Flush with victory from the passage of the anti-BDS bill by the Knesset on Monday, the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party and Netanyahu's Likud party are pushing two controversial legislative bills, both designed to further limit dissent and debate within Israel.
The first, and frankly scarier, of the bills proposes the creation of a "commission of inquiry" to investigate outspoken human rights groups like B'Tselem. The idea was first floated over a year ago but gained traction in sync with the anti-BDS bill. Now Yisrael Beiteinu is pushing for a vote as early as Next Wednesday.
"The Boycott Law has whetted the appetite of the settler Coalition," MK Zahava Gal-On, chairwoman of the Knesset's Meretz contingent, told Ynet. "This is an attempt at perpetuating the persecution of left-wing and civil organizations. What will be the next step? Sham trials? Throwing people into gulags."
The proposal, she added, is nothing less than "a political inquisition."
Meanwhile, the second bill, which was proposed by Likud MKs Yariv Levin and Zeev Elkin, seeks to grant the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee veto power over appointments to the Israeli Supreme Court. This would effectively give the members of the committee co-equal power with the Judicial Appointments Committee over the appointment process for Supreme Court justices and Supreme Court presidents.
What's the big deal? One of the bill’s primary sponsors, Yariv Levin, argued that “the [judicial appointments’] bill will break the control of the elite, the radical left in the justice system and restore the sovereignty of the people and the introduction of democratic life in Israel. Those who see themselves fit to annul legislation should be subject to public scrutiny through a democratic and transparent process.”
But to the bill's critics, the proposal is the opposite of democratic. Not only does it threaten to erase the separation between two historically independent branches of government, it also looks an awful lot like an attempt to "politicize" judicial appointments. Some of the bill's opponents, like Hadash MK Dov Hanin, have gone so far as to suggest that it is a direct attempt to intimidate judges.
"This proposal was intended to send the Supreme Court a threatening and powerful message ahead of the hearing on the legality of the Boycott Law," he told Ynet.
"A wave of anti-democratic legislation is threatening to drown us," he added.
Paul Mutter is a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus and The Arabist. He is currently interning at Culture Project in New York City.
another sad chapter in “you become what you hate the most”
is anyone going to be surprised when the mass expulsions of Israeli Arabs begins? I guess the only thing the Israeli fascists are lacking from their list of bona fides is a genocide or a huge ethnic cleansing…..standby.
Any attempt at ethnic cleansing would be the start of World War 3.
Israel is now being run by a coterie of sociopaths .
i think israel is taking a drip by drip approach to ethnic cleansing… lets hope they figure out a way to turn the tap off before it goes in the wrong direction in a full blown context.. of course this is the problem with nuclear weapons… one idiot on the controls is all it takes…
It gives me hope to think that some worthy military force
may intervene when this ethnic cleansing may occur. Who
that is, we shall see when the time comes. But the American
political establishment would watch it happen and do nothing
except supply the fascists, just like they did in Operation Cast Lead.
Whomever it is, I hope they will crush the Israeli militant
mentality forever. They’re an immoral force that pursues
an evil ideology of racism and ethnic cleansing.
just one more thing – as barry and the O’s are about to cut social security, medicare and public education, can we PLEASE cut off the funding for the Zionist Fascists? PUH-LEEZE. I might even vote for Barry if they can do that, right now, it aint lookin good.
who is going to pay for those politicians reelection campaigns?
With each passing episode the Israeli government and legal order more and more resembles Apartheid South Africa and the Confederate States of America. The CSA began it’s life [despite what its modern apologists would have you believe] with the explicit avowed purpose of defending, preserving and extending slavery. Some of its adherents wanted the death penalty for anyone who spoke against slavery. The CSA became a military dictatorship in a militarized state with censorship while drafting all men who were not just out of the cradle or near the grave. The history of Apartheid South Africa is recent enough to not warrant exposition. Sadly enough many U.S. citizens residing in the North during the war for southern secession supported the notion of a slave republic. Sadly enough many U.S. citizens during apartheid’s day had no objection to its modern version of slavery and oppression. Some public opinion phenomena remain even when the population changes. Happily, enough Americans fought against slavery to make a difference. Happily too, many Americans came to realize the essential evils of apartheid to both white practitioners and black victims. One can be a cheery pessimist or a gloomy optimist and hope for similar changes in the thinking of many Americans when knowledge of Israeli apartheid and oppression becomes more widely known. If it wasn’t so evil they wouldn’t have to spend so much effort trying to make it look good. Ending slavery and apartheid in all its forms is necessary for the victims AND the perpetrators.
It is becoming abundantly clear that the people who run Israel are not your people, America.
Israeli kindergartners now required to sing Hatikva :
link to haaretz.com
“The new directives are part of a series of initiatives launched by Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar aimed at strengthening pupils’ Jewish and Zionist identity. These have included “adopting” a grave of a fallen soldier, school visits to Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the Israeli Journey program sponsored by the Bereshit association headed by Rabbi Motti Elon, and expanding visits to Jerusalem, with a stress on the City of David.”
EVEN the ADL condemns boycott law :
link to haaretz.com
if the settlers walk like fascists and talk like fascists…
a stunning article by über settler Israel Harel.
The settlers don’t want democracy if it gets in the way of Erez Israel.
link to haaretz.com
“If Israeli citizens weren’t betraying their country and being convicted of acts of terror, there would be no need for a law revoking their citizenship. And if all citizens met their military service obligations there would be no need for a (“discriminatory” ) law that gives benefits and priority to those who risk their lives for the country.
The existence of a small and specific group that has united against these laws aimed at reinforcing the state’s values and sovereignty obligates the majority to voice its support for the general trend of these laws.
These legislative initiatives, some of which indeed go too far, such as the parliamentary inquiry of leftist organization (that’s what happens when one must deflect attacks from all quarters ), are attempting to restore some order to the insanity”
>> is anyone going to be surprised when the mass expulsions of Israeli Arabs begins?
Nope. For some, it will be a “required” evil. For others, it will be just another step on the road to “enough Israel”.
In the end, however, as long as there is “peace, not ‘justice’” and not too many peppers and cucumbers are exported, everything will be just fine. :-)
Things are only going to get worse in Israel
This was on the ha’aretz site recently , as a comment :
Let us look at the composition of Israeli Jews today: 1. The former Soviets constitute about 20%. They grew up under a totalitarian regime and tend to prefer strong leaders and a brute-force approach. 2. The Sephardim/Mizrahim (from Islamic states), constitute about 1/3 of the Jews. They tend to hate Arabs, their former oppressors, tend to be more emotional people, and their grounding in democracy is still weak. Shasniks are of course worse in this respect. 3. Religious Ashkenazis, including Haredim, about 10% of the Jews (as estimated by Knesset representation, which minimizes their numbers because they have many children). Haredim and the religious are messianists and believe in Religious Law as superior to state law.// Altogether we have about 2/3 of the Jews with hardline tendencies, based on cultural and religious background. To them one could add the secular Ashkenazi right-wingers like Netanyahu, and you see that Israel is facing a democratic crisis. The big question is: How did the State manage to be formed as a democracy in the first place? The simple answer is that the main non-democratic forces were not yet citizens: The Russians, Sephardim, Haredim, and religious messianists, had a small and negligible representation in the 1948 Yishuv. They are now ready and able to destroy what their more democratic brothers had established.
The big question is: How did the State manage to be formed as a democracy in the first place?
Huh? The UN thought it was proposing a Jewish state with nearly as many Arab citizens as Jews. On May 14, 1948 the “Jewish authorities” in the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the National Council of the Jews of Palestine (Vaad Leumi) jointly established themselves as the Provisional State Council and the Provisional Government of the State of Israel, in which all legislative, executive and judiciary powers in the State were vested. The Jewish leadership acquired a great deal of Arab territory beyond the boundaries envisioned in the UN partition plan. Israel drove the majority of its Arab inhabitants into permanent exile. So, the government of Israel came into existence through a completely undemocratic process that literally and completely excluded all of its Arab subjects.
>> So, “Israel” came into existence through a completely undemocratic process that literally excluded its Arab subjects.
I blame Hamas. And the shortage, at that time, of peppers and cucumbers.
I blame Hamas. And the shortage, at that time, of peppers and cucumbers.
No, it appears that it was the “ambiguity” of the possible differences in meaning of phrases like “all Arab lands”, “occupied Arab lands” and “Absentee property”. I blame the “ambiguity of the language, of the change of the language” that threatened to change the meaning of “enough Israel”. It was the fault of a secret cabal of UN mediators and Arab refugees working with the movement calling for a “peaceful” settlement.
“The simple answer is that the main non-democratic forces were not yet citizens: The Russians, Sephardim, Haredim, and religious messianists, had a small and negligible representation in the 1948 Yishuv.”
ROTFLMSJAO!! I can just hear the Askenazi when they get back to England, or the US: ‘Those G-D Jews ruined my democratic Israel!’
But don’t worry, we Askenazi will have our revenge, when we bug out of Israel and leave the Russians, Sephardim, Haredim and messianists to face the consequences, alone and broke.
“What will be the next step? Sham trials? Throwing people into gulags.”
Ahem, already happens to Palestinians, and has been happening for a long time.
Ahem, already happens to Palestinians, and has been happening for a long time.
Yeah, but “people” has a different meaning in Israel. Jews only. That’s why there is a bigger stink about this law than about the myriad others that discriminate against Palestinians. This one potentially affects Jews.
This one is much bigger than anything Israel ever did to the Palestinians because this is the sort of thing foreigners get really mad about.
Here’s Laura Durkay’s Twitter stream:
lauradurkay Laura Durkay
ALERT: activists from france & other countries have been prevented from boarding their planes headed to tel aviv for the #flytilla.
7 Jul
lauradurkay Laura Durkay
we all got an announcement from our airline re “special boarding procedures.” i think they’ll try to stop us before we even get on planes
7 Jul
lauradurkay Laura Durkay
so the israeli siege of gaza reaches to greece and the siege of the west bank covers the whole of europe. #flytilla
7 Jul
lauradurkay Laura Durkay
checked in at london airport & thru security. not stopped yet… #airflotilla #flytilla
8 Jul
Then it went dark. But she’s back and here’s her story. I’ve edited the tweets to a single narrative. This is how the “only democracy in the Middle East” treats American citizens.
>> The Russians, Sephardim, Haredim, and religious messianists, had a small and negligible representation in the 1948 Yishuv. They are now ready and able to destroy what their more democratic brothers had established.
Don’t forget to blame the Palestinians who refuse to lie still while “enough Israel” is taken from them.
Damn you, Hamas!!!
They are now ready and able to destroy what their more democratic brothers had established.
Ha! Funny how the ethnic cleansing and destruction of Palestinian villages by the “1948 Yishuv” is considered “more democratic”. That was done by all those “democratic” Ashkenazi Zionists, most of whom came from Eastern Europe, that well known 19th and early 20th century bastion of “democracy”.
Where are Witty, eee and hophmi to give their support to this latest Israeli
showpiece? Or can we expect some condemnation?
just wonderin the same………
eee never replied when I mentioned this bill in response to his ludicrous claim that “As for the stature of the Israeli supreme court, its rulings are never politicized”
I’ve used up a chunk of my exy holiday wifi access trying to find an eee/witty et al response to this, kind of rude of them to disappear like this
Zionists are cowards.
Another winning piece of legislation:
“Slavery Law” – passed in May
i wonder if the US will issues residency visas for israelis seeking asylum from political prosecution by the goi.
hmm. i guess they already thought of that which is why it isn’t criminalized. no where to run to when the government allows it’s citizens to take the wealth of another over freedom of speech.
this is so over the top.
Look how Israel may suffer if the U.S. defaults: The Hill: Moody’s puts nation’s credit rating on watch:
Israel’s financial system is its Achilles heel.
Published 16:42 14.07.11
Haaretz
Meretz party marks settlement goods at Israeli supermarkets
Faction initiates sticker-placing campaign in response to boycott law.
By Jonathan Lis
The New Movement-Meretz’s operations headquarters and youth division made their way through supermarkets across Israel Wednesday, marking products manufactured in the settlements.
The move is part of a campaign intended to warn the public against purchasing goods manufactured in the settlements, and comes in response to the boycott law passed in the Knesset this week
In addition to marking products with green stickers printed with, “Manufactured in the settlements,” the Meretz party is expected to promote the sticker on Facebook and encourage the public to print it out and stick it on products themselves.
Party Secretary-General Dror Morag said the struggle today is not solely about settlement goods, but the “essence of democracy.”
According to the boycott law, which was passed in the Knesset on Monday night, a person or an organization calling for the boycott of Israel, including the settlements, can be sued by the boycott’s targets without having to prove that they sustained damage. The court will then decide how much compensation is to be paid. The second part of the law says a person or a company that declare a boycott of Israel or the settlements will not be able to bid in government tenders.
link to haaretz.com
There is a photo of Faina Kirschenbaum, the mk pushing this legislation at:
link to haaretz.com
Is it just me that this looks like the face of evil.
it’s not just you. she looks like snowwhite’s stepmother.
Cruella de Ville. She’d scare puppies and kittens out of their skins alive just by looking at ‘em.
If the jackboot fits…
Apartheid going wild