Jewish American peace activist groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) are beginning to become exasperated over Israel’s progressive leaning toward ethnocentric fascism, as indicated by this review of recent untoward, anti-democracy developments by the right wing government. Requiring loyalty oaths from Palestinian-Arab citizens, outlawing anniversary celebrations of Nakba Day, the day of the year that Palestinians commemorate the “catastrophe,” the ethnic cleansing of 1948, and other rules such as denial of Israel as a Jewish state, which seem intent on discriminating against Israel’s minority Arab population, are cited.
Muzzlewatch, JVP’s propaganda watch site, recently published this news about what is essentially the curtailment of free speech in Israel.
Israeli law makers move to outlaw free speech: The noose tightens
This just in. Its, unfortunately, of a piece with other similar efforts to censor speech in Israel. In the recent past there have been, on a number of fronts, attempts to silence Palestinian Israeli voices, both in the political arena and at the individual level. The almost annual attempts to ban Arab Knesset members and political parties, who do not pledge allegiance to the Jewish state of Israel have been well documented.
The Christian Science Monitor elaborated: Israeli cabinet to consider loyalty oath for citizens – including Arabs.
Tel Aviv – After riding an ethnically divisive campaign to third place in Israeli elections, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s party is using its newfound political leverage to push legislation that would force Arab citizens to formally recognize the Jewish character of the state and clamp down on freedom of speech.
On Sunday, cabinet ministers will vote on whether to introduce a pair of bills to parliament, the first of which would institute a loyalty oath as a requirement for citizenship – a proposal at the core of Yisrael Beytenu’s campaign promise of “no citizenship without loyalty.” The second would outlaw public expressions of grief over the Palestinian displacement in 1948 – known as the nakba, or catastrophe – on Israel’s Independence Day holiday.
According to Muzzlewatch’s Cecile Surasky, this attempt to ban any official commemoration of the Nakba is a kind of “noose tightening” or muzzling of the alternative narrative. “The freedom to express oneself is ominous for any healthy democracy,” she said. “Such efforts to silence voices that disrupt a national narrative hearkens back to another time and era, and I do not mean this in a salutary manner.” So while Palestinians have to live with settler colonial dispossession in the territories, within Israel there is increasing racism which relegates Palestinian Arabs to second-class citizenship.
This Haaretz headline Israel moves closer to banning mourning of its independence raises questions regarding the limits of free speech. Palestinians are no longer permitted to discuss the “reality” of their dispossession.
Public commemoration of Israel’s independence as a day of mourning could become a crime subject to prison penalty, should a bill approved on Sunday by a ministerial panel be brought to the Knesset and cabinet for vote.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday approved a preliminary proposal which would make it illegal to hold events or ceremonies marking Israel’s Independence Day as a “nakba,” or catastrophe.
Palestinian refugees around the world and Israel’s Arab citizens mark the Nakba on May 15, the day after the British mandate over Palestine ended in 1948. Nakba Day is often observed by the Arab population in Israel with marches through destroyed villages.
According to the bill, those found in violation could face up to three years in prison.
And what is the proposed penalty for denying Israel’s existence as a Jewish state? One year in jail.
According to Palestinian newspaper, Ma’an, it happened: Israeli lawmakers approve jail terms for ‘Jewish state’ denial.
The bill, which still needs final approval before coming law, passed after a heated debate with a vote of 47 to 34 and one abstention. The measure was originally introduced by Zevulun Orlev, a member of a right-wing religious nationalist party, Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home).
The bill’s passage comes three days after lawmakers advanced a bill that would ban all commemorations of Nakba Day, on which Palestinians, including those who are Israeli citizens, remember their expulsion of 1948.
According to news reports, a Palestinian member of the Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, was removed from the auditorium during an argument after the vote.
During the debate preceding the vote, Chaim Oron, the chair of the left-wing Zionist party Meretz, decried the bill, according to the Ynet news agency: “Have you lost your confidence in the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state? This crazy government – what exactly are you doing? Thought Police? Have you lost it?”
Jamal Zahalka said, also according to Ynet’s report, “Many intellectuals in the academia who talk about a country belonging to all its citizens belong in prison, according to MK Orlev. Arab and Jewish leaders who seek real democracy in Israel also belong in jail, according to Orlev… He wants to put anyone who doesn’t agree with him in jail.”
The right wing in Israel has never been more right wing, at a time when the left wing in America has never been more left wing, relatively speaking. Given the climate that brought Obama on the scene, confrontation with Israel is inevitable on many levels.
