By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
JERUSALEM, Israel– A bill that would deny government funding to state-supported groups that give monetary support to activity that is deemed “detrimental to the state” was passed through a ministerial committee on July 19. The bill was introduced by Avigdor Lieberman’s ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
Many Palestinians fear that this bill will effectively limit their speech, because supporting “armed struggle or terrorist acts” against Israel or “rejecting Israel’s existence as the state of the Jewish people” are examples of activities that would qualify as “detrimental to the state.”
This bill is a diluted version of a bill that was abandoned in June, after it was deemed to stringent. The original bill was also introduced by Lieberman and the Yisrael Beitenu party. The first bill would have made it a crime to observe “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” on Israel’s Independence Day. Nakba is the Palestinian recognition of the creation of Israel. The holiday is designed to recognizethe “catastrophe” that Israel’s creation was for many Palestinian citizens.
The original bill would have also forced sixteen year-old Israelis and new citizens to take a loyalty oath in order to receive an ID card. The Loyalty oath required each citizen to pledge loyalty to the “State of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state.”
The loyalty oath provision was removed from the newer version, and instead of an explicit banning of the celebration of Nakba, funding restrictions have been imposed. While much less harsh, many Arab citizens of Israel are still very offended by the withholding of government funds for what they see as free speech.
For more information please see,
AFP – Israel Committee Passes Softened Naqba Bill – 19 July 2009
Haaretz – Revised Bill Would Ban Funding Nakba Events – 19 July 2009
Jerusalem Post – ‘Softer’ Version of Nakba Bill to be Approved – 19 July 2009
Reuters- Bill Outlawing anti-Israel Protest Nears Approval– 19 July 2009
Impunity Watch – Israel ‘Loyalty Oath’ Bill Voted Down in Committee – 1 June 2009
