3-year-old arrested, leftist writer interrogated — another day in the ‘Jewish and democratic’ state

by on January 6, 2012 10
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This post originally appeared in Al-Akhbar English:

3-year-old Geraldine Blingoai was born to non-Jewish migrants. That was her crime.

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Geraldine Blingoai (Photo: Ynet)

Yesterday, Blingoai was arrested at her birthday party by officers from the Israel Oz Unit, a division of the police created to target non-Jewish migrants and other violators of Israeli immigration policy (link is to Hebrew article; pardon any translation errors). When Ilan Gilon, a member of Knesset from the left-of-center Meretz Party, attempted to visit Blingoai at a holding facility, his assistant was arrested too.

While Blingoai and her mother await deportation to the Philippines, their friends have "gone underground," according to the Israel daily Yedioth Aharanot.

In other news, left-wing Israeli blogger Yossi Gurvitz said in a Facebook post (also in Hebrew) that he was interrogated by Israeli police after a right-wing legal foundation complained about his writing. Gurvitz wrote:

Two weeks ago I was questioned on suspicion of incitement. This investigation was politically inspired by a complaint of a political organization, the Legal Forum for Israel, aimed at silencing me. I have not committed a crime and I am convinced that the case [will] be closed. So far, I was not able to report it and I am prevented from expanding on the subject because of police guidelines.

In 2010, I interviewed Legal Forum for the Land of Israel founder Nachi Eyal after his group attempted to pressure Israel's Attorney General to prosecute another dissident writer, Ilana Hammerman, for bringing Palestinian girls living under occupation to play at Israeli beaches. “Israel will not allow these kinds of things to continue,” Eyal told me.

About Max Blumenthal

Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author.
Posted in Israel/Palestine

{ 10 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Shunra says:
    January 6, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    Haaretz’ reporter Barak Ravid has the most information about the case being made against Yossi Gurvitz in his blog, here.

    The lawfare group that filed the spurious complaint with Israel’s prosecutor appears to be accusing Yossi of sedition. Good thing he’s a historian, he’ll have come across the uses of such accusations.

    • Annie Robbins says:
      January 6, 2012 at 7:42 pm

      this is terrible . yossi is a great reporter.

      shunra, from your link

      The investigation was opened following a decision by the deputy state prosecutor for special procedures, the lawyer Shai Nitzan, after the right-wing organization “The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel” presented a complaint in August last year.

      yossi busted this open last august. huge, which was why we republished it on MW, here: Evidence undermines Israeli gov’t claim that Eilat attackers were Gazans

      However, Israel has never supplied any proof that the attack has indeed originated in the Gaza Strip. The PRC have denied involvement in the attack. An Israeli propaganda apparatus, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, also claimed (Hebrew) the PRC was behind the attacks, but had to tautologically write “no terror organizations has publicly claimed responsibility for the attack and the Popular Resistance Committee has denied any involvement. However, the Israeli prime minister and other Israeli officials have pointed to the Popular Resistance Committee as the organization who carried out the attack. So, according to the ITIC, the fact that Netanyahu is proof enough, even if the other side completely denies it.

      During the weekend, the news website Real News interviewed a senior IDF Spokesman officer, Lt. Col. Avital Leibovitz, who’s in charge of the IDF Spokesman with the international media. Leibowitz denied that the IDF connects the PRC to the attacks, said she was not responsible for that the prime minister said, but claimed that the attackers did come from Gaza, citing as proof the fact they were using Kalashnikov assault rifies (Sic! 2:28 and onwards in the video). I dunno how to put it to Col. Leibovitz, but Kalashnikovs are the most common light assault rifle in the world – a gift that keeps on giving from the defunct Soviet Union – and are rather easy to get all over the Middle East.

      In a phone conversation with Leibovitz yesterday, she said “senior officials have already expressed themselves on the issue”, and declined to provide more information on the attackers, aside from insisting on them being Gazans. I asked her if she could provide me with the identity of the attackers killed by the IDF, which was until recently standard procedure, carried out within hours of an attack. She said this is unfortunately impossible, and repeatedly insisted they were Gazans. B’Tselem researchers in the Strip, contacted via B’Tselem today, were unaware of the identity of the attackers. Again, usually they are quickly identified and a mourners’ hut is rapidly constructed. They were killed on Thursday; if they resided in the Strip, their families would have heard of their deaths by now.

      Yesterday evening the Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm reported that Egyptian security forces have identified three of the dead attackers. Egypt has a strong interest to claim the attackers were Gazans, since this would lessen its responsibility for the attacks; nevertheless, they say at least two of the attackers were known terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula. As far as I could find out, the rest of the bodies are in the hands of the IDF – which, again, does not reveal their identity.

      more at the link. they are trumping up charges against him because he is a great reporter. more at the link too.

      • Shunra says:
        January 6, 2012 at 8:32 pm

        Yossi is indeed a great reporter, and a continual thorn in the side of the Israeli military spokesfigurehead’s side (he asks hard questions, relentlessly), but that doesn’t sound like incitement.

        The lawfare group that (purportedly) set into motion his investigation on charges of incitement and sedition, wants him silenced because having someone committed to finding and publishing reports of true facts (rather than wishful theories, like great tracts of land being given to mythical forefathers by disembodied voices) will get in their way of their entire way of life.

        It seems to me that someone powerful wants to chill dissent. Yossi, being a very clear speaker in a very contentious region, would make a perfect warning – he’ll be vindicated, but not without being dragged through irksome procedures and forced to expend large amounts of money on his own defense. Most people around him will be unwilling to risk that – and speech of a very important kind may well be chilled.

        • Annie Robbins says:
          January 7, 2012 at 2:20 am

          Most people around him will be unwilling to risk that

          cowards. yossi is top tier reportage. i may not agree with his all his opinions but his guts, instincts, perseverance are in the best traditions of the forth estate.

  2. piotr says:
    January 6, 2012 at 4:05 pm

    The threat of alien infiltration is most insidious in the form of innocent looking girls. There you have it: they LOOK, or more precisely, we look at them and so we became disarmed = corrupted. There exists pretty solid authorities that warn about those dangers.

    The case of Yossi Gurvitz is more puzzling. He is sort of short tempered, acerbic and obstinate. For example, he refuses to apply the correct title to Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, calling him Minister of Propaganda. But this and most of the rest can be ascertained quickly using search engines. What is the extra value of interviewing Yossi by police? Also, he clearly incites people to make jokes on important officials. Is it laughware?

  3. mudder says:
    January 6, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    Blingoai represents millions of stateless people whose only crime is to have parents not born into the right religion or ethnic group or nationality. Roma, Palestinians, Costa Ricans, and Mexicans are the ones who immediately come to my parochial mind. But God bless them all.

    • Newclench says:
      January 7, 2012 at 10:55 am

      If peoples had democratic control over immigration policy…. ah, but that’s a Palestinian demand from the Mandate period. I bet Palestinians sure wish it had been granted.

      • Annie Robbins says:
        January 7, 2012 at 11:11 am

        I bet Palestinians sure wish it had been granted.

        i bet they sure wish they hadn’t been ethnically cleansed from their land.
        i bet they sure wish apartheid didn’t exist.
        i bet they sure wish people weren’t racist.
        i bet they sure wish so many palestinian children weren’t jailed.
        i bet they sure wish israel didn’t torture their kids whenever they felt like it
        i bet they sure wish….

    • MLE says:
      January 7, 2012 at 11:34 pm

      You forgot Native Americans.

  4. mudder says:
    January 6, 2012 at 10:20 pm

    It has been reported here that Jews will be outnumbered in I/P by Palestinians by 2015, according to PA govt information. But the Filipinos and other workers get no mention. They are as invisible as the countless stateless Palestinians exiled in the Gulf States, where the U.S. rescued Kuwait (are you listening Jerome Slater?) for the minority Kuwaiti overlords.