The Knesset easily passed on preliminary reading on Wednesday a bill that would make it illegal to use the word Nazi and Nazi symbols, but Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said the measure violates freedom of speech. Only 19 Knesset Members voted against the bill, sponsored by ruling right-wing Likud Knesset Member Shimon Ohayon, with 44 in favor, but the preliminary passage does not necessarily indicate the fate of the bill, which might end up being buried in a committee. If it reaches the Knesset floor again, the bill needs approval on second and third readings before becoming law. According to the proposal, a person who uses the word Nazi or a derivative, a Holocaust symbol such as concentration camp inmates garb or yellow stars of David, or a Nazi symbol, could be imprisoned for six months and fined the equivalent of USD 28,654.

The Israeli parliament – Knesset (Photo: Al Ittihad)

 MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) noted the extensive use of Nazi terminology by Israeli politicians, including by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He criticized the undefined scope of the law. “This law is formulated negligently,” he said. “According to the text, even somebody who calls Hitler a Nazi is breaking the law. Whoever makes a film about the Holocaust will go to prison. They are proposing here to send the prime minister to prison for comparing [former Iranian president Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad to Hitler.”

The attorney general Yehuda Weinstein has deemed the bill unnecessary. Weinstein wrote his opinion that while there is no question that the improper use of Nazi symbols is disgusting, it does not mean that everything which offends the public should be a criminal offense. Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem holocaust memorial museum, said that this legislation is not the correct venue to deal with inappropriate use of Nazi symbolism. “I would prefer if through education, through the spirit of public debate, there was an atmosphere where these terms would not be so easily used and abused,” he said in a statement.