It’s astonishing quite how militarised Israeli society is, and maybe quite how many fantasies of American Jews are being acted out, in the strangest of ways on Palestinians.
This haaretz opinion article is also worth reading if only to bring home how much Israel is intent on rewriting the world according to its fantasies. I had no idea for example that commemorating the Nakba was a crime. Israel seems committed not to ending the Occupation, but ending the use of the Phrase “ The Occupied Territories” but if they dont agree a 2-state Solution (& it’s too far gone for that IMO) then ultimately it will have to grant the Palestinians civil rights.
I Oppose BDS. But It’s Israel’s Democracy, Not the Boycott, That’s Netanyahu’s Real Target
Only authoritarians fear freedom of expression.
“The travel ban itself – an effort to police dissenting thoughts and the people who think them, especially Palestinians – and the blacklist are just the latest symptoms.
The larger strategy includes the Boycott Law, passed in 2011, which makes any Israeli who calls for any kind of boycott, including a boycott of settlement products, liable to be sued for damages. (At the time, the Knesset’s legal advisor, Eyal Yinon, said that the law would so severely injure freedom of expression that he considered it “borderline illegal.”)
It includes the Nakba Law, which allows the government to pull funding from any Arab-Israeli institution that in any way marks the Palestinian narrative of 1948.
And it includes - through legislation, intimidation and smear campaigns - attempts to silence and delegitimize human and civil rights organizations that defend democracy and oppose the occupation.
Alongside its legislative strategy, the current government uses incitement, scapegoating and lies to suppress free speech and weaken Israeli democracy even further. Arabs, government watchdogs, independent media, the judiciary and those who defend democracy and equality, including NIF and our grantees, are explicitly singled out and demonized by government officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
This haaretz opinion article is also worth reading if only to bring home how much Israel is intent on rewriting the world according to its fantasies. I had no idea for example that commemorating the Nakba was a crime. Israel seems committed not to ending the Occupation, but ending the use of the Phrase “ The Occupied Territories” but if they dont agree a 2-state Solution (& it’s too far gone for that IMO) then ultimately it will have to grant the Palestinians civil rights.
I Oppose BDS. But It’s Israel’s Democracy, Not the Boycott, That’s Netanyahu’s Real Target
Only authoritarians fear freedom of expression.
“The travel ban itself – an effort to police dissenting thoughts and the people who think them, especially Palestinians – and the blacklist are just the latest symptoms.
The larger strategy includes the Boycott Law, passed in 2011, which makes any Israeli who calls for any kind of boycott, including a boycott of settlement products, liable to be sued for damages. (At the time, the Knesset’s legal advisor, Eyal Yinon, said that the law would so severely injure freedom of expression that he considered it “borderline illegal.”)
It includes the Nakba Law, which allows the government to pull funding from any Arab-Israeli institution that in any way marks the Palestinian narrative of 1948.
And it includes - through legislation, intimidation and smear campaigns - attempts to silence and delegitimize human and civil rights organizations that defend democracy and oppose the occupation.
Alongside its legislative strategy, the current government uses incitement, scapegoating and lies to suppress free speech and weaken Israeli democracy even further. Arabs, government watchdogs, independent media, the judiciary and those who defend democracy and equality, including NIF and our grantees, are explicitly singled out and demonized by government officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
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