If Netanyahu is the problem, why did it start long before Netanyahu?
As Israel’s elections approach, Western media and politicians often cast Netanyahu and his far-right coalition as the central problem in Israeli politics, promoting the idea that a change of government would lead to a change of policy towards Palestinians.
This is a fantasy. History suggests otherwise. It is a narrative that enables criticism of individual leaders without challenging the broader structures underpinning Israeli policy.
From its inception, Zionism presented itself as a colonial movement.
And since the state was founded, the occupation and dispossession of Palestinians have united successive governments across the political spectrum, from left to right.
Let's rewind to 10 March 1948, more than two months before Israel declared independence. Eleven men met and approved a plan codenamed Dalet.
Headed by Israel's soon-to-be first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, they were creating a blueprint for ethnic cleansing.
The outcome was the Nakba: the destruction of at least 530 villages and the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians in order to create a Jewish demographic majority.
Netanyahu wasn't in charge. Nor was Likud. It was Mapai, a democratic socialist party led by Ben-Gurion.
Fast forward to 1967 and Israel, still led by Mapai, occupied the remainder of historic Palestine. The party also oversaw a second mass displacement, expelling a further 300,000 Palestinians.
Then in 1968, Mapai merged into the Israeli Labour Party, and Israel's only female prime minister, Golda Meir, emerged as one of its leading figures.
She made clear her view on Palestinians in a 1969 interview: "There was no such thing."
A claim rooted in the early Zionist myth of "a land without a people for a people without a land".
After Israel occupied the remainder of Palestine in 1967, settlements began to spread across the newly occupied territories. These settlements created "facts on the ground" and remain among the biggest obstacles to Palestinian statehood.
Regardless of which political party was in power, they continued to expand. Even during the Oslo years under Labour Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, settlement growth remained high.
So what does history tell us about Israel's elections?
They may change governments, but they have not changed the fundamental reality for Palestinians.
Regardless of who is in power, Palestinians remain occupied, dispossessed and denied their rights.