Originating as I do from a country where freedom of speech is paramount and where a whole gamut of opinions are tolerated no matter howextreme they might be as long as they remain with the constraints of the law, it goes very much against the grain to witness recent moves in Israel’s Knesset  that appear to signal a shift towards a battening down of the right to express opinions in what, until now, has been the only truly functioning democracy in the Middle East.  


Israel was created in 1948 as a state that allowed a wide variety of views to be expressed by people coming from disparate parts of the world and from many different cultures and backgrounds. Despite a rocky road over the last 63 years those original pillars of this democracy have stood firm, but now, with the introduction of the Boycott Law and the proposed investigations into the funding of perceived left-wing NGO’s, the government has set this country on the descent of a slippery slope that could lead to the slimming down of the opportunities to democratically express an opinion that isn’t shared by the right-wing parliamentary majority.

 
And why are these two moves occurring at this particular time? Well, I sense a kind of siege mentality creeping into the current politics of the Israeli government as they gird themselves for a potential UN vote on whether or not to officially recognise a Palestinian state. Over the last few months the Israeli government has sent out envoys across the globe to seek to persuade governments at all points of the compass to think very carefully before officially recognising a state that is partially governed by an entity (Hamas) that does not recognise the legitimacy of its neighbour, Israel, and wishes to have it removed from the map at the cost of potentially millions of lives. 
 
 
The recognition of the Palestinians at this stage, whilst they still receive massive amounts of financial and military support from Iran and other rogue nations in the region, would be a very dangerous precedent for the
world to set. Such is the strength though of the Arab block vote and the fears amongst many other nations, (including those in Europe), that their local Muslim/Arab communities might react angrily to a rejection of a Palestinian state, that many people see the declaration (in some form) as almost inevitable, even allowing for the opposition of the US, Canada, and a number of other significant western European nations.

 
Against this background an aggressive and provocative mentality has suddenly pervaded the Israeli right, the dominant force in local politics, and they have rushed through a law making it illegal for anyone to boycott Israeli products or organizations. Already centre and left-wing groups have petitioned the High Court to have the law, (introduced by right-wing MK’s from the Israel Beitenu Russian immigrant party and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party), declared illegal. The petition to the High Court states that the law prevents “the open, productive political dialogue that constitutes the basis for the existence of democracy,” and I agree whole-heartedly with the wording of the petition. 

 
Already Israel’s Attorney General, Yehuda Weinstein is under massive pressure to write off the law before it can cause any damage and is reported to be frantically weighing up his role as the enforcer of the government on legal matters and his conscience as a free-thinking individual. Doubtless, behind the scenes Weinstein is coming under massive pressure from the hard right-wing elements of the government.

 
If the law stands then the right to protest against the West Bank settlements and other Israeli policies will become a very grey area, (to be fair it won’t even be grey, it WILL be illegal), and what has until now been legitimate democratic protest could become a crime of subversion of the state. It all sounds like a step back to the dictatorial policies of 1950’s Communist eastern bloc states, and this in one of the most free-thinking, progressive capitalist economies on the globe.  Add to this the establishment of a parliamentary enquiry into left-wing NGO’s (note only left-wing, not right-wing), and you may begin to understand the fears and   concerns of those in the centre and to the left of the Israeli political   spectrum that something nasty and wholly distasteful is taking root in our   midst.



Israel’s greatest strength and what has set it apart from the overwhelmingly majority of countries in the region, has been its western-style democracy and the values that respect the rights of people of all political and ethnic backgrounds – there are communist Arab MK’s in the Knesset and equal voting rights for Jews and Arabs – freedom of expression, equal rights for women, gays, the disabled, and many more minority groups. 

 
Recently a campaign to boycott Israeli-produced cottage cheese was launched by a local lady on Facebook after she lost her patience with the ridiculous rise in the price of her favourite cheese of over 50% in the last year. Her campaign received more than 20,000 followers in the first couple of days and spread like wildfire to the mainstream media. A week later, after a significant number of people joined the boycott, the companies producing Israel’s favourite cheese caved in to democratic protest and significantly reduced the price. When I went shopping last week I noticed the price of the cheese was now 4.90 sheqels having been 7.20 a week or two earlier. This is democracy in action, a wondrous thing. Were she to have raised the issue after the introduction of the new Boycott Law, the lady who began the Facebook campaign could well have faced a term in
jail!



I truly hope common sense will prevail, that the High Court, an independent judiciary, will throw out the Boycott Law and declare it illegal, that the investigation into funding of left-wing NGO’s will be stopped, or, to be even-handed, be extended to cover all NGO’s including those on the right, and that a modicum of good sense will return to an ever more alarming and thoroughly disheartening Israeli political scene.

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