Israel Must Not Revoke Their Citizenship – Haaretz Editorial

2023/11/06 Leave a comment

Of note. Hopefully one outcome of the war will be the replacement of the Netanyahu government and these extreme ministers:

On October 7, the Israeli Arab actress Maisa Abd Elhadi published two posts. In one, she captioned an image of Yaffa Adar, 85, being abducted by Hamas from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, with the text, “The lady is going on the adventure of her life.” The other showed a tractor breaking through the fence, captioned “Let’s go Berlin style.”

A few days later she was arrested, and last week she was charged with incitement to terrorism and expressing solidarity with a terror organization.

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel was not content with that, and called for the revocation of her citizenship. On Thursday, he approved the publication of a draft law he wrote with Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the architect of the government’s judicial coup, that would enable the revocation of citizenship or residency of a citizen or resident who incited to terrorism or expressed support for terror during wartime.

Levin and Arbel want to expand the list of acts for which citizenship can be revoked. According to their proposal, citizenship could be revoked from anyone who supported terrorism, incited to terrorism or sympathized with a terror organization “while a special situation had been declared in the home front, due to the aggravated severity attended to the commission of such acts at wartime.”

The list of acts included under this definition includes the publication of statements of praise, support or sympathy, waving a flag, displaying or publishing a symbol or displaying, playing or publishing of a slogan or anthem in order to express solidarity.

Arbel and Levin are arming Israel with a weapon that allows it to embark on a literal witch hunt, particularly after Arab citizens. A situation of war does not justify such hysterics. Revocation of citizenship is a draconian step (the practical upshot of which is deportation, or leaving a person stateless) that should not be used, let alone for offenses such as incitement or the expression of identification. We also must not lose the critical distinction between someone publishing a post and those committing or aiding a terror attack.

In addition, according to the bill the person authorized to revoke the citizenship of a person convicted of such offenses will be the interior minister, acting on the recommendation of an advisory committee and the concurrence of the justice minister. Judicial review, according to the draft law, will take place after the decision is made.

In other words, Arbel and Levin will be able to revoke citizenship without court involvement. This is unlimited power, worse than that envisioned by the coup. The government is not a punitive agency; that is the role of the courts. The government coup was stopped, but under the cover of war Levin has continued his fight to eliminate the separation of powers.

This bill could contribute to the silencing of entire groups within Israeli society at best and to political persecution, revocation of citizenship and mass expulsion at worst. Such power cannot be placed in the hands of the government, not even in wartime.

Source: Israel Must Not Revoke Their Citizenship – Haaretz Editorial – Haaretz

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Netanyahu’s evil definition of citizenship – Haaretz

2015/01/15 Leave a comment

Strong commentary in Haaretz by  Zvi Bar’el on implications of Netanyahu’s comments encouraging French Jews to immigrate to Israel:

National purity is the brother of racial purity. When a state creates legislation that discriminates against religious or ethnic minorities, when it denies their language official status and ignores “anonymous” attacks on their holy sites, when their individuality is considered a violation of national unity, that country cannot speak out against other countries that treat their diasporas similarly.

The demand that the Jews of France, Germany or the United States be treated as equal citizens loses its validity when the country that demands this has made clear the Arabs aren’t wanted there and should “return to their homelands.” Such a policy undermines the right of Jews around the world to ask for equal treatment as French, American or German citizens.

Just as Israel is a state of its citizens that must view all of them — Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze — as its reason for existing, Jews in other countries should be considered equal citizens. Each side is entitled to demand equal treatment for its people.

That is the essence of human rights and treaties signed by the countries that have embraced uniform definitions of those rights. French Jews who are fearing for their well-being and flocking to travel agencies should check if the price of refuge in the Jewish state includes forgoing the democratic principles they learned in France.

Netanyahu’s evil definition of citizenship – Opinion Israel News | Haaretz.

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