Shooting the messenger, Netanyahu moves to silence opponents of the occupation
n Israel, Persecuting the Messenger
Next week two initiatives will be launched in the Knesset aimed at silencing opponents of the occupation
Shooting the messenger, Netanyahu moves to silence opponents of the occupation
Editorial
haaretz.com
Next
week two initiatives will be launched in the Knesset aimed at silencing
opponents of the occupation. One is to establish a parliamentary
committee of inquiry to look into the funding that foreign countries
provide non-governmental organizations that work “against Israel
Defense Force soldiers.” The second would add a provision to the new
“NGO Law” that the coalition is advancing that would allow the state to shut down NGOs that, in the words of Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, works to “have IDF soldiers tried under international law.”
These
bills, which are aimed at left-wing organizations in general and
against Breaking the Silence in particular, are an additional stage in
the campaign of incitement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and his government are leading in an effort to portray the left as a
dangerous domestic enemy. Netanyahu wasn’t ashamed to justify the
establishment of the parliamentary committee through a despicable
comparison with the U.S. Congressional committee that is investigating
Russian involvement in the American presidential election.
The Knesset’s legal adviser, Eyal Yinon, has determined that, as he put it:
“The Knesset does not have authority to establish a committee of
inquiry on such a subject, or any committee of inquiry involving the
ideological investigation of civil society entities in Israel on the
right or the left.” But the heavy-handed government coalition is
attempting a legal manipulation that would allow it to give these
initiatives the cover of principle that would stand up in the High Court
of Justice, and at the same time only harm left-wing organizations.
The
person seeking to put such political persecution into practice is
Minister Levin, who made it a matter of principle that “anyone whose
activity is liable to bring about the trial of an IDF soldier under
international law or similar acts would have the activity prohibited.”
How ironic that it is none other than the State of Israel which fits
such a criterion – because its insistence on continuing the occupation
is liable to result in the trial of soldiers under international law.
This
is a transparent, hopeless attempt “to shoot the messenger.” Instead of
dealing with violations of human rights and the laws of war in the
territories, the Knesset is deliberating over left-wing organizations
and whether it is legitimate for them also to operate abroad. Instead of
dealing with the injustices of the occupation, the Knesset is dealing
with the question of funding by foreign countries. In the process, the
Knesset and the cabinet are adding insult to injury, writing another
shameful chapter in the annals of the country and its laws.
The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel
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