Human rights groups announced yesterday (Monday) that they plan to sue Foreign Minister Ivette (Avigdor) Lieberman for libel after he called them “terror groups” on Sunday. “Your comments constitute mendacious, wild, and thuggish incitement which you dreamed up,” the organizations Adalah, Yesh Din, and Breaking the Silence wrote to Lieberman in a letter. “These are not left-wing and human rights organizations, but terror groups and terror supporters,” Lieberman said Sunday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would not back a bill establishing inquiry committees to probe the groups.
Liberman with a friend, Vladimir Putin (Photo: Haokets)
“All those Adalah, Yesh Din, Breaking the Silence, which provide distorted information, are part of the de-legitimization; all those Marmara activists, who disrupted the IDF’s efforts to defend Israel, who handed the names of IDF officers and soldiers to courts across the world and helped Hezbollah with espionage operations.”
The human rights organizations are being represented by Attorney Michael Sfard, who responded to the foreign minister’s claims. “My clients are organizations that promote an agenda of defense of human rights, coexistence, and peace, and accusing them of terrorism, espionage, and assisting the enemy is an inexcusable lie,” he said. “With your irresponsible accusations you have transgressed all accepted boundaries of public debate. You published libel in order to hurt my clients, and thus to the best of our understanding committed a criminal offense.”
Sfard went on to say that organization heads stopped themselves from filing a suit a few months ago, when Lieberman accused them of assisting terrorists, but after Sunday’s comments could no longer abstain. “Yesterday we realized that you wrongly interpreted our restraint… and that you will not likely stop until someone acts on your comments,” Sfard said. He added that if Lieberman opts to use the immunity granted him as an MK “the Israeli public will understand that you are afraid of the truth”. Lieberman’s office refused comment on the letter, saying “it isn’t necessary to respond to anyone”.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday for opposing a parliamentary committee to investigate the funding of human rights groups.
The passage of the boycott law by the Knesset earlier this week prompted right-wing and fascist legislators to revive the initiative for parliamentary inquiry into human rights groups. Lieberman said on Tuesday he would bring the bill on the parliamentary committees for a Knesset vote next week.
Now the initiative is unlikely to pass the Knesset vote because a majority of Knesset members appear set to vote against it. Lieberman said that Yisrael Beiteinu is very surprised by Likud’s stance on the proposal to investigate NGOs, and that it feels deep discomfort by Likud’s actions on this matter. He noted however that he is not interested in causing a coalition crisis due to Likud’s opposition.
The foreign minister also went on to claim that the parliamentary inquiry panel that his party wants to advance is not aiming against leftist organizations or human rights groups, but against bodies that “delegitimize Israel and aid terror, in particular those who helped the Goldstone committee”.
The General Director of Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Att. Hassan Jabareen stated in response to r Lieberman’s remarks: “Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is known for his racist and hostile positions to democratic values. He continues to spread lies and incite against human rights organizations that operate legally and with full transparency. Lieberman’s remarks today are lies; they are false and baseless. We do not need a certificate of good character from someone who is regarded as a pariah by the international community. Further there are strong suspicions against him for bribery and money laundering.”
Yesterday the Opposition proposed three no-confidence motions stemming from recent anti-democratic and racist bills proposed and approved by the government, which. Hadash filed a motion, claiming that the government is “a failing government that endangers democracy”. The centrist Kadima Party explained that its no-confidence motion is due to the government’s being “without vision or path”. The Labor and Meretz parties explained that their motion was proposed due to the government’s failure to “prevent legislature that harms the state’s democratic character”.
Related:
http://maki.org.il/en/political/133-news/11149-hadash-boycott-bill-violates-freedom-of-expression-
