Tag: Knesset

Call on Israel’s parliament to oppose the bill criminalizing the documentation of soldiers

Israel’s parliament is to consider a law banning the photographing or filming of soldiers. The proposed legislation is entitled the “Prohibition against photographing and documenting IDF Soldiers”.

“Anyone who filmed, photographed, and/or recorded soldiers in the course of their duties, with the intention of undermining the spirit of IDF soldiers and residents of Israel, shall be liable to five years imprisonment. Anyone intending to harm state security will be sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment”, says the bill, proposed by Robert Ilatov, a member of the Knesset and the chairman of the right-wing nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party.

On Sunday 17th June, the Israeli government endorsed the proposal, if the aim is “hurting a soldier’s spirit” or “harming national security.” The bill will now undergo four full rounds of votes in the parliament before it becomes a law. The first round was scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

This is a dangerous, totalitarian attempt to undermine scrutiny of the violations of international law carried out by Israeli forces. Haaretz has condemned the bill, saying its aim was to “to silence criticism of the army, and in particular to prevent human rights organisations from documenting the Israeli army’s actions in the territories. The immediate result of such a prohibition is serious harm to the possibility of protecting human rights and overseeing the army’s activity. The bill does serious harm to freedom of the press and the public’s right to know what the reality is and especially what the ‘people’s army; is doing in its name and on its behalf.”

Israeli forces have long been targeting journalists in Palestine, from directly shooting tear gas and bullets at press and human rights activists (including children) in the West Bank to the recent murders of Yasser Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein during the ongoing Great Return March in Gaza. The number of journalists killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 2000 has reached 43.

Please join us in condemning the proposed bill and calling on the Knesset to oppose this law by signing the petition.

An Israeli soldier escorts a Palestinian journalist during a weekly demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on May 11, 2018 (Getty)

Join Palestinians on November 30th to protest against the Prawer plan

10th November 2013 | Prawer Won’t Pass Campaign | Occupied Palestine

On 24th of June, the Israeli Knesset approved the Prawer-Begin plan, which if implemented will result in the destruction of more than 35 unrecognized villages in Al-Naqab and the forced expulsion and confinement of more than 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins. The Prawer plan is the largest Israeli land-grab since 1948. It epitomizes the nature of Israel’s policy; Israeli-Jewish demographic expansion and Palestinian-Arab demographic containment.

The International community has repeatedly called on Israel to halt the implementation of the Prawer Plan due to its discriminatory nature and the severe infringement it causes on the rights of Palestinian Bedouins in Al-Naqab. The UN committee on the elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Israel to withdraw the proposed legislation of the Prawer Plan. Also, in 2012, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Israel to stop the Prawer plan and its policies of forced displacement and dispossession.

Injustice, humiliation and forced displacement are a recurring theme in Palestine’s history. This is lesson that we as a group of youth take to the heart. We will oppose, resist and work against the continuous assault that our communities, across Palestine face. Therefore, we launched the “Prawer will not pass” campaign with an eye to preventing this plan to be yet another chapter in Palestine’s long and tragic history.

Opposing the Prawer Plan is to oppose ethnic cleansing, displacement and confinement in the 21st century.

Join us by organizing marches, protests, sending letters to those with positions of influence in your country or community, by doing whatever you can, in order to force Israel to stop the Prawer plan.

Join us on the 30th of November in saying “Prawer shall not Pass”.

For more information, please contact:
Email: PrawerWontPass@gmail.com

USACBI: US groups condemn anti-boycott law and reiterate support for BDS

12 July 2011 | US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

Read the Palestinian Boycott National Committees statement on the anti-boycott bill

Read the Boycott From Within statement on the anti-boycott bill

On Monday, 11 July 2011, the Israeli Knesset passed new legislation outlawing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement[i]; a non-partisan grassroots initiative that seeks to pressure Israel to comply with international law and recognize fundamental Palestinian rights.

The bill bans all advocacy and action to boycott any Israeli companies, within Israel and the occupied Palestinian West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem[ii]. Furthermore, any company can be awarded compensation without even having to prove direct damage. The law is so broad that it could potentially be used not only against citizens of Israel, but also against Palestinians living under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. The legislation leaves Palestinian and Israeli solidarity groups who promote the boycott of any Israeli company liable to be sued and the vagueness of the bill opens all activists to arbitrary persecution.

We, Palestine solidarity and social justice groups based in the United States, reiterate our support and endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. We stand by our friends who will be legally subject to this draconian bill, which seeks to further deligitimize the non-violent struggle against Israeli apartheid.

This latest escalation in Israeli repression tactics aims to stifle the BDS movement. The call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, endorsed by over 170 Palestinian civil society groups in 2005[iii], has been adopted by hundreds of solidarity organizations worldwide that seek to put pressure on Israel until it complies with international law.

Not only do Palestinian and Israeli groups actively organize campaigns within Israel and occupied Palestine; but projects like Who Profits?[iv] also educate the international community by researching the true dealings of Israeli companies and enable many campaigns in the justice for Palestine movement.

This bill follows upon the ‘Nakba law’, which defunded any institution that acknowledged the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. Such repressive legislation particularly targets Palestinians inside Israel, who are already subject to apartheid and extensive institutionalized racism as well as political persecution.

Israel has maintained such discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel, alongside its illegal siege of Gaza, its brutal military occupation of the West Bank, its de facto annexation of East Jerusalem, its ongoing denial of the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees and its policies of ethnic cleansing since before 1948.

Additionally, Israel recently suppressed other non-violent initiatives; pressuring foreign governments to obstruct the Freedom Flotilla II[v], which was organized to challenge the illegal blockade and siege of the Gaza Strip and the “Flytilla” which brought to light that Palestinians cannot even receive visitors[vi].

The global BDS Movement will not be stopped, intimidated or harmed by this latest Israeli attempt to repress the legitimate struggle for Palestinian rights. We will heed the Palestinian call to escalate our BDS campaigns. We stand side by side with our sisters and brothers in this struggle for rights and justice.

Notes

[i] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/world/middleeast/12israel.html
[ii] http://www.acri.org.il/en/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/boycott_prohibition_bill_27june2011-ENG.doc
[iii] http://www.bdsmovement.net/call
[iv] http://www.whoprofits.org/
[v] http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/1321-gaza-flotilla-we-still-plan-to-breach-blockade
[vi] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/07/israel-gaza-protest-flytilla

Haaretz: Israel passes law banning calls for boycott

11 July 2011 | Ha’aretz

The Knesset passed Monday a law penalizing persons or organizations that boycott Israel or the settlements, by a vote of 47 to 38.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not present during the vote. MK Zeev Elkin (Likud), who proposed the law, said the law is not meant to silence people, but “to protect the citizens of Israel.”

According to the law, 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.

MK Nitzan Horowitz from Meretz blasted the law, calling it outrageous and shameful. “We are dealing with a legislation that is an embarrassment to Israeli democracy and makes people around the world wonder if there is actually a democracy here,” he said. Ilan Gilon, another Meretz MK, said the law would further delegitimize Israel.

Kadima opposition party spokesman said the Netanyahu government is damaging Israel. “Netanyahu has crossed a red line of political foolishness today and national irresponsibility, knowing the meaning of the law and it’s severity, while giving in to the extreme right that is taking over the Likkud.”

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held discussions with Speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin and MK Elkin. The three discussed whether to have the Knesset vote on the law on Monday, a day after MK Dan Meridor warned that approving the law on the same day of the Quartet meeting may cause damage to Israel. Before midnight on Sunday the prime minister’s office announced there is no reason to delay the vote.

Before the vote, the Knesset’s legal adviser, attorney Eyal Yanon, published a legal assessment saying parts of the law edge towards “illegality and perhaps beyond.” He went on to warn that the law “damages the core of freedom of expression in Israel.” Yanon’s assessment contradicts that of Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, who said the bill is legal.

Peace Now movement announced Monday it opened a Facebook page calling for a boycott of products that come from the settlements. On Tuesday it plans to launch a national campaign, with the aim of convincing tens of thousands of people to support the boycott.

Hebron visit by Knesset member provokes settler venom

International Solidarity Movement

24 June 2010

A member of the left-wing Knesset party visited Tel Rumeida settlement in Hebron Wednesday, generating a large crowd as walked through the city. He came to speak and was given a tour of the settlements. The group was surrounded by around 10 police, 40 border police, and also at least two vans of secret police (according to Palestinian bystanders these are the same group who shot dead several people on board the Gaza flotilla last month). There were also representatives of Breaking the Silence, and three or four coach-loads of Zionists following the press and party member into the Tel Rumeida settlement. The heavy police presence suggested concern that settlers would attack the visitors.

Local Palestinians and internationals waited at the bottom of the street as he entered the settlement as well as coaches and the soldiers stationed at the checkpoint there. When the tour/demonstration made their way back down the road towards the coaches, Zionists approached the internationals and began shouting at them. One man was accused of drinking Jewish blood because he was drinking a can of Arabic coke. The settlers shouted ‘This is not Palestine, it is not Arab land and you’d better get used to it!’.

One woman screamed into the face of an international that foreign money had gone to buy the Palestinians shopping malls and that Jews could not even build on a tiny scrap of land. The deluded and venomous nature of what they were saying, caused several internationals to break down in tears. The presence of the police and army to step in and defend the Israeli visitors, and their accommodating attitude towards the ‘peaceful protest’ was also a source of distress. Palestinians are accustomed to being shot at and tear gassed in response to their own peaceful demonstrations.