Next Friday: HUMAN RIGHTS MARCH IN TEL-AVIV AND HAIFA

3 December 2011, Communist Party of Israel המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית http://maki.org.il
The March המצעד http://themarch.org.il (Israel)

Next Friday, December 9, will be at Tel-Aviv and Haifa the annual Human Rights March, organized by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), an one important event of the Israeli human rights and social change community. Hundreds of organizations, communities, and activists – all come together to say: "It’s our right, to all human rights, for all human beings." Among them: Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), the Communist Party of Israel, TANDI (the Democratic Women's Movement in Israel) and Hagada Hasmalit (Progressive Culture Center in Tel-Aviv and radical website).

According to ACRI "the March has room for all the different flags, for all the groups and initiatives that view human rights as the moral and social foundation for change. Many voices that are not frequently heard, or even not heard at all – thousands of activists for freedom of expression, protest, and movement, for the right to privacy, for human dignity; activists for migrant workers, asylum seekers, homeless persons, the unemployed, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and Palestinian citizens of Israel; for the adequate housing, health, and education that we all deserve. Once a year, just before International Human Rights Day, we join forces: all of the rights, all the activists, all the groups and organizations, all the believers come together".

And more: "Anti-democratic winds are sweeping through Israel, but last year’s Human Rights March proved that Israeli civil society is wide awake, working and struggling to protect human rights and democracy. The winds are blowing and anti-democratic legislation continues to be promoted, as though the people never flooded the streets in a demand for social justice. And yet the Israeli society has now changed – we are more united, we know how to protest, we know how to demand. So join us in the Human Rights March – this is your stage!"

Meeting point in Tel-Aviv at Habima Square,10:00 am. Rally in Rabin Square, 12:00 pm.

Read more in the March Blog in English: http://themarch.org.il/?cat=38
Attend and share the Facebook event: http://on.fb.me/tpFL55


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SPREAD THE RUMOR – MARCHING IN HAIFA!
The March המצעד http://themarch.org.il (Israel)

ehud בקטגוריה English 1/12/2011

Two weeks ago, on the phone, Matan was dead-serious: "After what we did this summer, it is obvious we will hold the Human Rights March in Haifa as well".

We couldn't resist the committed volunteers – and we are proud to hold the March in haifa, for the first time!

For the Haifa march on FB - http://j.mp/sSymCV
For the Tel Aviv march on FB - http://j.mp/vlqXDO

Haifa is a binational and multicultural city. More than 250,000 residents of the city are regularly creating endless affinit/identity groups, and most of them are keenly aware of their common interest in establishing an equal environment , based on human rights and mutual respect.

A multitude of people in haifa's neighborhoods demonstrated over the summer, demanding fulfillment of basic rights in education, housing and welfare- the goals of a just society.

Residents of haifa and its environs understood that they have human rights that can neither be denied, undermined or repealed.

Basic, human, elemental rights- it doesn't matter how you name them, and therefore, it is only natural that for the 1st time , the international day of human rights will be celebrated in haifa too.

This past summer, people went out into the streets, not for a higher standard of living, but for a better quality of life. The difference between these to goals may seem slight and insignificant, but it is really meaningful and important. People did not ask for free cable t.v. , for a bigger car, of for a more advanced air conditioner. They demanded that their rights be honored, that the be related to as human beings, that the authorities change their agenda, and place the human element in front of their eyes, instead of the economy and intellectual paradigms.
This protest began and continues by the people: people of different viewpoints and groupings, but with shared rights for all – the residents of b'nai david, wadi nisnas, halissa, hadar, neve yosef and carmel.

The International Day of Human Rights and the march of organizations for social change reflect a direct continuation of the events of the summer.

We are looking forward to a reality of citizens that work for social change, reject injustice and acceptance of indignity, who will struggle for equality, friendship and freedom against he anti democratic legislation currently before the knesset and for assuming a shared responsibility for our future.

COME TO MARCH – HAIFA OR TEL-AVIV!
הוספת תגובה »

Wake up. Rise up. Struggle. Demonstrate. Come to the Human Rights March in Tel Aviv on December 9, 2011.

מאת ehud | בקטגוריה English 2011 |‏ 23/11/2011
מתוך: הקונספירלה; גיא בר נבון

If this past summer proves something, it is this: we are a part of the world. Israel's tent protest did not begin in Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard, it started in Tunisia and in Tahrir Square; and it didn't end with the demonstration in Rabin Square, it still echoes here and on Wall Street, in Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and on the steps of St Paul Cathedral in London. Human rights – and within them the right to the most basic elements of a dignified life: health, housing, education, and welfare – these rights have always been universal. In recent months, people from more and more nations have taken to the streets to struggle for these very rights, demanding that their elected officials act to fulfill their responsibilities and stop betraying their trust. What us currently happening in so many cities expresses our shared humanity; and in this, we too are a part of this world.

If this past summer proves something, it is this: we are not a part of this world. It would be senseless to try and lead a protest for human rights in Israel that is somehow limited only to the space west of the Separation Fence. In addition, even in this limited space – the protests that took place in the summer sometimes preferred to ignore institutionalized aspects created by social gaps based on national identity, which are the foundation for other forms of discrimination. Affordable housing is affordable housing, but if you're an Arab citizen ofIsrael, for over 60 years the state has preferred to thwart your ability to build legally. Dealing with these issues without recognizing their origins, as though they carried the same weight of the struggle for regulation of apartments for rent in Tel Aviv (an important struggle in and of itself) – doing so is not part of the solution, it is part of the problem. This kind of approach, which separates justice from the social justice storm, is what separates us from the rest of the world.

And if so, then just where are we living?

On December 9th, one day before International Human Rights Day, the Human Rights March will be carried out, for the third consecutive year . The march will pass through familiar streets – the same streets that witnessed unprecedented protests this past summer. And perhaps, after this summer, these streets are no longer the same as they were? Part of the world or not part of it, time will tell.. In any event, the reality here, in certain ways, has already changed.

The hundreds of thousands of Israelis, who demonstrated over the summer, set an international record for nonviolent, popular protest. Could there be anything more democratic than that? The fact that a middle class protest for affordable housing grew into a widespread social protest was an exceptional display of human solidarity, which is at the basis of every society aspiring for equality. The fact that after two years of raging racism against the Arab citizens of Israel, which has been led by the government and is intensifying in the Knesset– the fact that after all that, the biggest demonstrations in Israel's history placed universal, social principles at the front, rather than nationalist principles, Is not something to be ignored.

This summer was a beginning. Social justice and civil protest are a powerful beginning. In this past summer, hundreds of thousands of Israelis together did something great, and we have additional, great challenges ahead of us. Some of these challenges might seem unsurmountable at times, but who would have imagined only several months ago that the people would have enough of privatization, corporations, and a neoliberal economy? Or that from protesting the price of cottage cheese we would go to demanding a welfare state and direct employment?

In the Human Rights March, we will express all of these challenges: social justice and an end to the occupation, complete civil equality and freedom of expression, a substantive democracy and human rights for all – for refugees and for migrant workers, for women and for men, for Palestinians and for Israelis, all the 100 percent of human rights for all human beings. Nothing less. This, precisely, is the essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This, precisely, is the essence of International Human Rights Day. And precisely for all this we are holding the Human Rights March.

Several weeks ago, during the last (for now) social justice demonstration at Rabin Squarein Tel Aviv, a young man stood on the stage and said that for him, the summer has not ended. He said: “This summer we shouted together 'no more'.” He said: “Our joint struggle is the struggle for a different future, one future, a better future for all those who live here.” He said: “Wake up, rise up, struggle, demonstrate. We will have a new society, more democratic, more just, more equal.”

These words – spoken by Rabea Fahoum, a sociology student atTelAvivUniversity– could be wishful thinking or a passing illusion; or they could be our future, a future for all of us. In order for this to happen, we must wake up, struggle, demonstrate; not for specific rights to specific people, not each group for its own interests, but together, with enough room for each of the many problems that we must confront and with a unified and universal voice, the voice of all of us for the shared vision that we shape with our actions.

So wake up. Rise up. Struggle. Demonstrate. Yes, there will be a new society here, more democratic, more just, more equal. And precisely for that, come to the Human Rights March on December 9th.

Hagai El-Ad, Executive Director, ACRI

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About the Human Rights March, Tel-Aviv 2011
מאת ehud | בקטגוריה English 2011 |‏ 14/11/2011

Once again, we will take to the streets to call out: It's our right!

On Friday, 9 December 2011, we will walk together in the annual Human Rights March.

Join the event on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/tpFL55
Meeting point at Habima Square, Rothschild st. Tel-Aviv at 10:00.

Rally at the Rabin Square at 12:00.

The March has room for all the different flags, for all the groups and initiatives that view human rights as the moral and social foundation for change. Many voices that are not frequently heard, or even not heard at all – thousands of activists for freedom of expression, protest, and movement, for the right to privacy, for human dignity; activists for migrant workers, asylum seekers, homeless persons, the unemployed, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and Palestinian citizens of Israel; for the adequate housing, health, and education that we all deserve. Once a year, just before International Human Rights Day, we join forces: all of the rights, all the activists, all the groups and organizations, all the believers come together.

This past summer, the streets of Israelwere filled with believers. A belief that we can change things, that we should and we must – bring about a new policy, a new culture regarding the state's treatment of its citizens, a new approach regarding the state's obligation to promote the rights of all of us.

This belief has empowered many, who thought they were a few and alone and suddenly discovered that we are a mass. This past summer, the flag of social justice has been raised, but this is only the beginning of change, of raising consciousness to the fact that all human rights must be afforded to every human being.

Anti-democratic winds are sweeping throughIsrael, but last year's Human Rights March proved that Israeli civil society is wide awake, working and struggling to protect human rights and democracy.

The winds are blowing and anti-democratic legislation continues to be promoted, as though the people never flooded the streets in a demand for social justice. And yet the Israeli society has now changed – we are more united, we know how to protest, we know how to demand. So join us in the Human Rights March – this is your stage!

The March, organized by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), is the flagship event of the Israeli human rights and social change community. Hundreds of organizations, communities, and activists – all come together to say: It's our right, to all human rights, for all human beings!

Human rights march in Tel Aviv to counter anti-NGO legislation

1 December 2011, + 972 http://972mag.com (Israel)

The true essence of the foreign funding bill is its subjugation of all Israeli civil society organizations to the government’s whims. On Friday, December 9, 2011, Israeli civil society fights back at the human rights march

By Ehud Uziel*

Originally published at HaOkets

The revised Akunis-Kirschenbaum foreign funding bill backed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Lieberman is genius. Their proposed amendment to the income tax law will obligate a 45% taxation rate on donations from “a foreign state entity” to Israeli nonprofit organizations. The amendment will leave room for only one type of exemption for NGOs: those that also receive funding from the government. Those who do not already receive government funding must refer to a special Knesset “exemptions” committee that will decide whether to grant the tax exemption or not. This bill is genius because it doesn’t contribute a single thing to the Israeli public but makes all the headlines.

It’s genius because it redefines what is central and what is marginal in Israeli society, without drawing too much opposition, since it doesn’t impact the majority. It’s genius because it destroys civil society in Israel, but directs the public debate to focus exclusively on “NGOs that are anti-Israel.”

The essence of the bill is not a war on human rights organizations, or on criticism of government policy and the occupation, or even on foreign government donations. The true essence of the law is making all civil society organizations in Israel that seek foreign donations subordinate to the state and its government – since those organizations that aren’t also funded by the state will have no choice but to refer to the special Knesset “exemptions” committee and request the state’s benevolence. If this law is passed it will become much more difficult for an NGO to remain independent and not depend on the state’s generosity, whether it focuses on women’s rights, disability rights or the rights of Palestinians under military law.

The subjugation of civil society organizations to the state takes place in many countries, and NGOs fear the state in many countries. These are not democratic countries and their regimes are much more concerned with themselves than with their citizens. Proposed laws such as the Akunis-Kirschenbaum bill seek to divert the debate from legitimate criticism of policy to a struggle over the very ability to voice criticism; from a fundamental discussion about social justice and freedom and questioning military control of another people – to an inane conversation about the legitimacy of donations being made to human rights organization by the European Union, and whether these 2 million Euros are different from the 150 million Euro donated by the EU to scientific research in Israel.

The best response we can provide is the human rights march next Friday, December 9, 2011. All those who continue to demand social justice will be there. All those who demand freedom and human rights will be there and all those who continue to demand the sustenance and expansion of Israeli democracy will be there. Everyone who understands that freedom of expression, thought and ideas – even those ideas which are most critical and unaccepted by society – are what constitute the most profound foundation of democracy.

In a letter sent by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) to the Foreign Minister last week, we cautioned against his misleading the public by comparing this bill to legislation in the US and Canada. The differences are huge. For example, the US only requires transparency and reports on donations from foreign entities, which already exists in Israel, and there is no clause in the US regarding taxation rates.

ACRI also helped draft and encouraged Members of Knesset from all factions to push a new bill, “Basic Law: Social Rights” onto the legislative table in the Knesset. This meticulously drafted bill obligates the state to provide basic services to all its residents. We cannot only react but rather we must continue to combine opposition with initiatives. It is not sufficient to protest “Enough!” (of the witch hunt) but we must also demand “More!” (social justice).

The Human Rights March will transform the defense of democracy into the demand for social and civil justice. The march is the place to be for all those who care about what is really important: cultivating a healthy civil society with social legislation, the guarantee of freedom and the maintenance of Israeli democracy.

*Ehud Uziel is Campaign Director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

LAS ORGANIZACIONES PRO DERECHOS EN ISRAEL RECURREN CONTRA LA LEY DEL BDS

25 julio 2011, Rebelión http://www.rebelion.org (México)

Nikki Hodgson

Traducido por Cris del Tó para el Centro de Información Alternativa (AIC), Jerusalén.

Después del debate en el pleno del lunes (11 de julio), que duró casi seis horas, el Knéset (Parlamento) de Israel aprobó el "Proyecto de ley para prevenir daños al Estado de Israel por medio del boicot". En esta ley, el "boicot" se define como estar en contra del "Estado de Israel - evitando de forma deliberada lazos económicos, culturales o académicos con una persona u otro factor debido únicamente a su relación con el Estado de Israel, cualquiera de sus instituciones o cualquier ámbito bajo su control, de tal manera que pudiera causar daños económicos, culturales o académicos".

A pesar de las advertencias del asesor jurídico del Knéset, Eyal Yinon, sobre que la ley constituye una violación grave de la libertad de expresión y que probablemente fuera desestimada por el Tribunal Supremo, el Knéset aprobó el proyecto de ley con 47 votos a favor y 38 en contra.

Organizaciones activistas israelíes y palestinas ya están desafiando la ley, cumpliendo así las predicciones hechas durante la comparecencia de Raz Nizri, adjunto del Fiscal General Weinstein, que predijo que si se aprobaba, las organizaciones probablemente interpondrían una demanda. Tras la aprobación de la ley, las organizaciones de derechos humanos en Israel están preparando un recurso de apelación contra la "ley del Boicot" ante el Tribunal Supremo israelí.

Adalah-Centro Legal para los Derechos de la Minoría Árabe en Israel, el Comité Público contra la Tortura en Israel, Médicos por los Derechos Humanos y la Coalición de Mujeres por la Paz exigen que se detenga el proceso de aprobación de la ley. En una carta enviada al portavoz del Knéset Reuven Rivilin, al Ministro de Justicia Yaakov Neeman y al Ministro de Finanzas Yuval Steinitz, las organizaciones sostienen que se trata de "una ley completamente anticonstitucional que limita la libertad de expresión política y que es contraria al derecho internacional".
Los grupos también acusan a la ley de forzar a los ciudadanos a "cooperar con la ocupación".

Paz Ahora advierte que estas limitaciones a la libertad de expresión en Israel convertirán al Knéset en una "policía del pensamiento" y envió 120 banderas negras a cada uno de los miembros del Knéset para resaltar las consecuencias de la ley. Inmediatamente después de la votación, Paz Ahora creó un grupo en Facebook llamado "Procésame, yo le hago boicot a las colonias" como medida directa para desafiar la ley. El grupo ya había atraído a más de 2.000 seguidores el martes por la mañana.

El miembro del Knéset Zeev Elkin (Likud), que propuso la ley, dijo que ésta no pretende acallar a las personas, sino "proteger a los ciudadanos de Israel". Organizaciones activistas se oponen a esta defensa señalando que Israel no está prohibiendo todos los boicots, sino solo aquellos que están en contra de la ocupación. La ley concede ventaja a los colonos en Cisjordania mientras que delimita el trabajo y la posición tanto de ONGs como de ciudadanos particulares contra la ocupación. El grupo que recurre la ley sostiene que ésta "viola el principio de igualdad mediante el intento de defender una posición política a la vez que limita otras posiciones".

El abogado Hassan Jubrin, Director General de Adalah, manifestó que "el Knéset israelí no solo intenta silenciar la protesta contra la ocupación-también intenta imponer sobre las víctimas y sobre aquellos que se oponen a la ocupación, que cooperen y la apoyen de manera activa......[La ley] no cumple con ningún criterio del derecho internacional..."

En una declaración hecha pública por la Asociación por los Derechos Civiles en Israel (ACRI) se arremete contra la ley y la califica como "anticonstitucional y antidemocrática" y declara sus intenciones de "presentar una demanda contra ella ante el Tribunal Supremo israelí pidiendo que la ley sea derogada". La ACRI también publicó un análisis comparando la Ley del Boicot israelí y las leyes de boicot de Estados Unidos, que están siendo utilizadas para reforzar los argumentos usados por aquellos que apoyan la ley israelí. El análisis de la ACRI señala que las leyes de boicot estadounidenses fueron implantadas para disuadir a las compañías de ir en contra de la política exterior de Estados Unidos y que no obstaculizan el derecho de libertad de expresión. Asimismo, Estados Unidos nunca ha procesado a nadie por participar en un boicot.

Más grupos activistas progresistas y ciudadanos individuales en Israel, tanto palestinos como judío-israelíes, están expresando tanto su apoyo continuado al llamamiento palestino al BDS, a pesar de la recién aprobada ley, como su rechazo al discurso público de la izquierda sionista sobre este asunto. "La mayoría de grupos sionistas como Paz Ahora y ACRI se centran casi exclusivamente en las implicaciones que tiene la ley en el boicot a los productos provenientes de las colonias, lo que encaja con su rechazo público al llamamiento Palestino al BDS," afirma Connie Hackbarth del Centro de Información Alternativa. "Su preocupación por la democracia de Israel es interesada dado que Israel no es una democracia y su preocupación por la libertad de expresión de los israelíes forma parte de un discurso interno en el que los israelíes y sus derechos son el centro de atención." El grupo "¡Boicot! Apoyando el llamamiento palestino desde dentro" planea publicar una declaración acerca de la nueva ley.

CAN SOUTH AFRICA PROVIDE THE INSPIRATION THAT ISRAEL NEEDS?

In the struggle to achieve justice and equality in a land that has yet to fulfill its promise, what role will be played by those from the iconic country of South Africa, which has transformed itself so remarkably towards justice and equality?

20 JulY 2011, + 972 http://972mag.com (Israel)

By Hagai El-Ad*

I was recently in South Africa for a few days, and I didn’t once bump into Judge Richard Goldstone. As an Israeli, that may be surprising, because in Israel the only recognizable face of South African Jewry is in fact Judge Goldstone – and the way his rough handling by the Jewish community in that country.

But chance encounters do happen. While checking into my Sea Point hotel in Cape Town, I was chatted up by a couple, who, it turned out, happened to be Jewish. They were delighted to discover that I am from Tel Aviv. Their next question, however, caught me off guard.

“Are you thinking of leaving?”

I am not. Israel is my home.

My first visit to Cape Town in 2006 was for a transitional justice conference at the University of Cape Town. This second visit was for a meeting, graciously hosted by South Africa’s Legal Resources Centre (LRC), with peers from other national human rights groups similar to Israel’s Association for Civil Rights (ACRI), the organization I currently head. For many around the world, myself included, South Africa plays a global iconic moral role – especially in the context of human rights, equality, and justice – and even more so, because its people were able to realize these values through an inspiring transformation.

And oh, how we need inspiration.

South African Jewry’s treatment of Judge Goldstone was no source for inspiration. But the group of Habonim Dror activists I met were. The conversation was of a familiar global-Jewish speak: on the one hand, an ethos of social justice, faith in equality and steadfast commitment to fight racism. On the other hand, Israel. How does a South African Jew live the values of social justice and the realize his or her desire to have a meaningful relationship with the State of Israel, given the ongoing realities of occupation, discrimination, and segregation?

A recent example of this unjust reality is the decision of the High Court of Justice, in rejecting an appeal brought forward by ACRI and others, to approve the expansive “permits regime,” a system that systematically limits Palestinian access to their own lands that happen to be located in the “seam zone” (the territory locked between the Green Line and the separation barrier). The barrier’s route was set by Israel at varying distances east of the green line, thus leaving approximately 10 percent of the occupied West Bank freely accessible for Israelis, but restricted to the actual owners of the land. What is the proper term to describe this “permits regime” system?

Another example is the “Nakba Law.” For the Palestinians, Israel’s establishment in 1948 was a national catastrophe, remembered as the Nakba. For the Jews – myself proudly being one – Israel’s independence is the fulfillment of dreams of generations. Reconciling painful truths? Recently, a law was passed in the Knesset depriving certain public funding from those who commemorate Israel’s independence as Nakba Day. ACRI is appealing against this law. Memory and identity should not – indeed, cannot – be regulated through legislation.

Sugar coating these unacceptable realities is not an option – morally or practically. Thus, a different path emerges for a meaningful relationship: one that does not try to Disneyfy a complex reality, but rather a relationship in which all members become part of the endeavor to fix that reality. The young activists I met in Cape Town are no Disney fans. I found their personal struggle, their questioning, and their unyielding commitment to ethically figure it out inspiring.

I traveled back home to Israel with a question close at heart: In the struggle to achieve justice and equality in a land that has yet to fulfill its promise, what role will be played by those from the iconic country of South Africa, which has transformed itself so remarkably towards justice and equality?

*Hagai El-Ad is executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

EVERYTHING YOU (NEVER) WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ISRAEL’S ANTI-BOYCOTT LAW

A reader’s guide to democracy’s dark hour

13 July 2011, + 972 http://972mag.com (Israel)

Noam Sheizaf*

What does the law say?
Basically, the anti-boycott law allows all those who feel they have been harmed by a boycott, whether against Israel or an Israeli institution or territory (i.e. the settlements in the West Bank) to sue the person or organization who publicly called for it, for compensation. This definition is very broad—even a simple call not to visit a place falls under it—and most important, the prosecutor plaintiff doesn’t even have to prove damages.

You can read the full text of the law here (it’s not long). The important part is below (translation by ACRI):

Definition:
1. In this bill, “a boycott against the State of Israel” – deliberately avoiding economic, cultural or academic ties with another person or another factor only because of his ties with the State of Israel, one of its institutions or an area under its control, in such a way that may cause economic, cultural or academic damage.

Boycott – a civil wrong:
A. Knowingly publishing a public call for a boycott against the State of Israel will be considered a civil wrong to which the civil tort law [new version] applies, if according to the content and circumstances of the publication there is reasonable probability that the call will bring about a boycott and he who published the call was aware of this possibility.

B. In regards to clause 62 [A] of the civil tort law [new version], he who causes a binding legal agreement to be breached by calling for a boycott against the State of Israel will not be viewed as someone who operated with sufficient justification.

C. If the court will find that an wrong according to this law was deliberately carried out, it will be authorized to compel the person who did the wrongdoing to pay damages that are not dependent on the damage (in this clause – damages, for example); in calculating the sum of the damages for example, the court will take into consideration, among other things, the circumstances under which the wrong was carried out, its severity and its extent.

Check out Roi Maor’s analysis of the implications of this law and what it will mean:
[The boycott law] will have a significant and immediate practical effect. As of today, a wide range of people and groups who once called for a boycott will cease doing so. The space for debate and discussion in Israeli society will shrink right before our eyes.

How come this law passed three Knesset votes?
The key moments in the legislation process was a decision by Binyamin Netanyahu’s government (and by him personally, as he told the Knesset on Wednesday) to have the entire coalition back the law. This means that the law will have the automatic support of most of the Knesset members, and that even coalition members who oppose it won’t be able to vote against it. Once the bill passed Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee—controlled by the right—it was clear for the two final votes, which took place Monday night.

So, how did Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak vote?
They didn’t. They avoided the vote. See the full roll-call from the Knesset vote.

When will the law take effect?

It already did. Starting yesterday (Tuesday), it is now illegal to call for a settlement boycott in Israel. The only part of the law which is not effective yet is article 4, which deals with the punishment of organizations that would support a boycott (they will be stripped of their special statutes). This article, which is seen as a backdoor way to persecute civil society and leftwing organizations (more on this issue here), will be made effective in 90 days.

Yesterday an Israeli Beitenu MK already threatened Arab MK Ahmed Tibi that he will be the first to feel the effect of the new law. “Whoever shows contempt for the law and stomps on it will be responsible for the outcome,” MK Miller told Tibi in the Knesset.

Is it really so bad? I heard there is a similar law in the US, and that in France, a court punished some group calling for boycott on Israel.

Those examples are very different from the Israeli law. The US legislation refers to boycott by foreign governments, and the French case had to do with a unique interpretation to a law concerning discrimination. In fact, a Knesset research report, prepared during the work on the boycott bill, concluded that it couldn’t find examples of similar laws in Western democracies, and resorted to citing examples from countries such as Venezuela, Eritrea and Ethiopia. As a result, the Knesset’s legal advisor filed an opinion stating that it would be very hard to defend this law in the High Court for Justice. The Government Attorney thinks it is a “borderline case,” but he is willing to defend the law in court.

What about the High Court? I hear that it is likely to strike down the law as unconstitutional.

For that, Israel would need to have a constitution… But the answer is yes, many think that the court will kill the law or parts of it, and petitions on this issue has already been filed. Yet a verdict would take time, and more important, it might gravely hurt the Court’s own statues, as will be perceived as acting in against the will of the public (the right to override Knesset law is not formally granted to the Israeli high court, and therefore lies in the heart of a political controversy). Already, there are threats from leading politicians to the court not to intervene in this issue, or else they would limit the court’s power. This has become a true watershed moment for Israel.

Furthermore, there are those on the left who believe that going to the court would play into the hands of those who initiated the boycott law, and ultimately strengthen the ability of the right to introduce such pieces of legislation. Read this though-provoking piece from Yossi Gurvitz on this issue.

What about the Israeli public? Does it support this law?

Right now, yes. A poll found 52 percent of the public supporting the anti-boycott law, while only 31 opposes it.

Mike Asks: Is full boycott illigal as well?

Yes. for example, if an Israeli writes a letter to an foreign artist and suggests he cancel his gig in Tel Aviv as long as the occupation goes on, he could potentially be sued by the producer, and any other person who thinks this act hurts him. I guess that even by the bartender could sue – and they won’t have to prove damages. Calls for boycott of academic institutions are illegal too.

Alex asks regarding Foreign nationals in Israel – does the law include them too?


Yes. When in Israel, one needs to obey Israeli laws, including ones concerning damages. From what I understand from ACRI (Association of Civil Rights in Israel, which has been in the frontline of the struggle against the law), the anti-boycott law would include foreign nationals as well – as long as they make the boycott call while in Israel. One reservation is that it’s not a criminal law, so you need someone to actually sue you for damages, and the court needs to be able to collect them. My guess is that if this law remains active, rightwing and settlers’ organizations will become serial prosecutors plaintiffs of boycotts in order to silence dissent, and, of coarse, make some money on the way.

The law doesn’t apply to foreign nationals in the West Bank, which is under military rule and not Israeli civilian law.

how about Israelis abroad?

The law should apply to Israelis everywhere in the world, so theoretically, if a Boycott from Within activist gives a lecture in London, he could be sued by a fellow citizen upon his return to Israel. Still, it seems that suing over offenses done abroad will be more complicated; check out Woody’s comment from 12:51PM for a discussion of some of the problems it raises. I could only add that with every new law–not just this one–it’s hard to predict the outcome of such borderline cases. We can only wait the rulings of Israeli courts to see how they interpret the law.

Is discussing or repealing the law legal?

Yes it is. Remember that it is not a criminal law but a tort one, so as long as you don’t advocate boycott while repealing the law, nobody has “a reason” to sue you.
You can write your questions on the boycott law in the comments, and I will do my best to answer them.

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*Noam Sheizaf: I am an Independent journalist and editor.

I have worked for Tel Aviv's Ha-ir local paper, for Ynet.co.il and for the Maariv daily, where my last post was deputy editor of the weekend magazine. My work has recently been published in Haaretz, Yedioth Ahronoth, The Nation and other newspapers and magazines.

I was born in Ramat-Gan and today live and work in Tel Aviv. Before working as a journalist, I served four and a half years in the IDF.


About +972: Is a blog-based web magazine that is jointly owned by a group of Israeli journalists and bloggers. The writers’ goal is to provide fresh, original, on-the-ground reporting and analysis of events in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The name of the magazine is derived from the telephone area code that is shared by Israel and the Palestinian territories