Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin has announced Thursday, October 31, he’s pushing a bill to impose 20-year prison sentences on Israelis who advocate for sanctions against the country or its leaders. In other words: 20-year prison sentence for exercising freedom of speech in Israel.
The far-right government craziness in Israel is intensifying after a “Call for International Pressure,” initiated by Academy for Equality activists, was wide-world published last week and signed by over three thousands petitioners, including a group of leading Israeli academics, among them: Anat Matar, Smadar Ben-Natan, Moshé Behar, Tamir Sorek, Rafi Greenberg, Shira Klein, Lior Sternfeld, Ophira Gamliel, Hilla Dayan, Regev Nathansohn, Uri Hadar, Snait Gissis, Amalia Saar, Avishai Ehrlich, Efraim Davidi, Maya Rosenfeld, Avraham Oz, Ronnen Ben-Arie, Yael Berda, Anat Biletzki, Sivan Rajuan Shtang, Hannan Hever, Orly Lubin, Raz Chen-Morris, Hannah Safran, Revital Madar, Ilana Hairston, Amos Goldberg, Tamar Hager and Miriam Eliav-Feldon.
The petition stated, “We, Israeli citizens, living in Israel and abroad, are calling on the international community – the United Nations and its institutions, the United States, the European Union, the Arab League and all the countries of the world – to intervene immediately and apply every possible sanction… put real pressure on Israel for an immediate ceasefire.”
Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem during a hearing on a lawsuit filed against the daily newspaper, January 13, 2020 (Photo: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
On Friday, November 1, Academy for Equality published another call: “Stop the Extermination in Gaza Immediately”. The call reads: “The war that began with Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7, 2023, has almost immediately turned into a relentless and horrifying assault on the Palestinian civilian population of the Gaza Strip. Time and again, the Israeli government has shown that its declared war objectives — returning hostages and dismantling Hamas’s rule — are a pretext for erasing Palestinian existence in the Gaza Strip, or at the very least, large parts of it. This is being done by destroying all systems of life, health, education, culture, and religious beliefs; by extensive harm to journalists and media; repeated transfer and displacement of populations between different areas; by denying basic living conditions, starvation, and killing of thousands, including a high number of children and women. As an organization of 900 academics who are citizens of Israel, we promptly sounded an alarm about Israel’s war crimes and the heavy toll they are taking, including the destruction of Gaza’s higher education system. As the criminal offensive has expanded to Lebanon and intensified in Gaza and the West Bank, we are even more committed to raising our voices now.”
“The current attack on the northern Gaza Strip, which began on October 5 this year, aims to clear the area of its Palestinian residents and clearly constitutes a crime against humanity. At this moment, the Israeli military, under orders from the Israeli government, is committing severe and unprecedented crimes against a civilian population. Whether defined as ethnic cleansing, extermination, or genocide, it is the duty of every Israeli citizen to do all they can to stop these crimes. In addition to the immediate victims, these heinous actions are disastrous for people of both nations and the entire region.”
“Most of us live in Israel and speak Hebrew. We see how the government, popular media outlets, and large parts of civil society have rallied into a propaganda machine, manufacturing broad public consent in Israel and silencing dissenters and protestors, including survivors of October 7 and families of hostages, both Jewish and Arab. We are confident that our actions serve our loved ones and the long-term interests of everyone living between the river and the sea. As members of the academic community, we urge intellectuals, higher education institutions, and academic associations to join this call. We call on the international community, especially the United States that continues to arm and support Israel’s actions, to change course and do everything possible to stop these horrific crimes.”
In addition, the Israeli daily Haaretz faced fresh threats of sanctions from the far-right government this week after its publisher, Amos Schocken, referred to Palestinians as “freedom fighters” during a conference speech. Following the far-right backlash, Schocken issued a statement saying: “For the avoidance of doubt, Hamas are not freedom fighters. The seventh of October was a shocking event and in an article in the newspaper I wrote that the initiators and the perpetrators should be severely punished.”
Schocken made the comments in a Haaretz conference in London last Sunday, sparking calls from the far-right government ministers to restrict the outlet’s activities and pull government-linked advertisements from it. “The Netanyahu government doesn’t care about imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population,” he said at the conference.
“It dismisses the costs of both sides for defending the settlements while fighting the Palestinian freedom fighters, that Israel calls terrorists,” he said. “In a sense, what is taking place now in the occupied territories and in parts of Gaza is a second Nakba … A Palestinian state must be established and the only way to achieve this, I think, is to apply sanctions against Israel, against the leaders who oppose it and against the settlers,” he added.
Speaking at Sunday’s event, Hadash Ayman MK Odeh said: “It is beyond time that the United Kingdom joins the 146 nations officially recognizing Palestine. The U.K. must make good on the government’s promise to support an immediate ceasefire by ending all military, financial, and diplomatic support of the Netanyahu government’s war crimes and working to broker a prisoner-hostage exchange deal. Not a single penny must be allowed to go to the government of Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir to recolonize Gaza and annex all of Palestine.”
In response to the remarks, Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi submitted a proposal on Thursday calling for several government restrictions on the popular daily, including suspending government-linked advertisements and ending individual subscriptions for state employees. The proposal by Karhi’s office said that the government “should not enter into new contracts with Haaretz, including individual subscriptions for state employees, nor renew any existing contracts; all current agreements with Haaretz, including personal subscriptions, will be cancelled as legally feasible”.
It also urged the government’s advertising body to “direct Haaretz to cease all advertisements, including statutory notices, regardless of payment status, and seek refunds for any existing payments. No further ads shall be placed in the publication”.
Justice Minister Levin also sent a letter on Thursday to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, requesting authority to impose restrictions on Haaretz’s operations. “I ask that you urgently provide me with a draft law stipulating that actions by Israeli citizens to promote or encourage international sanctions on Israel, its leaders, security forces, and citizens shall constitute a criminal offence punishable by ten years in prison,” Levin said. “I further request that such an offence during wartime be considered an aggravating circumstance, allowing for the penalty to be doubled.”
“Our ministry is entrusted with the campaign against the delegitimization of Israel, and it is astounding to specifically see a supposedly Israeli organization acting against Israel from within,” Diaspora Affairs Ministry Director-General Avi Cohen-Scali said. Education Ministry Director General Meir Shimoni likewise ordered an end to all cooperation with Haaretz, telling staff in a letter that Schocken’s remarks “contradict the values of the education system.”
It was not the first time the left-leaning paper came under calls for censorship by right-wing Israeli politicians. In November 2023, shortly after the 7 October war began on Gaza, Karhi pushed for the government to end advertising in the newspaper and cancel all subscriptions for state employees.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32194
