FASCISM 101 (ISRAELI STYLE)

November 7, 2019 at 12:54 (Activism, Boycott Israel, fascism, Human Rights, Israel's Shame)

“This is what fascism looks like.”

‘What Fascism Looks Like’: Israeli High Court Upholds Expulsion of Human Rights Watch Director Omar Shakir Over Alleged BDS Support

“The perpetuation of the occupation continues to mean the silencing of criticism.”

by Eoin Higgins

The Israeli Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the deportation and permanent expulsion of Omar Shakir, the Human Rights Watch representative in Israel and Palestine, over Shakir’s alleged support of the Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions movement, a move that drew criticism from peace advocates and progressives around the world.

“This is what fascism looks like,” tweeted Palestinian rights advocate Diana Buttu.

The court gave Shakir 20 days to leave the country.

As Common Dreams reported, Interior Minister Arye Dery decided in April to expel Shakir, a U.S. citizen, from Israel over Shakir’s alleged support of the BDS movement.

The high court on Tuesday ruled that decision was legal due to a controversial 2017 Israeli law banning proponents of the boycott movement from entering or remaining in Israel. Dery said the ruling affirms his position that “anyone who works against the state should know that we will not allow him to live or work here.”

Shakir’s attorney Michael Sfard told Haaretz that the ruling made clear Israel is joining what he described as other repressive regimes in barring those who would expose misbehavior from their countries.

“Today, the State of Israel joined the list of countries like Syria, Iran, and North Korea, which have expelled Human Rights Watch representatives in an attempt to silence criticism of human rights violations taking place within their borders,” said Sfard.

But, according to The New York Times, Human Rights Watch believes Shakir was expelled for his work against Israeli settlements in the West Bank rather than any advocacy in favor of BDS:

Human Rights Watch says neither it nor Shakir has called for an outright boycott of Israel and says that Shakir, who is a U.S. citizen, is being targeted for the rights group’s opposition to Israel’s West Bank Jewish settlements and its calls for companies to stop working with the settlements.

Critics of the move sounded off on social media.

“The perpetuation of the occupation continues to mean the silencing of criticism,” liberal U.S. Israeli advocacy group J-Street said on Twitter. “Democracies should not expel human rights organizers.”

Amnesty International

✔@amnesty

Today’s decision from Israel’s Supreme Court to uphold the deportation of @hrw director @OmarSShakir is a cowardly move that confirms Israel’s oppressive intent on silencing independent human rights organizations at any cost. http://amn.st/60191z6bb 

Israeli Supreme Court Decision to deport HRW Director

The decision to uphold Omar Shakir’s deportation order is a crushing blow for freedom of expression

amnesty.org

In a statement, Amnesty International deputy Middle East and North Africa director Saleh Higazi said the decision made it “explicitly clear that those who dare to speak out about human rights violations by the Israeli authorities will be treated as enemies of the state.”

“Human rights defenders play an essential role in exposing the government’s wrongdoing and fostering public debate,” said Higazi. “Today’s decision is a cowardly move that confirms Israel’s oppressive intent on silencing independent human rights organizations at any cost.”

“The world must not stay silent in the face of this travesty of justice,” Higazi added. “The international community, including Israel’s allies such as the U.S.A., have a responsibility to press Israel to reverse this reprehensible decision and make clear to them that this kind of blatant repression is completely unacceptable and will have consequences.”

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem’s executive director Hagai El-Ad said that while the expulsion was personally shocking, the decision by the high court was in line with Israeli efforts to restrict dissent over the occupation.

“From a personal perspective, it’s shocking and unsettling, to see Omar ordered to leave within 20 days,” said El-Ad. “But from a professional/legal perspective, there’s nothing in the ruling which isn’t in line with earlier rulings by Israel’s HCJ. The only novelty is the application of current Israeli legal dogma in order to deport Omar.”

“Israel, by definition, isn’t a democracy,” El-Ad continued, adding that he hoped the decision would make that clearer to the international community.

“Either way,” said El-Ad, “the fight continues.”

5 Comments

ISRAEL APPLAUDS THE EMERGENCE OF FASCISM IN BRAZIL

November 1, 2018 at 14:48 (Brazil, fascism, Israel)

Fascist Bolsonaro wins Brazil Elections. During the campaign he promised to move Brazil’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and kick the Palestinian Embassy out of Brasilia.

Image by Carlos Latuff

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Davidi Hermelin, President of The Int’l Center for Public Diplomacy In Israel speaking at ILTV Studio about the evolving relationship with Brazil.

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1 Comment

FASCISM IS UNHEALTHY FOR ‘QUEERS’ AND OTHER HUMAN BEINGS

August 20, 2018 at 08:44 (Assassinations, DesertPeace Exclusive, fascism, Spain)

Considered Spain’s most celebrated poet. He was executed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War for his sexuality, socialist views and support for the elected Popular Front government.

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AND I THOUGHT WE WERE RID OF THIS BEAST FOREVER …

January 10, 2018 at 09:47 (Associate Post, Corrupt Politics, Extremism, fascism, Israel, Palestine)

Once viewed as a pariah by the so-called Nationalist camp in Israel, Kahana has effectively become a symbol of pristine  ideology as his ideas are being adopted  as a manual for action by the entire right camp in the Jewish state.

Evil is written all over his face

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The Return Of Kahanism in Israel
 
By Khalid Amayreh
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Meir Kahana- the Nazi-like American-Israeli militant rabbi, who in the 1970s advocated mass expulsion of Palestinians from mandatory Palestine, must be dancing in his grave as his brand of  insidious Talmudic Jewish fascism has now come to dominate and shape Israel’s political and ideological landscape. Once viewed as a pariah by the so-called Nationalist camp in Israel, Kahana has effectively become a symbol of pristine  ideology as his ideas are being adopted  as a manual for action by the entire right camp in the Jewish state.
 
Kahana, it seems,  not only has succeeded in conquering  Israel. He has also conquered the White House as apparent from president Trump recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. So, has Trump converted to Kahanism or Jewish Nazism?  This is not a facetious question by any means and the answer is a clarion yes.   
 
Now with the final collapse of the so-called Middle-East “peace process,”  mainly  as a result of Israel’s aggressive Lebensraum in the West Bank, and President Trump’s brazen embrace of the Nazi-like policy, it should be sufficiently reasonable, at least at the academic level, to argue that that the Israeli Jewish society is undergoing a really ghoulish transformation,  which prompts some avid  observers , like this writer, to foresee conclusions that were considered  unthinkable only a few years ago. 
 
For example, can we really rule out the occurrence of  a possible  Israeli holocaust of some sort against the Palestinian people in the  not-too-distant future? I am asking this hair-raising question  in light of the ascendancy to prominence and  leadership by the forces of fascism throughout Israel?  After all, it is these forces that stress day and night that ethnic cleansing (they use a plethora of euphemisms to denote their nefarious objective).
 
 I am not a prophet of doom and gloom, nor am I particularly  skilled in the art of clairvoyance or obsessed with prognosticating the future. However, there are certain worrying signs occurring in Israel now which really show that true fascism has become the main gravitating point throughout the Jewish state.   
 
Indeed, the skyrocketing growth of vindictive anti-Palestinian racism, the nearly daily promulgation and hasty approval by the Knesset of manifestly racist laws, invariably intended to harm Palestinians and narrow their horizon, and especially the virtually daily preventable and unjustified killings of young Palestinians  at the hands of trigger-happy Jewish  settlers and soldiers should remind us of the dark clouds which descended  over Europe prior to the Holocaust.. And just as the figurative clouds then were a definitive admonition that something very dreadful, was going to happen, the current toxic discourse spreading rather rampantly in Israel should serve as a real harbinger portending a huge evil in the offing.
 
How can a writer with a keen eye to the future  feel otherwise when I watch young Israeli Jews in the thousands fall into gleeful hysteria over the murder of a Palestinian child? Or Israeli lawmakers vowing to grant monetary awards to an Israeli soldier who finished off” a dying and harmless Palestinian in Hebron about a year ago. Or the Minister of justice in a state that pretends to be democratic who  had the audacity to claim that the life of a Jew, even a Jewish murderer, is worth more  and has more sanctity than that of a non-Jew!
 
Last week, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed a draft bill imposing death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing a Jew.
 
 In fact,  Israel has been carrying out extrajudicial executions of Palestinians since time immemorial. More to the point, the Israeli occupation army has unwritten instructions urging soldiers to shoot to kill Palestinian (but not Jewish) would- be- killers.
 
When pressed to explain how Israel would justify the scandalous duplicity to an increasingly critical international community, a co-sponsor of the draft law said rather laconically “don’t worry about that.” When further asked whether the draft law would be carried out against Jews convicted of murdering Arabs, the same official resorted to prevarication and equivocation, saying, also tersely. “Don’t worry about this either.”
 
This draft bill per se doesn’t make Israel particularly fascist, but it is undoubtedly an additional sign underscoring the trend Israel is drifting to. In fact, Israel already has a bloated body of manifestly racist laws each of which is sufficient to eviscerate the Israeli myth of being a liberal democracy of any truth.
 
I don’t know for sure when Israel will reach the point of no- return as far as its current fascist modus operandi is concerned.   What I do know, however, is that the absolute, unconditional and unlimited support and backing Israel is receiving  from ignorant friends, such as Donald Trump, is inducing Israel to pursue the path of fascism and shun the path of reason and moderation.

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IMAGE OF THE DAY ~~ ‘BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID’!

January 2, 2018 at 10:26 (Corrupt Politics, fascism)

“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

1 Comment

YOU THINK YOU HAVE PROBLEMS? (LOL)

October 18, 2017 at 16:47 (fascism, Insanity)

Can’t help but wonder if nazis issue Fatwas

A British Neo-Nazi said he has decided to quit the far-right group he has long been a member of after coming out as gay and admitting to having Jewish roots.

Kevin Wilshaw (R) is seen in an interview with the UK’s Channel 4 aired on October 17, 2017. (Screen capture: YouTube)

British neo-Nazi comes out as gay, Jewish

Breaking ties with his white supremacist past, Kevin Wilshaw says he now feels ‘appallingly guilty’ about membership in far-right group

A British Neo-Nazi said he has decided to quit the far-right group he has long been a member of after coming out as gay and admitting to having Jewish roots.

Kevin Wilshaw, a member of the UK National Front, opened up about his Jewish heritage in an interview with British Channel 4 aired Tuesday, and acknowledged the paradox of being a gay and Jewish white supremacist.

The NF has for decades been a marginal party within the UK’s far-right, attracting neo-Nazis, fascists and other racists to its ranks.

According to Channel 4, Wilshaw was active within the movement, and spoke at a number of rallies. He later joined the BNP, another radical far-right party, and was active with it as well.

Despite having “Jewish blood” on his mother’s side, Wilshaw said he wrote about his hatred of Jews on his application to join the National Front.

“That term ‘the Jews’ is the global faceless mass of people you can’t personalize it, not individuals. That’s the generalization that leads to 6 million people being deliberately murdered,” he said in the interview.

Noting he himself had long gone after both Jews and gays, Wilshaw said he did not realize the problem with his actions until he himself was recently targeted when suspected of being gay.

“It’s a terribly selfish thing to say but it’s true: I saw people being abused, shouted at, spat at in the street. It’s not until it’s directed at you that you suddenly realize that what you’re doing is wrong,” he said.

Wilshaw said during his years as a neo-Nazi, he had used violence in self-defense, but never sought out members of minority groups to attack.

“I’d never do that, but I have seen incidents where people were singled out because they were black by a group of people. It turned my stomach, I rejected that, I pushed it to the back of my mind,” he said.

Wilshaw, who continued to participate in far-right circles until earlier this year, said he now feels “appallingly guilty” about his white supremacist past and wants “to do some damage” to his former comrades.

“I feel appallingly guilty as well, I really do feel guilty. Not only that, this is also a barrier to me having a relationship with my own family, and I want to get rid of it, it’s too much of a weight,” he said.

“I want to do some damage as well, not to ordinary people but the people who are propagating this kind of rubbish – want to hurt them, show what it’s like for those who are living a lie and be on the receiving end of this type of propaganda. I want to hurt them,” he added.

Having now repudiated the far-right ideology he long ascribed to, Wilshaw said: “I am going to find it difficult, granted, to fill a void that has occupied my life since childhood.”

 

FROM

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MINI KRISTALLNACHT IN JERUSALEM

October 15, 2017 at 08:39 (Collective Punishment, fascism, Israel, zionist harassment)

WHAT THE WESTERN PRESS DEEMS NOT WORTHY TO REPORT

Read about Kristallnacht HERE

My grandfather owned and operated a small shoe repair shop in Slovakia before the nazi invasion. One night nazi thugs came and destroyed the shop as well as beating the old man almost to death.

A few weeks later he and the rest of his Jewish community were shipped off to Auschwitz, where most perished….

Now THIS, right here in Jerusalem.

Never Again???? (or only sometimes to some?)

“Yesterday they came and started throwing objects at Ibrahim the worker and the three costumers sitting there. They started hitting them, broke everything and shouted death to all Arabs,” he said. “I don’t know why, but for some reason the police did not interfere and did not do anything.”

A vandalized shop in the Old City of Jerusalem, October 2017. (photo credit:Courtesy)

JEWISH WORSHIPPERS IN JERUSALEM ATTACK ARAB-OWNED SHOP

BY UDI SHAHAM

A shop located adjacent to Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City was vandalized, and its worker attacked late overnight on Wednesday by Jewish worshipers who were returning from the Western Wall.

It was reported that hundreds of individuals stormed the shop – the only one that was left open that night – and attacked the local worker, Ibrahim Hashelmon, who was lightly wounded and was subsequently taken to a hospital.

Talking to Channel 10 News, Hashelmon said that the police, which has a permanent post right next to the shop, did not approach and arrived at the scene only after the damage was done.

“They threw an ice-cream refrigerator at me… They hit me in the head… The broke the whole place, and spilled soft drinks all over the floor. They took a fire fire extinguisher and hit with it on my head,” he said.

“I became dizzy and then puked. Only at the very end some policemen came and said that they will call an ambulance. It took them a while before they started pushing people away,” he said.

Police addressed the incident as a “quarrel between young people.”

“During the night it was reported that a fight broke between young people on Gai Street in the Old City, in which stones were thrown,” a police statement reads.

“[During which] damage was done to a store, a motorcycle and a car parking nearby. The police intervened and separated between the two sides. An investigation was launched.”

Police told the Jerusalem Post that no arrests were carried out in this case so far.

Hatem Abu al-Daba’at, the owner of the shop told the Post that the place was completely ruined by the rioters.

“All of my equipment, and all the refrigerators were ruined, and the place needs a full restoration,” he said.

Abu al-Daba’at said that it was the first time that his shop suffers this kind of harsh violence and vandalism.

“It was that first time that such thing happened for us. We know that usually when prayer-goers come back from the Kotel during holidays, they shout and curse, but normally the police stop them before they do anything,” he said.

“Yesterday they came and started throwing objects at Ibrahim the worker and the three costumers sitting there. They started hitting them, broke everything and shouted death to all Arabs,” he said. “I don’t know why, but for some reason the police did not interfere and did not do anything.”

Left-wing organization Ir Amim criticized the police for not taking action.

“This is not the first time that the police is not doing its job to protect the Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem,” the NGO said in a statement. “If that is not enough, it added another wrongdoing by hurrying to put out a statement that hides they truth from the public about the assaulting of Palestinians.”

The vandalized car of an Arab shop-owner in Jerusalem’s Old City, October 2017 (credit: courtesy)

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SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER

September 26, 2017 at 11:47 (Corrupt Politics, DesertPeace Exclusive, fascism, Germany)

German Election Results ….

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The only thing Bibi ever got right …

The picture shows a “Hitler moustache” inadvertently cast on the face of Merkel by the pointing finger of the Israeli Prime Minister.
The image was captured by Marc Israel Sellem, a photographer for the Jerusalem Post, who immediately posted the picture on his Facebook page, leading to an avalanche of tweets, comments and Facebook likes and shares.

Related report  follows (Click on link)

Germany’s new Nazis see Israel as role model

Ali Abunimah

Israel and its supporters have made alliances with racists, anti-Semites and Islamophobes all over Europe. (via Flickr)

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TOON OF THE DAY ~~ NETANYAHU’S IMPENDING ‘WELCOME’ IN ARGENTINA

September 7, 2017 at 14:53 (Argentina, Associate Post, Cartoons, fascism)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit three Latin American countries next week, as a part of his ongoing effort to boldly go where none of his predecessors has gone before.

Will the war criminal  be well received by the people of ?

Image by Carlos Latuff

Is the REAL purpose of the visit to learn how to make people disappear?

Here is the latest on that subject …

Latuff holds up sign …

From the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY)

SOLIDARITY DECLARATION FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE ARGENTINIAN YOUNG SANTIAGO MALDONADO

Since August 1st the Argentinian young Santiago Maldonado is disappeared. According to witnesses, Santiago was caught by the Argentinian National Gendarmerie while he was taking part in a manifestation in favors of the rights of the Mapuche community in the south of Argentina.

In spite of the media manipulation to reduce the importance of this serious fact, the Argentinian people claim the alive appearance of Santiago from the first moment, bearing the aggressive escalation in mind against the social protests and the freedom of expression that again the Argentinian people suffers.

The World Federation of Democratic Youths condemns Santiago Maldonado`s disappearance. In this way it adds also to the claim for a serious judgment that allows come to the material and intellectual culprits of the disappearance.

We demand the respect of the rights of the young persons and all the people to demonstrating and to express without exposing their physical integrity and their life. 40 years ago, Latin America suffered an imperialistic plan that during decades systematized the death and disappearance of hundreds of thousands of valuable young persons who were fighting to reach a just and inclusive society for the whole of the peoples of America.

It`s because of this recent history that we call the youth of the world to condemn the forced disappearance of young and people and to claim the alive appearance of Santiago Maldonado.

Santiago Maldonado, alive was taken, alive we want him!

On Behalf of WFDY
The HQ of WFDY
Moscow, September 2017

 

2 Comments

IMAGES OF THE DAY ~~ THE FACES OF TERRORISM

August 17, 2017 at 09:27 (Corrupt Politics, fascism, Israel)

Need a reminder about fascist politicians in Israel?


And some from the past …


And here is what the future holds ….

Israeli Prime Minster Netanyahu’s son: Yair Netanyahu says leftists are more dangerous than neo-Nazis

Echoing Trump, PM’s son claims ‘thugs of Antifa and Black Lives Matter are getting stronger’ while Nazis are a thing of the past

3 Comments

ECHOS OF McCARTHYISM IN THE ANTI BDS CAMP

August 14, 2017 at 09:24 (Activism, Civil Liberties, fascism, Israel, Palestine)

Image by Carlos Latuff

“All human beings deserve human and civil rights, including the Palestinians,” Waters said. “And we’re winning it. This is why they want to silence me, this is why they call me an anti-Semite and this why they don’t want me on Charlie Rose or Stephen Colbert, speaking.” (FROM)

Also see the following post by Michael Rivero (Click on link)

THE NEW McCARTHYISM

 

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IN PHOTOS ~~ UNITED AGAINST ISLAMOPHOBIA

June 12, 2017 at 12:16 (Activism, Associate Post, DesertPeace Exclusive, fascism, Islamophobia, Photography)

Image by Latuff

In 30 cities throughout the U.S. fascistic hate groups held hate rallies on Saturday, 6/10.  They claimed that they were opposing Sharia Law which Muslims were intending to establish here.  Many of the participants were confronted by groups opposed to their anti-Muslim tirade with fights breaking out in some cities.  In NYC there was no violence – the anti- fascists outnumbered the hate groups many times over.

Photos © by Bud Korotzer, Report by Chippy Dee

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BOYCOTT FASCISM ~~ DON’T DRINK COCA COLA!

May 14, 2017 at 10:02 (Corporate Crime, fascism, Israel)

Israel’s Coca-Cola franchisee contributed 50,000 shekels ($13,850) to right-wing group Im Tirtzu in 2015, a document from the Israel Corporations Authority shows.
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Coca-Cola Israel Donated to Left-bashing Group Im Tirtzu

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Im Tirtzu, which led campaigns against marking the Nakba and accused human-rights activists of being ‘moles,’ wanted to cover up the $14,000 donation

Yotam Berger

Israel’s Coca-Cola franchisee contributed 50,000 shekels ($13,850) to right-wing group Im Tirtzu in 2015, a document from the Israel Corporations Authority shows.

The authority refused a request from Im Tirtzu director Matan Peleg to keep confidential the donation by the franchisee, the Central Bottling Company, also known as Coca-Cola Israel. The document was sent two months ago by an accountant for the corporations authority, Regina Halperin.

The existence of the document was first reported by the daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

According to Halperin, since the Central Bottling Company did not send a letter stating why the contribution should be kept confidential, the authority found no reason to make an exception to the policy of the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations on the matter. The statement by Halperin became public after it was obtained by Uri Zaki, a senior official of the left-wing Meretz party.

Im Tirtzu has led several campaigns that raised an uproar, including one against Israeli Arabs marking the Nakba (Catastrophe), when more than 700,000 Arabs fled or were expelled during Israel’s War of Independence.

Im Tirtzu also accused certain human rights activists of being “moles” or “plants” working against Israel, and lashed out at artists − including writers Amos Oz and David Grossman − for supporting them. In 2013, a judge ruled against Im Tirtzu in a libel case, writing that although Im Tirtzu’s principles did not mirror those of fascism, there were “similarities” between the two.

“A contribution to Im Tirtzu is support for promoting Zionism in Israeli society, protecting Zionist interests and protecting the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces from persecution and defamation,” Im Tirtzu said.

Calling such a donation an investment in the fight against domestic efforts  to delegitimize Israel, Im Tirtzu said it would continue to work against anyone acting against Israeli soldiers or acting “to erase the country’s Jewish and democratic character.”

The Central Bottling Company has not yet answered Haaretz’s request for a response.

3 Comments

LATEST TOONS ~~ TURKEY, THE ‘OTHER’ MIDDLE EAST DEMOCRACY

March 14, 2017 at 13:14 (Associate Post, Cartoons, Corrupt Politics, fascism, Turkey)

The people are Behind MEEEE!!

Image by Latuff

What’s REALLY BEHIND these pro-Erdogan/AKP protests in Rotterdam

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IT’S OFFICIAL ~~ ISRAEL IS ON THE ROAD TO FASCISM

March 14, 2017 at 12:48 (Boycott Israel, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Democracy, DesertPeace Exclusive, fascism, Israel)

First a flashback to the 60’s …. There was a joke circulating that went something like this … An American and a Soviet were having a discussion. The American said “I live in a Democracy, I can call President Kennedy a bastard and nothing will happen to me”. The Soviet responded, “I too live in a Democracy, I can also call President Kennedy a bastard and nothing will happen to me”.

Now, a look at ‘The Only Democracy in the Middle East” ….

U.S.-born Jeff Halper, cofounder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, was held after leading a tour of the E1 area across the road from the Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.

Police Detain Prominent Israeli Activist for Alleged Possession of BDS Material
Yotam Berger

Police detained prominent left-wing activist Jeff Halper last Wednesday at the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement, for suspected incitement, saying they acted on a complaint he had “materials related to BDS” in his possession.

Halper, who moved to Israel from the United States in 1973, was picked up after leading a tour of foreigners to the E1 site across the road from the settlement and transported by police van to a nearby station then released without being placed under arrest.

Police officers photographed the posters and maps he was holding before freeing him. Halper denies handing out any material related to BDS during the tour, or even discussing the boycott movement.

Handing out such materials would not have been in violation of the law, even a 2011 anti-boycott law according to which a person or an organization calling for the boycott of Israel, including the settlements, can be sued by the boycott’s targets without them having to prove that they sustained any damage.

The law also denies a person or a company that declares a boycott of Israel or the settlements eligibility to bid for government tenders. A separate law passed this month entitles Israel to deny entry to pro-BDS activists.

Halper, cofounder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, told Haaretz he was on a tour with foreign visitors in the territories last Wednesday. He took the group of 15 to a lookout over Area E1, near Ma’aleh Adumim.

“It’s a good place to show them this context of where Ma’aleh Adumim is located relative to Jerusalem. It’s a regular stop on our tours, this wasn’t the first time I was taking a group to this spot,” Halper said.

After the tour the tourists boarded a bus headed north and he headed to catch a bus to Jerusalem, but “as I ran toward a bus, I saw police in the area, and I saw them talking and contacting the group. I called the Palestinian driver (of the bus transporting the tourists) and he said he had heard a rumor that we were distributing BDS material.”

“Suddenly the bus came to a stop in the Middle of Maaleh Adumim, after two stops, the police boarded the bus and told me, you are being detained, and they took me off the bus,” Halper said.

Halper was questioned about the material he had.

“They didn’t tell me why I was being detained; they said something about BDS, but no details. They put me into a van, which is unpleasant as it is. They drove me in the direction of the police station. Just when we got to the station they stopped and asked me a few questions about what I had in my bag and whether I had any BDS material in the bag.

“We got out of the vehicle and they threw my maps on the van, the maps were of Jerusalem and the greater Jerusalem area. There was also something on which it was written BDS for BDS, it’s something that I use. I say that we have no solution to offer and I propose a binational democratic state, so I have the slogan that goes BDS for BDS. It’s not a sticker or flyer, but just a map with those words on it.

“They found it and took it, wrote up a summons or something like that, and released me,” Halper said.

Halper said the police refused to give him a copy of the ticket or explain what he was suspected of.

In response to a query from Haaretz, the Samaria regional police said:
“There is no investigation into this matter. There was information checked by a patrol once it became clear he committed no violations, he was freed.”
Police spokespeople said the suspicion against him is “incitement” but he was released after questioning, and no further investigation was expected to take place.

Jeff Halper from his Facebook page. Credit Facebook

Also this weekend ….

British pro-BDS activist barred from entering Israel

Week after Knesset passes law banning foreign nationals who call for boycotts, ex-chair of Palestine Solidarity Campaign Hugh Lanning denied entry

Full report HERE

Israel is quickly getting there …

4 Comments

DIRECT LINE TO JOE McCARTHY IN ISRAEL

August 12, 2016 at 16:24 (Activism, Boycott Israel, fascism, Israel)

Jerusalem-based BDS watchdog call center takes the fight to anti-Israel activities by providing activists’ information reported by civilians to Interior Ministry; group seeks deportation of activsts or barring their entry into Israel.

joe-mccarthy

Israel’s watchdog center fighting BDS

In a small office situated in the heart of Jerusalem a telephone center has been established which allows people in Israel to call and report Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions movement (BDS) activities inside the country designed to harm its international standing.

In recent years, the influential watchdog center against the BDS movement, ‘Lev B’Olam’ (Heart of the World), has taken on itself the struggle against the pernicious phenomenon by relying on civilians to bring it to their attention.

When a caller alerts the organization, a representative completes a complaint form and asks a series of questions to gather as much information as possible such as how many BDS activists are involved in a given incident, what they are doing, whether they are using cameras etc. As much pedigree information is compiled about the individuals in question including their names, their places of residence and whether the activists belong to any specific organization.

The accumulated information is then added to a special file and transferred to the Ministry of Interior and Internal Security.

The initiative, which has already been around for some three years, was intensified following the Israeli deportation of Rita Faye, a BDS activists known to the IDF for her activities at checkpoints and harassment of Israeli soldiers.

Faye, from Switzerland, had visited Israel several times in pursuit of her efforts to document alleged Israeli wrongdoing. However, she was deported in accordance with a deportation order from Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) at the end of July after being taken in for questioning upon arrival in Ben Gurion Airport.

In addition to Faye’s deportation, Deri and Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan established a team dedicated to deporting, or preventing the entry of, activists bent on promoting boycotts against the State of Israel.

According to Nati Rom, the general manager of ‘Lev B’Olam’, “The watchdog is the answer to the calls by Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan. This is a civilian initiative whose aim is to locate the activists arriving in Israel under the guise of a tourist and trying to sabotage the Zionist enterprise in Israel. We are here in order to receive as much information about them as possible.”

‘Lev B’Olam’ has already been operating for three years and has been undertaking efforts to combat BDS activities designed to delegitimize Israel. As part of its efforts, the organization engages in PR activities by sending its representatives to European capitals and to BDS hotspots.

The center operates from Sunday to Thursday between the hours of 9am and 4pm and has both Hebrew and English speakers. Callers are also able to send relevant footage, photographs and documents via email.

Source and photos @

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WHEN MURDERERS GO FREE TO KILL AGAIN

June 2, 2016 at 09:13 (Corrupt Politics, Extremism, fascism, Israel's Shame)

 Extremist Eyed in Murder of Palestinian Family Is Freed Without Charge

Police in Israel released from prison the Jewish extremist Meir Ettinger, who had been jailed for 10 months on suspicion that he belonged to a terrorist group targeting Palestinians and Christians.

Where murderers release murderers

Where murderers bless murderers

By Cnaan Liphshiz FOR

Police in Israel released from prison the Jewish extremist Meir Ettinger, who had been jailed for 10 months on suspicion that he belonged to a terrorist group targeting Palestinians and Christians.

Ettinger, 24, who is the grandson of the late ultra-nationalist politician Meir Kahane, was released on Wednesday with restrictions, including a night-time curfew, a 6-month ban on entering the West Bank and Jerusalem and on engaging in any sort of contact with 92 other far-right activists, Army Radio reported.

At the time of his arrest, police said Ettinger was the leader of a Jewish underground cell whose goal is to topple Israel’s democracy and carry out attacks against non-Jews. But he has not been charged with a crime.

His arrest followed several attacks on Palestinians and non-Jews in Israel and the West Bank, including the torching of The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes at Tabgha in Israel’s north and the torching of a Palestinian home in Duma. Three people, including a baby, perished as a result of the fire. Three defendants, two men and a minor, are standing trial for that incident. Ettinger, who has spoken openly about turning Israel into a theocracy, has not been named a suspect.

Ettinger, who was being held in solitary confinement and had  staged  a 17-day hunger strike to protest his detention, was arrested in August for “involvement in violent activities and terrorist attacks that occurred recently, and his role as part of a Jewish terrorist group,” according to Israeli authorities. During an arraignment in September, he told the Central District Court: “In the so-called Jewish state, there is a democratic right to anyone’s  idea, perversion or fad, yet only Judaism itself is illegal.” He has denied any wrong-doing and charged his arrest was aimed at stopping him from spreading his ideas.

He published a manifesto last year titled “Those who follow G-d, come to me” in which he wrote that “the structures of the state and its ability to govern need to be toppled and replaced by a new establishment, and to to do that we need to operate outside the rules of the establishment we want to topple.”

He was held without charges or trial is a state known as administrative detention — a measure used against terror suspects. A judge may place a suspect in administrative detention for a period of up to six months per term. At the end of that period, the detention may be extended.

Israel’s Supreme Court has sanctioned administrative detention under certain limitations, ruling it conforms to international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Israel says the measure is necessary for security, but civil liberty groups say the practice is a violation of human rights. There are a few hundred Palestinians and several Israelis held in administrative detention, according to the Israel Prison Service.

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FRIDAY’S TOON ~~ THE GRIM REAPERS

May 27, 2016 at 09:53 (Associate Post, Cartoons, fascism, Israel's Shame)

Image by Carlos Latuff

Netanyahu and Lieberman will reap what they sow

Netanyahu and Lieberman will reap what they sow

See THIS related post

ISRAEL WILL REAP WHAT IT SOWS ….

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WATCH AS ISRAEL SELF DESTRUCTS

May 26, 2016 at 11:36 (Corrupt Politics, Extremism, fascism, Israel)

“The citizens of Israel should be worried about a rightist coalition that will bring Israel to very dangerous places,” said opposition leader Isaac Herzog at an event Wednesday hosted by the Israel Democracy Institute, according to  The Times of Israel.

rok

Israel Opposition Issues Dire Warnings on ‘Dangerous’ Avigdor Lieberman

Brian Schaefer

Avigdor Liberman’s appointment as Israel’s defense minister was quickly condemned by opposition lawmakers, who warned of a severe fallout at home and abroad.

“The citizens of Israel should be worried about a rightist coalition that will bring Israel to very dangerous places,” said opposition leader Isaac Herzog at an event Wednesday hosted by the Israel Democracy Institute, according to  The Times of Israel.

Herzog, head of the center-left Zionist Union party, had been in talks to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government until the last-minute agreement with Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party Tuesday night scuttled that possibility.

The addition of Yisrael Beiteinu to the government boosts Netanyahu’s majority from a narrow 61-seats to a comfortable 66 in the 120-seat Knesset.

“This government shares a worldview that will prevent us from moving forward,” said Knesset member Tzipi Livni, also of the Zionist Union, at a conference at Ariel University, as reported by The Jerusalem Post. “A worldview that will isolate us in the world, and embolden BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel].”

Opposition leaders warned that Liberman’s ascension to defense chief threatened progress on peace negotiations with the Palestinians, citing past statements in which he called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas a terrorist. Netanyahu insisted he was still committed to pursuing peace.

Yair Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid party, who once collaborated with Liberman to combat the influence of the ultra-Orthodox parties, slammed him for now joining them in the coalition and dropping demands for education reform and national service requirements.

“Signing the agreement and the entry of Yisrael Beiteinu into the coalition is not an achievement,” Lapid said. “It is an embarrassing surrender, a betrayal of the public trust, and an abandonment of the pubic.”

Meanwhile, Zionist Union Knesset member Amir Peretz said the coalition agreement was “an alliance between the most extreme elements of the Knesset.” And the head of the left-wing Meretz party, Zehava Gal-On, reminded Israelis of past controversies surrounding Lieberman.

“Do you recall that this man got out of affairs for which he was interrogated only when the witnesses died mysteriously? Do you recall that every public role this man has held mysteriously led to his family getting rich?” she said, according to Channel 10.

An ocean away, New York Times columnist Thomas Friendman bemoaned Netanyahu’s choice to partner with Liberman in an article that pointed to hand-wringing from a number of Israeli officials and publications. On Monday, The New York Times editorial board anticipated the move, warning:”Avigdor Lieberman’s previous stints as Israel’s foreign minister under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were a disaster for Israeli-American relations.”

Netanyahu and Liberman’s parties ran as a joint list in the 2013 election.

Also see THIS report

Avigdor Lieberman Quake Rocks Israel — Barely a Tremor in the U.S.

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ISRAEL WILL REAP WHAT IT SOWS ….

May 24, 2016 at 12:52 (Corrupt Politics, fascism, Israel)

 Is Sharp Turn to Right Planting ‘Seeds of Fascism’ in Israel?

Israel has been “infected by the seeds of fascism,”  it should be “a red light for all of us regarding what’s going on in the government.”

FascismChecklist

By Luke Baker

A military affairs commentator interrupts his broadcast to deliver a monolog: I’m alarmed by what’s happening in Israel, he says, I think my children should leave.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak warns of “the seeds of fascism.” Moshe Arens, who served as defense minister three times, sees it as a turning point in Israeli politics and expects it to cause a “political earthquake.”

The past five days have produced tumult in Israeli politics, since conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unexpectedly turned his back on a deal to bring the center-left into his coalition and instead joined hands with far-right nationalist Avigdor Lieberman, one of his most virulent critics.

Lieberman, a West Bank settler, wants to be defense minister. So on Friday, Netanyahu’s former ally and confidant, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, resigned and quit Netanyahu’s Likud party in disgust.

After a weekend to digest the developments, which are expected to be finalized in an agreement between Netanyahu and Lieberman on Monday to form the most right-wing government in Israel’s 68-year-old history, commentators have tried to put it in perspective and found themselves alarmed.

Arens, who has served as defense minister, foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, and is one of Netanyahu’s early political mentors, said the machinations would have far-reaching repercussions.

“Yaalon’s ouster is likely to be a turning point in Israel’s political history,” he wrote in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper. “A political earthquake is in the offing. It may take a little time, but it is coming. The law of unforeseen consequences is at work.”

The decision to jettison Yaalon in favor of Lieberman was all too much for Roni Daniel, a veteran military affairs commentator on Channel 2.

“I cannot urge my children to stay here, because it is a place that is not nice to be in,” he said in his monolog, going on to name a number of far-right politicians.

“HOSTILE TAKEOVER”

By bringing the Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home) party into the fold, Netanyahu strengthens his coalition from 61 to 67 seats in the 120-member parliament.

Lieberman’s brand of politics — pro-settlement, wary of peace negotiations, tough on the Palestinians — sits far more comfortably with Netanyahu and his right-wing partners than the center-left does.

But it means there is no countervailing voice in the government, and the person in charge of defense — the most important portfolio in Israel after the prime minister — is a civilian with little military experience.

At a time when the command of the Israel Defense Forces is already at odds with the government over policies it feels are too hard-line, Lieberman’s appointment risks creating more tension between the political leadership and the military. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are on edge too.

“What has happened is a hostile takeover of the Israeli government by dangerous elements,” Ehud Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier and a former defense minister following his spell as head of government, told Channel 10 TV.

Israel has been “infected by the seeds of fascism,” he said, adding that it should be “a red light for all of us regarding what’s going on in the government.”

Netanyahu sought to quell the rising criticism at a new conference on Sunday, describing himself as in charge and as having the nation’s interests at heart.

“I’m looking out for the country’s future. I have proved that as prime minister. I hear a lot of voices; many things are said in politics,” he said.

“Ultimately, it’s the prime minister who directs everything together with the defense minister, with the chief of staff, and apparently I haven’t done such a bad job during my years as prime minister — that’s the way it is going to be now.”

Some allies leapt to Netanyahu’s defense, saying the appointment of Lieberman was a sound decision and that he would offer “fresh thinking” as defense minister, but the focus of commentary was on the broader direction that Israel is taking.

A DECADE IN POWER

Netanyahu has held power for more than 10 years, spread over four terms. In that time, politics has moved steadily to the right, with his coalition now hinging on support from Orthodox religious and ultra-nationalist parties.

There has been no progress in efforts to negotiate peace with the Palestinians, with Netanyahu saying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is not the right partner because he rejects Israel’s demand to recognize it as a Jewish state.

At the same time, the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians seek for their own state together with Gaza, continues apace.

Ties between Israel and the United States, its closest ally, have become strained, with Vice President Joe Biden saying last month that the U.S. administration felt “overwhelming frustration” with the Israeli government.

For Daniel, who is regarded as a stalwart of the right, something has changed fundamentally.

“It’s over. I will not persuade my children. They will decide where they want to live. But if that once looked like a terrible tragedy to me, today it doesn’t,” he said.—Reuters

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hu223_Warning_Fascism_watermarked__72343.1419006525.1280.1280

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