Battaramulla, Ministry of Education, President’s Office, the office of the Inspector General of Police, Human Rights Commission and the National Child Protection Authority.

A further case was filed by the parents with the Consumer Affairs Authority stating 34 reasons, ranging from illegal collection of funds and being provided with bogus receipts to unsafe safety practices maintained by the school at its Nugegoda Branch.

Meanwhile one of the parents who was a representative for the parents group at the Nugegoda Branch suffered the consequences for the vocal role he played.

This is as the Retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne ordered that his 12 year old child be ejected from the school barely two months into the term for non-payment of term fees and also stating that the parent was causing too many issues with the school’s management.

The referred term for non-payment of term fees was from January to April 2019 and the child was terminated midway on the 26th of February 2019. Whilst Royal Institute offers parents to pay term fees during the term, even though late but with a penalty, this facility was not offered to this parent.

The parent speaking to Colombo Telegraph on condition of anonymity as he himself has now filed a case against the school said “I sent a letter by registered post requesting the school principal to provide me with the leaving certificate for my child. As I got no reply I proceeded to meet the Principal in his office at the Nugegoda Branch. He then said that he has got strict instructions not to provide a leaving certificate to me until I pay a whopping amount of Rs 54,000 as the so called pending school fees as claimed by them. In December 2018, I got an Invoice for Rs 37,000, which I delayed paying for the term January to April. However on the 26th of February 2019, I received a letter from the school stating that they have terminated my 12 year old son, as a student for non-payment of school fees. Now in March 2019, I get another invoice asking me to pay an increased sum of a further Rs 17,000 despite them not allowing my son to finish the full term. The Principal told me that Kamal Gunaratne had provided firm instructions that if ever a leaving certificate is to be given for my son, he wants me to come to his office personally so that he could intimidate and belittle me before providing the leaving certificate. This is the current predicament I am faced with. I was the voice for all the parents of the Nugegoda Branch and now I am pretty much on my own having to fight my own battle”.

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Strategy to accelerate universal health coverage

6 April 2019 

On World Health Day, why equitable access to quality primary health care will help accelerate progress towards universal health coverage
WHO and its Member States have committed to one billion more people across the world benefiting from Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2024. That means a billion more people – whether women or men, young or old, in a city or village – getting the healthcare they need, where and when they need it, without suffering financial hardship.The commitment to UHC in WHO’s South-East Asia Region is not new. UHC has been one of the Region’s Flagship Priorities since 2014.   

The challenge today is how to accelerate progress towards UHC. This is where primary healthcare comes in. The majority of a person’s health needs – whatever their age or health condition – can be delivered by well-functioning Primary Healthcare (PHC). There is plenty of evidence that this is both equitable and efficient. Frontline services tend to be geographically closer to people than hospitals, especially in remote areas. The case for PHC is sound.   

New approaches must be found to better engage private practitioners and address the double challenge of protecting people from financial exploitation and poor-quality care, while also harnessing the private sector’s extensive assets  

Political momentum for UHC is high, and there is renewed commitment to PHC. In October 2018, at the Conference on Primary Health Care in Astana,countries from across the world agreed that providing quality PHC is fundamental to advancing UHC. In September 2019, the UN General Assembly will hold a high-level meeting on UHC, where heads of government will deliberate on how to accelerate progress.Delivering more equitable access to quality primary healthcare will be core to the discussion.   

To deliver quality health care, sufficient health workers and improved access to quality medicines are needed. Since 2014, achieving these outcomes has been a Region-wide priority.   

Two examples stand out:   
First is the drive to increase the number and skills of health workers, particularly in rural areas. As a recent WHO report outlines, the availability of doctors, nurses and midwives has improved.The momentum generated by the Region’s Decade of Strengthening Human Resources for Health must be maintained – and intensified: numbers still fall short of the Sustainable Development Goal threshold for health workers.   

Second is improving access to medicines. The WHO-supported South-East Asia Regulatory Network is just one example of growing inter-country collaboration to strengthen the availability of quality medicines. Moreover, medicines continue to be the main driver of out-of-pocket spending on health care. At least 65 million people Region-wide are pushed into poverty because of health spending.Importantly, government health budgets have increased in around half of the Region’s countries – a trend that must continue to improve access and reduce out-of-pocket spending.   

Despite these advances, major inequities remain. Some 800 million people Region-wide still do not have full coverage of essential health services. Frontline services are often perceived as being only for women, children and the poor, and as being of poor quality. Bypassing them altogether is common.That points to a significant problem, despite substantial efforts by Member States, the quality of primary care is now considered a bigger barrier to achieving UHC than insufficient access.   
There are several ways forward, and many opportunities to hasten progress.   

Practical ways to do this may involve making information on health care entitlements and performance more public. It may also mean creating institutions for ‘remedy and redress’ that are open to all, including the most vulnerable

Most urgently, frontline services must adapt to provide continuing care for people with noncommunicable diseases and with health issues associated with aging. New service-delivery models and appropriately skilled primary health workers are needed. This is happening in an increasing number of countries. Importantly, providing better quality care should be integral to these changes, not a separate agenda.   

Frontline and hospital services should be addressed together to increase these of frontline services and decrease over-crowding in hospitals. New approaches must be found to better engage private practitioners and address the double challenge of protecting people from financial exploitation and poor-quality care, while also harnessing the private sector’s extensive assets.   

Fresh approaches to community engagement are needed. The rapid increase in access to information via digital technologies means individuals and communities are increasingly well informed on health issues. As last year’s Astana Declaration on Primary Health Care makes explicit, technology should be better leveraged to empower people to look after their own health.   

Finally, measuring results to enhance accountability must be a priority. Practical ways to do this may involve making information on health care entitlements and performance more public. It may also mean creating institutions for ‘remedy and redress’ that are open to all, including the most vulnerable. It is encouraging to see parliamentarians across the Region becoming increasingly engaged in the quest to achieve UHC.   

Accelerating progress to that end is crucial. We know we can do it.Now is the time to deliver. WHO is committed to supporting Member States chart the way forward by enhancing the equitable access to quality frontline services, thereby working towards our Region’s own Flagship Priority, helping a billion more people benefit from UHC by 2024 and advancing the Sustainable Development Goal of securing health and well-being for all, at all ages, by 2030. 

Palestine in Pictures: March 2019

A Palestinian woman holds an olive tree as Land Day is observed in the West Bank village of Qalandiya on 30 March. Land Day is the annual commemoration of six Palestinians killed during protests against Israeli land confiscation in the Galilee in 1976.Anne PaqActiveStills

 3 April 2019

Twenty Palestinians, four of them children, were fatally injured by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip during the month of March, or died from injuries sustained previously.

Palestinians in Gaza marked the first anniversary of the Great March of Return on 30 March. Four Palestinians were fatally injured during the anniversary protests, including two children. A fifth Palestinian was killed before protests set off that day while he was 100 meters from the boundary fence.

A total of 10 Palestinians were fatally injured while protesting along Gaza’s eastern and northern boundary with Israel during March, or died from injuries sustained during protests in previous months.

More than 200 Palestinians, including 43 children, have been killed during Great March of Return protests since their launch.

While convened in Geneva in March, the UN Human Rights Council condemned Israel’s “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force” against protesters in Gaza.

A commission of inquiry formed by the human rights council has found that Israel’s use of lethal force against protesters warrants criminal investigation and prosecution and may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile, 10 Palestinians in the West Bank were killed during the month of March.

Two Israelis killed

Among the Palestinians killed in the West Bank, Omar Amin Abu Leila, 19, was shot dead in Abwein village on 19 March during what Israel said was a firefight. Abu Leila was suspected by Israel of fatally injuring an Israeli soldier and settler two days earlier.

In multiple cases during the month, the Israeli military justified the fatal use of live fire on the grounds that Palestinians had thrown stones or fire bombs or were attempting to attack soldierswith their car.

Many if not all of these Palestinians may have been killed while they posed no actual threat to the soldiers who shot them dead.

The military made no attempt to explain the 4.5-minute gap between an alleged car ramming attack on soldiers standing next to a broken-down military vehicle on a dark road and the multiple gunshots that took the lives of Amir Mahmoud Darraj and Yousif Raed Anqawi in the central West Bank on 4 March.

On 10 March, occupation forces in the Jordan Valley shot and killed Salameh Salah Salameh Kaabneh, 22, at a checkpoint near Yafit, an Israeli settlement near Jericho. Israeli forces opened fire on the vehicle after Kaabneh allegedly did not respond to calls to stop at the checkpoint. No Israelis were injured.

A Palestinian man identified as Yasir al-Shweiki was shot dead by soldiers in the Old City of Hebron on 12 March. The military claimed he had approached soldiers with a knife; no Israelis were injured. The slain man’s father told Palestinian media that his son, a clerk for a nearby court, was distributing court notices when he was killed.

Muhammad Abd al-Fattah Shahin, 23, was shot in the chest and killed during confrontations with soldiers in the northern West Bank town of Salfit on 12 March.

Car sprayed with bullets

Israeli forces sprayed bullets at the car in which Raed Hashim Muhammad Hamdan, 21, and Zaid Imad Muhammad Nuri, 20, were traveling in Nablus in the early hours of 20 March. Israel claimed they had thrown an explosive device at soldiers.

Eyewitnesses told media that after Israeli forces fired at the car, an Israeli army bulldozer turned it over and damaged it as the screams of the two young men could be heard from inside, before they fell silent.

Stone-throwing was the justification given by the military for killing Ahmad Manasra, 23, after he tried to help a family with their broken-down car at the southern entrance to Bethlehem on 20 March. Witnesses denied Israel’s version of events.

Sajid Mizher, 17, was shot in the stomach with a live bullet while on duty as a volunteer medic during confrontations with soldiers in Dheisheh refugee camp on 27 March.

Thirty-nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces and settlers so far this year, or died from injuries sustained in previous years. Three Israelis were killed by Palestinians during the same period, though Palestinian factions have repudiated Israel’s claims of a nationalist motive for an Israeli woman’s killing by a Palestinian man in February.

Palestinian armed groups in Gaza launched rockets toward central Israel on two occasions during the month of March for the first time since 2014, both attributed by Israel’s military and intelligence establishment to accidental fire. Egypt and the UN scrambled to prevent a major military confrontation as Israel bombed sites across Gaza after a home north of Tel Aviv was destroyed by a rocket fired from Gaza on 25 March.

Hamas protest crackdown

Human rights groups in Gaza and beyond condemned a crackdown by Hamas authorities in the territory on protests over new taxes and high costs of living under Israeli-imposed blockade.

Hamas security forces beat demonstrators, including senior staff of the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Gaza. Human rights defenders were among the more than 1,000 people arrested, as were at least 17 journalists.

In the Israeli-controlled H2 area of Hebron, in the West Bank, three Palestinian children between the ages of 1-4 died after their house caught fire on 5 March. “As access to the area for ambulances and fire brigades requires prior coordination from the Israeli authorities, rescue services were delayed, according to Palestinian sources,” the United Nations monitoring group OCHA stated.

During a visit to Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looked on as his American counterpart Donald Trump signed an executive order delivering on his promise to recognize Israel’s claims to sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

As recognized by international law, the Golan Heights is Syrian territory captured by Israel during the 1967 war along with the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, from which Israel eventually withdrew.

After Israel claimed to annex the Golan Heights in 1981, the UN Security Council declared the move “null and void and without international legal effect.”

Al-Marsad, a human rights group based in the Golan Heights, said that “The decision sets a dangerous standard that glorifies systematic human rights abuses, legitimizes illegal aggression and occupation, and endangers peace in the Middle East.”

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Israel election: on the campaign trail with Benjamin Netanyahu

By Inigo Gilmore-4 Apr 2019

Israel is just days from a major election that could see Benjamin Netanyahu become the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister. But he is not getting an easy ride.

With an indictment for corruption hanging over him, he has been pulling out all the stops. There have been photo ops with his international buddies like President Trump, Brazil’s President Bolsonaro and today he was in Russia for a show of strength with President Putin.

Benny Gantz wants to unite Israel. But is his vision too vanilla?

Ex-general has six days left to convince voters as he bids to usher in a new era in Israeli politics and the Middle East

Gantz hopes to become the third army chief of staff to make the transition to prime minister (Reuters)

By Daniel Hilton- 3 April 2019

Benny Gantz looks comfortable. He’s swivelling in his chair and cracking jokes.

He looks a lot more comfortable on stage, in a room packed with supporters and inquisitive Israelis, than he does in the polls, at least.

'He needs to show more emotion and show his core values'

- Darren Cohen, a British-Israeli

On Tuesday evening, the former army chief-turned-prime ministerial challenger’s Blue and White party fell behind Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud in the latest poll, after holding a slender lead throughout the campaign.

On top of that, the mathematics isn’t quite working out for him. Netanyahu’s party has a far easier path to forming a coalition that can hold a majority in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

Gantz could do it, though. There’s a week left until Israelis cast their votes on 9 April, time in which the large numbers of undecided voters can be pulled over to his camp.

To attract them, he’s hammering home the same line: someone needs to stop Netanyahu.

“He [Netanyahu] served in public life for more than two decades and 13 years as a prime minister,” Gantz told a crowd in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

“Enough is enough.”

Time to pull together

Gantz, 59, is as self-assured as you’d expect a military general to be. He’s one of 12 Israeli chiefs of staff to enter politics. Two of them, Moshe Yaalon and Gabi Ashkenazi, are in his party.

Gantz hopes to become the third chief of staff to make the transition to prime minister.

Born to Romanian and Hungarian Holocaust survivors, he served in the military from 1977 to 2015, when he stepped down as its commander.

During that period, Gantz provided security for visiting Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, fought in south Lebanon, cracked down on the Second Intifada and waged an indiscriminate war in the Gaza Strip that killed some 2,200 people – over half of them civilians.

His campaign has sought to play up that 2014 conflict, releasing a series of videos celebrating the number of “terrorists” killed under his command and boasting about bombing Gaza back into the stone age. A move considered a misstep in some quarters, where the lauding of Palestinian deaths was criticised as crass and insensitive.

But while Gantz has predictably highlighted his security credentials, his policies and vision are far more opaque.

Unsurprising, perhaps, for someone who only entered politics three months ago and heads an unwieldy alliance of centrist and centre-right figures.

Some of Gantz’s allies might at first glance have little more in common than a desire to oust Netanyahu.

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The way the general sees it, however, is that Israel is being pulled in a dangerous direction by politicians who want to chip away at the organs of state in order to achieve their own personal political ends.

“Look at what is happening inside Israel,” Gantz said on Tuesday. “The minister of culture is supposed to develop our own cultural institutions. She attacks them.

"The minister of justice is supposed to support our justice system. She attacks it.

“The security cabinet attacks the IDF and others. The prime minister attacks everyone.”

It’s time, Gantz says, for Israelis to pull together instead.

Stagnant status quo

In that sense, Gantz is an arch-conservative.

And when it comes to Israel’s relations with the Palestinians – a subject tellingly absent from the discourse in this year’s election – he’s circumspect at best on the issue of how to extricate his country from the occupation.

“Only with new leadership on both sides can we eventually move on,” he offered on Tuesday.

Israeli press review: Gantz says Gaza pullout a model to follow

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In reality, that means a Gantz premiership is likely to see a continuation of the stagnant status quo in the occupied West Bank.

In front of the crowd in Tel Aviv he was clear: “We must maintain the Jordan Valley as our eastern security border, we can’t withdraw to the ’67 lines as we knew them, we have to maintain the blocs of settlements, and Jerusalem will forever stay the united, in practice capital of Israel.”

That said, Gantz was eager to talk up the peace accords and pullbacks that his predecessors made.

The Blue and White leader was the last Israeli soldier to leave southern Lebanon at the end of the 18-year occupation in 2000, he reminded his audience.

In fact, he’s appeared far more comfortable with the idea of speaking to the Palestinian Authority than engaging with the leaders of Hadash-Taal and Balad-Raam.

The two slates representing Palestinian citizens of Israel are polling at six seats and five, respectively, and would make handy numbers in forming a governing coalition.

But that doesn’t look likely to happen.

“While I have nothing against Arab citizens of this country, and I think they are equal citizens, unfortunately their political leaders are talking against the government," Gantz said.

"So while I can serve their citizens, I can’t cooperate politically with their leaders.”

The 'Teflon general'

“It’s been a nasty campaign,” sighed Michal Cababia, a Blue and White campaigner handing out leaflets ahead of Gantz’s event.

Faced with a man described as the “Teflon general,” Gantz’s opponents have gone personal.

Reports have emerged that Gantz has sought psychiatric help. He denies that,though his opponents have seized on the allegations to paint him as unfit for office.

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“It’s sad that they’ve made a chief of staff that people looked up to into someone unstable,” Cababia said.

Moments later, an Israeli settler told the Blue and White leader that it appeared he suffered from severe paranoia, making Gantz uncharacteristically bristle in anger.

“Let me tell you something else and show you where your leader is taking us… There are people who go to psychiatrists. Who need that treatment. Is it fair to think of them like that?” he replied.

The sight of Gantz momentarily losing his cool hit a chord with the audience.

“He needs to show more emotion and show his core values,” Darren Cohen, a British-Israeli, told Middle East Eye as Gantz left.

Cohen, a self-described “dyed-in-the-wool Labor voter,” said he won’t be voting for Blue and White.

Giving a vote to Yaalon, Netanyahu’s former defence minister and staunch opponent of a Palestinian state, would be too hard.

'We need to fix the house'

And that’s part of Gantz’s problem. How can the general tie together disparate and contradictory Israelis from across the political divide in an effective force?

Urie Salant, a retired biology teacher and undecided voter, worried that trying to appease too many people could lead to the Blue and White movement losing momentum.

“It wasn’t clear that collecting all these broad parties hasn’t resulted in a vision that’s vanilla,” he said.

Gantz has six days to work that out. But even if he doesn’t see an answer, he’s quite clear on the problem.

“Something is wrong and I’m telling you, we need to fix the house,” he said. “It’s an internal emergency.”