What exactly does the anti-Boycott bill say?

[Jos]

This afternoon, the Israeli Knesset is expected to pass a controversial ’anti-boycott’ law. This law will criminalize Israeli support for the Palestinian led Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement. Some in Israel are saying that the law is anti-free speech and will limit freedom of expression by Israeli citizens that want to protest Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

What exactly does the anti-Boycott bill say? | Joseph Dana

Protesters held up signs reading “This law will destroy democracy,” “Stop the Boycott Bill,” “The settlers are not above the law” and “Fascism will not stand.”

“I think that Israel is slowly but surely becoming an authoritarian state,” demonstrator Tuvia Goodman of Tel Aviv said. He said that though Israel is the only democratic state in the Middle East, it is “going towards dictatorship.”

Opposition MKs intensify efforts ... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics

 

[alexa]

This afternoon, the Israeli Knesset is expected to pass a controversial ’anti-boycott’ law. This law will criminalize Israeli support for the Palestinian led Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement. Some in Israel are saying that the law is anti-free speech and will limit freedom of expression by Israeli citizens that want to protest Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

What exactly does the anti-Boycott bill say? | Joseph Dana

Protesters held up signs reading “This law will destroy democracy,” “Stop the Boycott Bill,” “The settlers are not above the law” and “Fascism will not stand.”

“I think that Israel is slowly but surely becoming an authoritarian state,” demonstrator Tuvia Goodman of Tel Aviv said. He said that though Israel is the only democratic state in the Middle East, it is “going towards dictatorship.”

Opposition MKs intensify efforts ... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics

Well it certainly has been anticipated as being an anti free speech and civil liberties and indeed democracy but this guy believes it is no problem at all. His belief is that no one will fall foul of the law because the law wrongly believes that the motivation for boycott is to destroy Israel when no one is trying to do that.

In this bill, "a boycott against the State of Israel" [means] deliberately avoiding economic, cultural or academic ties with another person or another party 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.

The Magnes Zionist: Why Endorsing Partial Boycotts of Israeli Products, or Even Global Boycotts, Doesn’t Violate the Proposed Anti-Boycott Law

He doesn't say he is a lawyer but he certainly makes a good point. No one is wanting a boycott only because of ties with Israel.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

The anti free speech part of this bugs a bit.

But I am not really that upset that expressing support of a criminal enterprise is ok with anyone.

 

[alexa]

The anti free speech part of this bugs a bit.

But I am not really that upset that expressing support of a criminal enterprise is ok with anyone.

Genuine question - where is the criminal enterprise?

 

[Shogun]

Do you really have to ask? if so, you must be a jew hating antisemite.

 

[ForeverYoung436]

Do you really have to ask? if so, you must be a jew hating antisemite.

OK, I wanna know how Shogun has 388 Rep points, and me only 12. He must be sleeping with the judges. No fair.

 

[alexa]

Gush Shalom are now taking the matter to the High Court and the 'left' have been demonstrating against this law

The boycott law is another attempt by the parliamentary majority in Israel to silence any criticism against the government's policies in general and its policies in the occupied territories in particular, and prevent an open and productive political discourse, which is the backbone of a democratic regime," the petition said

-snip Israeli leftist organizations launched Tuesday a series of protests against the boycott law passed in the Knesset the night before.

The Gush Shalom movement took its campaign to the legal level and filed a petition to the Supreme Court claiming the boycott law is unconstitutional and anti-democratic.

"The boycott law is another attempt by the parliamentary majority in Israel to silence any criticism against the government's policies in general and its policies in the occupied territories in particular, and prevent an open and productive political discourse, which is the backbone of a democratic regime," the petition said.

-snip-

"The public protests against the destruction of democracy will not stop with polite petitions to the Supreme Court," Peace Now said in a statement, "The first to feel the struggle will be the factories in the territories, which will first the first time feel the economic impact of an ideological boycott."

-snip According to the law, a person or an organization calling for the boycott of Israel, including the settlements, can be sued by the boycott's targets without having to prove that they sustained damage. The court will then decide how much compensation is to be paid. The second part of the law says a person or a company that declare a boycott of Israel or the settlements will not be able to bid in government tenders.

Israeli Left launches public campaign against new law banning boycotts - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News


However Lieberman is saying that it is not the position of the Supreme Court to intervene in Knesset decisions

FM: High Court shouldn't interven... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics

wonder how long the Supreme Court will last.

 

[CitizenPained]

Lieberman is a boob and everyone knows it. He has a stage right now only because of the last election and the scramble for coalition government.

The anti-boycott law is this:

If you boycott Israel, you can get 'sued' for damages.

It will be shot down. Israelis like to air their dirty laundry and get all dramatic and shit.

 

[CitizenPained]

Also, Alexa, if you don't know Israeli politics or Hebrew or anything about what you're talking about...stop pretending like you do with your never-read Ha'aretz postings.

 

[CitizenPained]

The anti free speech part of this bugs a bit.

But I am not really that upset that expressing support of a criminal enterprise is ok with anyone.

Genuine question - where is the criminal enterprise?

The NGOs in Israel are notoriously anti-Israel, pro-PLO/Hamas. The few human rights groups in Israel that are legit are not the big issue. The big issue is the 'NGO'/'non profit'/'non political' (HAHAHA) entities that operate in Israel that act against it.

They tend to perpetuate myth, feed the media with PLO propaganda, fudge photos, bla bla bla.

Israel has entertained them for so long (and don't forget - it is a democracy that allows Palestinian protests and such) that apparently it got fed up because it's in a legitimacy campaign right now.

 

[alexa]

Also, Alexa, if you don't know Israeli politics or Hebrew or anything about what you're talking about...stop pretending like you do with your never-read Ha'aretz postings.

that's just cheap

 

[alexa]

Ok Jos, I think I have found something which describes it all well.

Israel's boycott law: The quiet sound of going fascist
This is the one. This is where the slope turns nowhere but down. When the Knesset passed the boycott law, it changed the history of the state of Israel

This is the one. Don't let what we like to call the relative calm here, fool you. When the Knesset passed the boycott law Monday night, it changed the history of the state of Israel.

In real time, a tipping point of great magnitude can sound a lot like nothing at all. But if the Boycott Law makes it past challenges filed by human rights and pro-peace organizations in Israel's High Court of Justice, then anything goes, beginning with democracy itself.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak and 10 other cabinet ministers already know this. That's why they failed to show up for the vote.

They stayed away because they know that this is the stain that may prove indelible. The Boycott Law is the litmus test for Israeli democracy, the threshold test for Israeli fascism. It's a test of moderates everywhere who care about the future of this place.

This is the one. This is where the slope turns nowhere but down.

Q. What is wrong with the law?

1. The measure curbs political freedom of expression in Israel in a number of ways, setting potentially significant – and dangerous – precedents. It allows any individual to, in effect, become a private law enforcement agency, empowered to bring lawsuits against anyone or any group the plaintiff accuses of having taken part in or even simply supported any action the plaintiff construes as a boycott against Israel, against the settlements, or even any individual Israeli, for any reason.

2. The measure erases the legal differentiation between settlements and Israel proper, regarding targeted boycotts against goods from the settlements as actions harmful to the state of Israel itself.

3. The Knesset's apolitical Legal Advisor Eyal Yinon has ruled that the law's broad definition of "boycotting the state of Israel", coupled with its "civil wrongdoing" or anyone-can-sue clause, may compromise freedom of expression where it comes to public debate over the fate of the West Bank. Prior to the Monday vote, Yinon stated that the law could be brought to bear against targeted boycotts "whose goal is to influence the political debate in connection with the future of Judea and Samaria, a discussion which has been at the heart of political debate in Israel for more than 40 years now."

4. The effect of the law could be crippling to the efforts of all organizations and many individuals working for Israeli-Palestinian peace and enhanced freedoms and human rights within Israel and the territories. The rabid anti-NGO campaigns of Im Tirtzu and other groups could escalate into a full-bore "lawfare" offensive, hauling them repeatedly into court and costing them prohibitive legal fees.

Q. Who benefits from all of this?

For the hard right, this is a clear win-win. First, there is the language of the law, through which Israel effectively and without fanfare annexes the settlements, and, in so doing, acknowledges that the settlements have annexed the state of Israel.

Secondly, the more untenable the law, the more anti-democratic its spirit and the more delusional its provisions, the more it delights those within the pro-settlement power base. Furthermore, this increases the likelihood that the High Court – reviled by the far-right and radical religious - will strike it down, only adding luster to those who incite against the Court.

Q. Who is fighting the law?

The Gush Shalom organization Tuesday filed the first High Court legal challenge to the new law.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Coalition of Women for Peace, Physicians for Human Rights, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, have also announced that they will challenge the law in the High Court. Peace Now and the Solidarity (Sheikh Jarrah) movement have begun collecting thousands of personal pledges advocating boycotts against settlement.

A number of U.S. Jewish organizations have condemned the bill, notably the Anti-Defamation League, which generally refrains from criticizing Israeli government policy and actions. ADL President Abraham Foxman said the bill was a disservice to Israeli democracy. J Street and Ameinu were among other U.S. groups to denounce the law.

Q. How dare you call this a step toward fascism in Israel?

I'm pretty much no different from everybody else here - just learning by doing. I’m learning about fascism one step at a time. "Now they tell me," I'm thinking to myself. I’m learning that the success of the Boycott Bill is a textbook case of the quiet appeal, the brilliant disguise, the endlessly adaptable expertise in the workings of democracy , that help explain the progress of fascism in our time. So this is what I've found out so far:

At first, it doesn't feel like fascism. That's why it works.

At first, to people whose nerves are bleeding and torn and altogether shot from generations of bearing arms and bearing wars and bearing children who will face still more wars, and between them, chaos and trauma and fury and grief and going without, fascism can sound like quiet. It can sound like actual calm. It's an understandable mistake. What have these people had to compare it to?

To people who feel vilified on reflex and demonized by rote, this new direction of ours can feel like freedom. That's why it works in a place like this. While it's getting up to speed, fascism's just another word for nothing left to lose.

This is the one. Don't let what we like to call the relative calm here, fool you. When the Knesset passed the boycott law Monday night, it changed the history of the state of Israel.

In real time, a tipping point of great magnitude can sound a lot like nothing at all. But if the Boycott Law makes it past challenges filed by human rights and pro-peace organizations in Israel's High Court of Justice, then anything goes, beginning with democracy itself.
Knesset vote - Michal Fattal - July 11, 2011

Members of the Knesset voting on the boycott bill, July 11, 2011
Photo by: Michal Fattal

Join Haaretz.com on Facebook and share your views on this article

Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak and 10 other cabinet ministers already know this. That's why they failed to show up for the vote.

They stayed away because they know that this is the stain that may prove indelible. The Boycott Law is the litmus test for Israeli democracy, the threshold test for Israeli fascism. It's a test of moderates everywhere who care about the future of this place.

This is the one. This is where the slope turns nowhere but down.

Q. What is wrong with the law?

1. The measure curbs political freedom of expression in Israel in a number of ways, setting potentially significant – and dangerous – precedents. It allows any individual to, in effect, become a private law enforcement agency, empowered to bring lawsuits against anyone or any group the plaintiff accuses of having taken part in or even simply supported any action the plaintiff construes as a boycott against Israel, against the settlements, or even any individual Israeli, for any reason.

2. The measure erases the legal differentiation between settlements and Israel proper, regarding targeted boycotts against goods from the settlements as actions harmful to the state of Israel itself.

3. The Knesset's apolitical Legal Advisor Eyal Yinon has ruled that the law's broad definition of "boycotting the state of Israel", coupled with its "civil wrongdoing" or anyone-can-sue clause, may compromise freedom of expression where it comes to public debate over the fate of the West Bank. Prior to the Monday vote, Yinon stated that the law could be brought to bear against targeted boycotts "whose goal is to influence the political debate in connection with the future of Judea and Samaria, a discussion which has been at the heart of political debate in Israel for more than 40 years now."

4. The effect of the law could be crippling to the efforts of all organizations and many individuals working for Israeli-Palestinian peace and enhanced freedoms and human rights within Israel and the territories. The rabid anti-NGO campaigns of Im Tirtzu and other groups could escalate into a full-bore "lawfare" offensive, hauling them repeatedly into court and costing them prohibitive legal fees.

Q. Who benefits from all of this?

For the hard right, this is a clear win-win. First, there is the language of the law, through which Israel effectively and without fanfare annexes the settlements, and, in so doing, acknowledges that the settlements have annexed the state of Israel.

Secondly, the more untenable the law, the more anti-democratic its spirit and the more delusional its provisions, the more it delights those within the pro-settlement power base. Furthermore, this increases the likelihood that the High Court – reviled by the far-right and radical religious - will strike it down, only adding luster to those who incite against the Court.

Q. Who is fighting the law?

The Gush Shalom organization Tuesday filed the first High Court legal challenge to the new law.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Coalition of Women for Peace, Physicians for Human Rights, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, have also announced that they will challenge the law in the High Court. Peace Now and the Solidarity (Sheikh Jarrah) movement have begun collecting thousands of personal pledges advocating boycotts against settlement.

A number of U.S. Jewish organizations have condemned the bill, notably the Anti-Defamation League, which generally refrains from criticizing Israeli government policy and actions. ADL President Abraham Foxman said the bill was a disservice to Israeli democracy. J Street and Ameinu were among other U.S. groups to denounce the law.

Q. How dare you call this a step toward fascism in Israel?

I'm pretty much no different from everybody else here - just learning by doing. I’m learning about fascism one step at a time. "Now they tell me," I'm thinking to myself. I’m learning that the success of the Boycott Bill is a textbook case of the quiet appeal, the brilliant disguise, the endlessly adaptable expertise in the workings of democracy , that help explain the progress of fascism in our time. So this is what I've found out so far:

At first, it doesn't feel like fascism. That's why it works.

At first, to people whose nerves are bleeding and torn and altogether shot from generations of bearing arms and bearing wars and bearing children who will face still more wars, and between them, chaos and trauma and fury and grief and going without, fascism can sound like quiet. It can sound like actual calm. It's an understandable mistake. What have these people had to compare it to?

To people who feel vilified on reflex and demonized by rote, this new direction of ours can feel like freedom. That's why it works in a place like this. While it's getting up to speed, fascism's just another word for nothing left to lose.

I have friends whose livelihood is bound up with preserving the sense that democracy in Israel is as sound as ever; that if it's under attack, it's only from enemies foreign and domestic. I feel for them now. They'll have to dismiss or minimize or ignore the Boycott Bill. They'll have to pretend. At first, they could hope that no one would notice or care. Not, as they say, bloody likely. Fascism, the human construction that it is, has its better days and worse, and Monday was the best ever.

And this was not only because the day began with Glenn Beck being hosted in the Knesset by Likud MK Danny Danon, the carefully coiffed Mad Hatter of Israeli Tea Party wannabes.


It was how the day ended that mattered.

Q. What's next in line?

A list of new bills, beginning next week, each designed to choke debate, gag protest, punish criticism, and/or cement the rule of the right. First up: The return of a bill to create McCarthyesque committees to investigate organizations the panels deem leftist. The bill was originally withdrawn for lack of votes in Knesset, but, buoyed by the success of the Boycott Law, the McCarthy Bill's sponsors now believe they can win passage.

Q. Do you see any cause for hope at all?

Paradoxically, the Boycott Law may yet prove to be a disaster for its primary sponsors, the settlement movement. First, there is the economic element. While the law appears to effectively annex the territories, erasing any legal difference between Israel proper, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it may single-handedly spur an unprecedented world protest boycott on settler-produced goods. And thanks to the sweeping language of the boycott law, the poison written in smoke and fun-house mirrors, the boycott may extend to the Golan as well, in particular, to Yarden wines.

But what may more effectively stymie the march toward fascism in Israel are the budding doubts of the supporters of laws such as these. You could hear them on Tuesday, headed by Likud Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, forced by the absence of Netanyahu and Barak to defend the law on his own.

The former Peace Now activist, sounding pained and put-upon, condemned boycotts as inherently undemocratic and illegitimate. In terms that were as worthy a description as any of the Boycott Law itself, Steinitz called boycotting "a belligerent attempt to impose one's will on a public which thinks otherwise".

The whole thing nuts and bolts.

A Special Place in Hell-Israel News - Haaretz Israeli News source.

 

[CitizenPained]

Also, Alexa, if you don't know Israeli politics or Hebrew or anything about what you're talking about...stop pretending like you do with your never-read Ha'aretz postings.

that's just cheap

All you do is post anti-Israel shit. Ha'aretz is fringe left. It always has been, but moreso in the last 15 or 20 years...it's not even read in Israel.

 

[Jos]

Also, Alexa, if you don't know Israeli politics or Hebrew or anything about what you're talking about...stop pretending like you do with your never-read Ha'aretz postings.

that's just cheap

All you do is post anti-Israel shit. Ha'aretz is fringe left. It always has been, but moreso in the last 15 or 20 years...it's not even read in Israel.

You yourself quoted Haaretz just today

Uh-huh. Peace-activated 'justice'.



US Woman Raped, Silenced by anti-Israel Group

Ha'aretz is pretty freaking liberal and has mostly Arab/Pal staff, so don't even accuse me of being partisan on that one. You cover yourself the f up so you don't get mauled.

 

[alexa]

Also, Alexa, if you don't know Israeli politics or Hebrew or anything about what you're talking about...stop pretending like you do with your never-read Ha'aretz postings.

that's just cheap

All you do is post anti-Israel shit. Ha'aretz is fringe left. It always has been, but moreso in the last 15 or 20 years...it's not even read in Israel.

Actually I am more likely to quote from Jews for Justice for the Palestinians. Ever thought how far right Israel has gone in the last 15 or 20 years?

Second you need to make a difference between critical of Israel and anti Israel. I doubt very much that many if any Haaretz reporters are anti Israel. I am anti a lot of Israel's actions and I would not agree with her being established if it was being decided today. It never would happen today. We have moved on from the colonial ideology which allowed it. The world is a smarter place.

However, I accept that Israel is now here and that there are people who have been living there for over 60 years and born there, so I accept Israel. I accept it is home to the people who are living there and that some people have put a lot of work into it.

You know what. I suspect that if in the beginning the Jewish people had included the Palestinians rather than keeping separate a much better situation would have ensued. But that didn't happen and instead we had history. Peace should have come a long time ago. It is Israel's greed over the settlements. The settlements must be removed in the main and the Palestinians must have a contiguous State and security and resources and so on.

Once that is sorted out, there is no reason why the two of you cannot live in peace for your mutual benefit - but if the situation is as it is now, with fanatical people taking over their land and with the Palestinians being ever frozen out and having as they have now, no human rights and frequently no resources, living in the West Bank in a separate and unequal society Separate and Unequal | Human Rights Watch it is not going to get my support.

This boycott is an attempt to secure illegal settlements. Needless to say the Palestinians believe it is the end of the quartets hope for negotiations on the '67 boundaries.

I have a different political view that you. I come from the UK. Our most right would probably seem communist to you. Even worse, I come from Scotland. We may very well be voting for independence from the UK because we are far more left than England (apart from the North) and so are not democratically represented in the UK Parliament.

 

[CitizenPained]

that's just cheap

All you do is post anti-Israel shit. Ha'aretz is fringe left. It always has been, but moreso in the last 15 or 20 years...it's not even read in Israel.

You yourself quoted Haaretz just today

Uh-huh. Peace-activated 'justice'.



US Woman Raped, Silenced by anti-Israel Group

Ha'aretz is pretty freaking liberal and has mostly Arab/Pal staff, so don't even accuse me of being partisan on that one. You cover yourself the f up so you don't get mauled.

Yeah. I did that because if Ha'aretz is reporting on it, it must REALLY BE BAD. Get it? Duh.

that's just cheap

All you do is post anti-Israel shit. Ha'aretz is fringe left. It always has been, but moreso in the last 15 or 20 years...it's not even read in Israel.

Actually I am more likely to quote from Jews for Justice for the Palestinians. Ever thought how far right Israel has gone in the last 15 or 20 years?

Israel has gotten more secular. What are you talking about?!

Second you need to make a difference between critical of Israel and anti Israel.

Uh, I do. You are anti-Israel.

I doubt very much that many if any Haaretz reporters are anti Israel.

Then you have some serious logic issues.

I am anti a lot of Israel's actions and I would not agree with her being established if it was being decided today. It never would happen today. We have moved on from the colonial ideology which allowed it. The world is a smarter place.

...Israel was founded on a socialist movement. Come again?

However, I accept that Israel is now here and that there are people who have been living there for over 60 years and born there, so I accept Israel. I accept it is home to the people who are living there and that some people have put a lot of work into it.

Gee, thanks.

You know what. I suspect that if in the beginning the Jewish people had included the Palestinians rather than keeping separate a much better situation would have ensued.

What are you talking about? They kept rejecting a Jewish state. Including them in what? Israeli politics? They have seats in the Knesset. Included the Palestinians outside of Israel? They were under Arab control and were Arab citizens (in WB anyway) for over 20 years. Pals in the WB had Jordan citizenship until King Hussein revoked many people's rights at the request of Arafat.

But that didn't happen and instead we had history. Peace should have come a long time ago. It is Israel's greed over the settlements.

Israel didn't have settlements for 20 years and it was still attacked. Fuck off.

I'm assuming you don't care about the tens of thousands of Jews who were expelled from their Arab homelands, or the Jews expelled from the Jewish Quarter in J'lem, or the Jews that had to leave Gaza and Sinai (more than once) because of wars.

Arabs want NO JEW on their land. Do you understand that? Abbas said 'not a single Jew will step foot in Palestine'.

But they also want access to Israel.

Why doesn't that bother you?!

I have a different political view that you. I come from the UK.

I can tell.

Our most right would probably seem communist to you. Even worse, I come from Scotland.

That explains it. Your country has a history of hosting anti-Israel, pro-terrorist sentiment.

I'm really sorry you can't see the truth and the history. You seem like a nice girl. But please believe me when I tell you that I'm a bleeding heart secular atheist liberal and I'm telling you, you're not seeing the whole picture.

Arabs have rejected the Jewish state (or the idea of it) since the beginning. Since BEFORE Israel existed -- look at the Hebron massacre, the Nazi mufti of Jerusalem, the anti-Jewish Turkish quotas...this violence is not a direct result of Zionism.

Labor Zionism was a socialist and communist movement.

After Hebron, after the White Papers, it all went to shit.

But I tell you, Israel was built by leftists.

 

[abu afak]

Also, Alexa, if you don't know Israeli politics or Hebrew or anything about what you're talking about...stop pretending like you do with your never-read Ha'aretz postings.

that's just cheap

All you do is post anti-Israel shit. Ha'aretz is fringe left. It always has been, but moreso in the last 15 or 20 years...it's not even read in Israel.

Alexa is a Specialist in quoting Leftist Jews or Jews who Hate most other Jews.
"Jews for Justice in...." (Palestine, Scotland, Middle East, etc)
Her current favorite, another one of these.

To Cover her anti-semitism, this has become an almost Exclusive practice of hers.

Quite common really.
One sees other anti-semites Gleefully using people like Norman Finkelfuhrer, Noam Chimpsky, Avnery, or some of the Ha'aretz Israel haters like Hass/Levy etc,

And they (many here) love most the Wacky/Wacked Ultra-orthodox anti-zionist fringe like Neturei Karta, TrueTorahJews, and their websites like JewsNotZionists, etc.
The "good" Jews.
Hate sites also use the above entities as proof/admissions against interest/inside scoop.

-
-

 

[CitizenPained]

This rampant antisemitism is really saddening me.

 

[jillian]

This rampant antisemitism is really saddening me.

they're pathetic, vile, terrorist supporting loons.

 

[CitizenPained]

still stings a little.