Thursday, March 27, 2008
More Suppression of Freedom of Speech in Israel
offered tenure at Ben Gurion University :
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1206446111162&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
2. I just found out that the Rev Wright went to my high school.
3. The latest from the Columbia Madrassah:
4. Judicial Tyranny and The Israeli First Amendment suppress freedom
of speech once again:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125685
Six-Month Sentence for Asking: Should We Expel Arabs or Jews?
20 Adar Bet 5768, 27 March 08 11:38
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
(IsraelNN.com) Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov, convicted over a private referendum he
conducted, was sentenced on Tuesday to 200 hours of community service,
along with a suspended sentence of six months in jail. Ben-Yaakov's parole
period is to last for three years. About 50 demonstrators, including some
musicians playing protest songs, showed up outside the Jerusalem
Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, where sentencing took place.
Ben-Yaakov, of Kfar Tapuach, was convicted for "incitement to racism" as a
result of a street referendum he designed prior to Israel's unilateral
withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. His referendum asked which was preferable:
then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan, which would expel
Jews from Gaza and Samaria, or an alternate plan to expel hostile Arabs
from Israel. More than 100,000 people from Israel's major cities
participated in the referendum, with over 90 percent saying they would
rather expel hostile Arabs.
"It's outrageous that a country that calls itself a democracy can put
someone on trial for making a referendum," Ben-Yakov told the press before
sentencing. "A referendum is the purest form of democracy..
Ben-Yaakov believes he was charged with incitement not because of the
nature of the referendum, but because it demonstrated to the government to
what extent the Disengagement Plan went against the will of the majority.
Participants in Ben-Yaakov's referendum were given a ballot card asking if
they "prefer the 'Sharon/Peres Disengagement Plan,' which includes
transferring Gaza and parts of the West Bank to Palestinian control and
expulsion of all Jews who live there. Or do you prefer the 'Jewish
Alternative Disengagement Plan,' which includes annexing these territories
and expulsion of the Arabs living there to an area outside Israel, deep
beyond a safe security buffer zone?"
Jerusalem-based Human rights activist Attorney Irving Gendelman calls into
question the validity of the incitement law and asks, "Would a person be
culpable if his alleged act of incitement was intended only to express an
opinion on political issues inherent in a democratic country?" Gendelman
says that use of the law at the expense of basic human rights inclusive of
the right to democratically oppose governmental political policies "is an
anathema." He concludes, "In Israel, it is debatable whether full freedom
of expression within democratic norms is permitted by the Israeli
Government."
Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov, formerly known as Mike Guzofsky, moved to Israel from
New York. He ran the Hatikva Jewish Identity Center for one of the Jewish
Defense League branches in New York City.
5. Ms. Jihad:
6. Let us hope they are correct:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3524193,00.html
7. More Pestilinian Holocaust Denial: at http://www.jpost.com
/servlet/Satellite?cid=1206446102177&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
8. Bashing Israel in Paris:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=3F1C765D-D644-4488-B009-6C70CCCF1ABE
9. Another Jewish .academic. for jihad:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=D54FDFAB-ADF3-439C-9FD8-AEC1840CC610
10. Condolences to Israel activist Adina Kutnicki of Elmwood Park, NJ
for the untimely passing of her husband Frank.
