Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party is moving to fulfill one of his main campaign promises – creating a loyalty oath for all Israeli citizens. From Ha’aretz:
Party spokesman Tal Nahum said the measure would require all Israelis to declare loyalty “to the state of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state” before they can be issued a national identity document. The law requires all Israeli residents over 16 carry their identity cards at all times.
The party is submitting the bill for cabinet approval before sending to the Knesset where it will have to pass three votes and a committee
review before becoming law. Ha’aretz quotes Oded Feller, who works for the Association for Civil
Rights in Israel, as calling the bill “total fascism” and “a violation
of democracy.”
This bill comes on the heels of another Yisrael Beitenu bill which would criminalize commemorating the Nakba. Three labor MKs have announced they will fight the bill because it “[damages] freedom of expression and freedom of association.” Ynet has an interesting article with reactions to the bill showing a split among Jewish Israeli public opinion. Israeli author Sami Michael, who serves as the president of the Association for Civil
Rights in Israel, put the bill in the context of shifts he sees within Israeli society. From Michael in the article “Experts split on ‘Nakba law’“:
In
the last year, we have been witnessing a disturbing deterioration in
the protection of the freedom of expression and the upholding of
democratic values. Marking Nakba Day is no threat on the State of Israel’s
security, but the legitimate basic right of every person, group or
people to express their pain following a catastrophe. This is not just
about the rights of the Arab minority but about safely crossing all
lines towards the brutal oppression of everyone’s freedom of
expression.
The article goes on to quote Professor Eliav Shuchtman, dean of the Sha’arei Mishpat law school. It’s safe to assume that Shuctman holds a view closer to the current ruling coalition in Israel. He does not view Israel as a state of all its citizens, and thinks the idea itself is offensive. Shuchtman:
The State has the right to educate the public and mold the citizens’ character, even through tools of legislation . . . I don’t see anything wrong with a State that proclaims it is Jewish not giving legitimization to the denial of it being so. Imagine US Jews declaring a day of morning on July 4 – that would be unacceptable. How can citizens view the birthday of the country they live in as illegitimate? People forget where we are living. Claims being made these days that it is a state of all its citizens is against international law and what was written in the British Mandate.
I’m not sure what part of international law Prof. Shuctman is referring to, but it should be interesting to see how these bills play out.
"Party spokesman Tal Nahum said the measure would require all Israelis to declare loyalty "to the state of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state" before they can be issued a national identity document." Boss: "Miss Kaplan", (that's his secretary) "There's two words I wish you wouldn't use in the office. One is 'swell' and the other is 'lousy'" Miss Kaplan "Sure, boss! Now what were the two words you want me to drop?" Same thing. How the hell can anyone, Jew or Muslim, swear allegiance to those things, when no-where are they explicitly enumerated along with their rights and consequences? It's simply ridiculous and, as it was meant to be, insulting.
But I have no doubt Witty will find it both appropriate and touching. Witty takes his Zionism the way I take my coffee mit Schlag, and his Judaism covered in schmaltz. And you gotta like a guy who is considerate enough to lube before rape.
Now, just imagine the uproar if a similar statement had come out of South Africa in 1985: Party spokesman… said the measure would require all South Africans to declare loyalty "to the state of South Africa as a white, Christian and democratic state" before they can be issued a national identity document. The law requires all South African residents over 16 carry their identity cards at all times.
I've got half a mind to create a game called The Demographic Timebomb. The challenge would be to reduce the cultural,economical, social, political presence of an number of people. Depending on some circumstances you can downgrade people, like this , National>Citizen>Resident(with permits)>Expelled. Or you can introduce new stages that make downgrading easier overall, like this National>Citizen>Conditional Citizen(succeeded loyalty test)>Resident(with permits)> Ex Conditional Citizen(failed loyalty test)>Visitor(with visum)>Illegal>Expelled. In the above case the strategic choice is about how severe you make the loyalty test. You can make it easy so that most people accept it. That's a cheap downgrade. Only it's not easy to downgrade them further but maybe you can ignore them so you can accept that. You could also make it hard so many people refuse and get expelled immediately. That's hard, so you need the right 'tension', the right amount of conflict for that. What about making it hard to accept so many people end up with status "Ex citizen, pending expulsion", but you make sure they don't feel the difference yet. That is attractive. It would be an educational game.
This is obscene, forcing upon Palestinians the necessity of taking a conceptually inconsistent oath.
I swear my loyalty "to the state of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state", and as a Muslim or Christian Arab I thereby assert that I have no right to reside in this great nation to whom I swear my allegiance.
If Israel goes farther down this path, the gradual decay of support in America will accelerate. I suppose this is good for America, but our complicity in facilitating Israel's slide into fascism with commensurate suffering for Palestinians is far too high a price.
RE: "Claims being made these days that it is a state of all its citizens is against international law and what was written in the British Mandate." Huh? What on earth was he alluding to?
test
And how the hell can anyone swear allegiance to a paradox? "Jewish, Zionist, and democratic!?" Fat chance. It's like writing a contract as a Zen Koan.
Floating Party spokesman Senator Lieberman said the measure would require all Americans except Jewish Americans to declare loyalty "to the USA as a Christian, white and democratic state" before they can be issued a national identity document. The law requires all USA residents over 16 carry their identity cards at all times. Because Jewish Americans by conjoined force of US and Israeli law are default dual citizens their identity cards from each sovereign nation are interchangeable.
What utterly baffles me is that a law professor could be so ignorant as to postulate a theory that Jews (or anyone else in the US) protesting the 4th of July could somehow be silenced under US law. Hope Israel actually passes this law. Nakba Day will then become a worldwide observance. At least I admire Israel for its newfound honesty–no more pretense or platitudes about the nature of that state. Only good things can come out of that in the long run, though the short term looks miserable.
LOL. What a perfect picture of Mister Witty. Don't forget, when he rapes he simultaneously weeps. No spirit of the bayonet sung during bayonet practice for his background; although I doubt he had quite as many deferments as Mister Chaney, the star pupil of the Israeli torture school, and graduating cum laude from the All IN The Name Of Self-Defense school run by rabbis.
This oath would apply to the antizionist Jews as well. Isn't there a sizeable number of them living in Israel? This law will never pass.
Just checked out Sha'arei Mishpat law school. Sounds like it teaches the equivalent of Jewish sharia. It is not clear if their graduates can be accredited to practice law.
I remember that July 4th was celebrated as a day of mourning in some localities during the Vietnam War.
Most Yeshevas teach Judaic law. Why would the graduates of a Yesheva be able to practice law in a court based on that degree?
Yes, losers like the british still mourn.
To understand Avigdor Lieberman, you must understand his fear. In his heart, he is deeply afraid of something – something like a suicidal Jihadist among his family. Defusing that fear is one key to progress on the Israeli side, no easy task. Another key is the hidden financial incentive, seldom if ever acknowledged or identified by those who stand to benefit, nor reported in the press, from taking the land of the Other. Another is the religious zealotry abiding in the hearts of many settlors and other zionists, the conviction that they are fulfilling a divine promise and contract – God has given the land to the Jews, the Jews must live on it, or defy God's will. Sewing these disparate and difficult patches together is the extraordinarily well-organized, inter-connected, and effective Jewish community, in Israel and the United States. For Obama to win a lasting Middle East peace, he must assuage the fear, force the revelation of, and defuse through shame, the financial incentive, force the revelation of, and defuse through more moderate and civilized values, the religious zealotry, and he must do it, at least in part, through the organized Jewish community itself, one, to be effective, and two, to avoid or minimize the Anti-Semitism that will seep into any organized effort directed against any organized Jewish endeavor. And that's just to bring the Israelis to the peace table. On the Palestinian side, there are no Gandhis or Mandelas apparent to help, to change the subject, to channel the rage at occupation and oppression into constructive, rather than destructive, means. On this Memorial Day, I pray that Obama finds a better path forward than his hero, Abe Lincoln, one that secures a peaceful and prosperous future conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal, without the convulsion of all-out war. I will keep hope alive.
Look, this is amazing stuff we're witnessing here. It's the mirror image AIPAC wet dream of Ahmedinijad constant harping about Israel fading from the page of history (Hasbara translation: we want to wipe Israel off the face of the map with the nuclear weapons we're creating). With Lieberman spewing anti-Arabic hatred with laws that no country would otherwise even consider, even those politicians with a "special relationship" to Israel has to cringe at the type of sewage that is coming out of that country in the form of "legislation."
The populace of Israel is disturbingly out of touch with the progressive zeitgeist of the rest of the world. 91% polled were in favor of Operation Kill Kids, and the leaders of the country spew Nazi-like ethnic cleansing, racist-larded policies with a defiance we haven't seen since World War II. All the hasbara in the world can't rebrand this hatred in a way that the civilized nations of the world can endorse. South Africa was child's play when compared to the apartheid Israel is creating in Palestine and within it's own, land-grabbed, pre-1967 borders. There will be a day when NATO soldiers square off against the IDF. Obama must already be war-gaming that scenario.
Shohetman (Shuchtman) was obviously referring to international Jewish shyster law: Nakba booklet for free download today.
Colin, exactly right. There must come a point where American support/values must go in a different direction than Zionism. If this is not that point, then give it another two months. The current fascist policies of Israel are unsustainable in the 21st century.
LOL! That's spot-on BrkgNws. Israel must go it alone. Oh, except maybe with nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Jane Harman trying to convince their constituents that the "special relationship" must go on, no matter what racist hatred is spewed by Israel's leaders. Great post.
pineywoodslim, agree with you completely. Let's all pray this law passes the Knesset . . . the worldwide response will be the end of a "special relationship" for Israel with its bought-and-paid-for elected officials in Washington DC. Oh, except for Jane Harman and Eric Kantor, perhaps.
That could indeed be a big reason to make the law fail indeed. Maybe they find a way to salvage it, maybe not. Eg, if the Haredi could be drafted one way or another then maybe the loyalty oath could apply to anyone who had not done any military or equivalent service. Or maybe the law could survive in a much reduced form and apply to people who do something that only Israeli Arabs might want to do, such as visiting an arab country.
Time to give up shyster law in favor of the American soldiers who give and gave up their lives for USA highest values, and yes of course, to hopefully gain some small material benefit as USA economic losers at the same time. Nakba is what's next in the USA movie industry, so far historical reality ignored. Hollywood will not remain in the hands of the right-wings Jews. Watch n see.
Great point, syvanen. As I understand, most of the haredi support the state because it protects Jews, but only accept it as a temporary arrangement before the establishment of a messianic theocracy. I'm not sure if they would ever take such an oath.
I am a shiksa, and I agree. The 2 jews and 1 African American who died fighting USA racism wlll be replaced by the white girl, Rachel Corrie, who died fighting Jewish racism supported by USA tax dollars.
I read that the school gave acredited Israeli LLBs.
If the Israeli professor or whoever wants to abide by international law all of a sudden, then dismantle the Occupation and take back those inbred Nazi Jewish colonists. Move back to the Partition Plan borders and kindly shut the fuck up with the Holocaust/Nazi/Hitler/Antisemite rantings.
So you say that Sha'arei Mishpat law school is a Yeshiva? Didn't know that.
Typical neo-nazi response. Strahl, you've been pegged.
Corrie died a darwinian experiment. Try to get out of the way of a bulldozer driving 6 miles an hour. Corrie died as ample proof of darwinism. Idiots do not survive to procreate, thank God.
When I was in Israel for the election campaign, I heard Danny Ayalon (YB) give a speech at a rally where he was asked this specific questionabout the Haredi. He said that special arrangements would be made for their loyalty oaths (no specifics) and that their yeshiva studies would constitute "national service" to the Jewish state.
The real analogous case are Native Americans and their sympathizers who hold days of mourning on Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Yet somehow the Republic endures.
you need jesus in your heart, brother.
An LL.B. is basically a pre-law degree. Even an LL.M. only gets you advanced status in Law school.
the LA Times tries to sugar coat the nasty. "A bill approved by a Cabinet committee Sunday would end Israel's tolerance for these annual demonstrations on its soil." and "Unlike Palestinians in the neighboring West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel's Arabs hold full citizenship rights. But they complain of discrimination and have little identification with a country that defines itself as Jewish." No mention of the ban on Palestinian literary festivals, movement, access to West Bank settlements, that they are not allowed to bring their spouses into the country etc.
The comparison, quoted from Eliav Shuchtman, to US Jews declaring a day of mourning on July 4 is dishonest. The appropriate comparison would be if Native Americans declared a day of mourning on July 4. And if they did decide to do such a thing, they would be fully within their rights. Any law that tried to remove that right would be shot down by the US Supreme Court.
Certainly there are Gandhis and Mandelas among the Palestinians, but as soon as one of them becomes apparent, the government of Israel finds a way to make them disappear.
You should creat such a game. It would sell like crazy in Israel.
It is particularly important for pro-Palestinian pro-Humanity, anti-Zionist activists to work to substitute Nakba education for highly distorted Holocaust education throughout the US educational system especially in those districts where there are large numbers of Jews. Efforts must be made to disrupt all Holocaust ceremonies which do not include any references to the history of ethnic Ashkenazi exploitiveness, criminality (including financial), violence, assassinations, mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and genocide since the 17th century. (See Summary: Holocaust and Ashkenazi Genocidalism.)
All Holocaust exhibitions and college Holocaust institutions should be forced to change their focus from the Holocaust, which was for the most part an expression of collective revenge and fear toward Jews for their role in Soviet atrocities, to the Nakba/Holoexaleipsis, which is the most heinous act of genocide in human history, which spans three centuries, and which is taking place right before our eyes. Pro-Palestinian, pro-Humanity, anti-Zionist activists must campaign to put Mamdani on the USHMM council and start working against appointments of any Jewish Zionist (e.g., Elena Kagan to high positions in government) because supporting Zionism indicates a racist genocidal exploitive mentality.)
That's a valuable piece of information, thank you.
I think they already know the game.
The anti-Nakba legislation is hardly the first Zionist attempt to control or to rewrite history: Khaleej Times: Israel Steals Palestinian Heritage, History.
Even if it passes (which I highly doubt), there is no way that this law will get past the High Court of Justice.
First of all, the one important line from the Ha'aretz article that Adam left out reads as follows: "The bills appear to not have the support necessary to win parliamentary approval." Secondly, even if they do by some chance pass, there is the difficulty in enforcing these laws. The High Court of Justice would be very likely (almost certain) to overturn the laws. And while the law that everyone over 16 must carry a national ID card has been in effect for years, I've never seen it enforced, and, in fact most people only carry their driver's licenses as identification. I think this is another case of much ado about nothing.
a heart would do
That the bill was submitted at all, and has the support that it does, even if not enough to pass, speaks volumes about Israel's slide into fascism. It is not "another case of much ado about nothing."
"The populace of Israel is disturbingly out of touch with the progressive zeitgeist of the rest of the world." Gee. Now let's take a look at who in Israel is most in touch with, and interpreting the world to, the population of Israel which does not have access to it. I am becoming convinced, more than ever, that Zionism (which, according to Weiss "won", although I'm not sure what, exactly) feels an even smaller ethical obligation to Israelis than it does to Palestinians. That is, they will sacrifice Jews to their aims, just as eagerly as they sacrifice Arabs. Of course, if the ziocaine high is worth it, nobody minds. Most human-sacrifice cultures drug up their victims. Makes the ceremony go smoother.
I have been in touch with the Israeli Embassy many times with my plan to defuse the Demographic Time Bomb, but they seem unwilling to consider my plans. Security concerns make it impossible for me to describe my sure-fire program in detail, but let me just say "You've got to come home and meet my parents, first" is no way to go about it. If the Demographic Time Bomb finally goes Boom, I consider that the fault can be laid at the feet of the closed thighs of Israeli women! C'mon, ladies, Strength through Joy!
Jacob, as usual, you are so right! Those Limeys are certainly losers, huh? Can you imagine, they actually trusted the Zionists! What chumps! Well, Jacobwolfsen, you showed them, huh? The courageous demolition of the King David Hotel showed those lousy British just how winners act. And then, of course, those stupid Brits joined up with Bush in Iraq. Jeez, what a bunch of losers.
"God has given the land to the Jews, the Jews must live on it" Gosh, if I remember my Hebrew School lessons, God pretty definitely ordered us off the place, and told us not to come back. Or did the Romans suddenly become more powerful than God? I doubt it. If God wanted us to stay, we would be there still, believe you me. A Jews relationship with God is a pretty difficult thing. It's hell worshipping a God who won't take your calls or answer your e-mails. But that is our lot, and we have to learn to like it, or admit that Hitler is more powerful than Him. Most Jews in America look at the Christians, and their claims to have conquered sin and death through Jesus, and say, "Why can't we have that?" It's cause we are Jews. Either learn to like it, or go jump in the water, and come out saved.
Joachim, "shyster"? From the mis-interpretation of "The Merchant of Venice"? That "shyster", from Shylock? Listen pal, if I can stop saying shicksa, Goy, and Schwartze (and it wasn't easy) , you can stop using "shyster"
Hey, I grew up in the NY-NJ a shyster lawyer is just a type of sleazy lawyer but of indeterminate ethnicity until I specify Jewish shyster lawyer. Now Jews may be disproportionate among shyster lawyers and have a distinct style and approach, but one need not be Jewish to be a shyster lawyer.
How so Colin? The US still has two "fascist" laws on the books: the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Alien and Sedition Act. Both of these laws have been gutted by additional legislation and court decisions over the years. That's the way a democracy works. Granted, if Hamas had their way then there would be a single Islamic state. Does that suit your sensibilities any better? Is that any less "fascist"?
That supposed 'zionist joke" about the death of Corrie being natural selection in action wasn't funny the first time. Nor was the one that compared her to a waffle and asked "got syrup"?
Typical Zio-fascist response. Jacobwolfen YOU'VE been pegged.
Swear allegiance to Israel? I won't hold my breath waiting for Meretz, Shinui, and other secular Israeli parties doing this while Leiberman is in the gov't.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour. — Frederick Douglass, Rochester, NY, July 5, 1852
"Imagine US Jews declaring a day of morning on July 4 – that would be unacceptable." No it wouldn't. We used to have huge "Fourth of Their Lies" parties on July 4 every year in Oakland. Nobody said jack, we did it in the park, we had flyers, etc., etc.
Fredrick Douglass was an anti-American, terrorist-sympathizing, anti-semite!
Not sure what you mean to imply here, Mooser. The World took the Nuremberg trials and their international progeny laws seriously, in the spirit of never again. The problem now is that Israel itself is the problem. Do you get that? In the end, it's the difference between a chosen people and all people, the Israeli POV and the humanist POV. Nothing could be more morally ironical.
The zionist portion of the jews think Corrie is just a blonde joke. She is so much more, but they will never see it–it would not matter much except for AIPAC.