<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[RACISM ISN’T THE ONLY DANGER FACING ISRAEL TODAY «&nbsp;Desertpeace]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p class="postdate">January 14, 2011 at 18:33									(<a title="View all posts in Activism" rel="category tag" href="http://en.wordpress.com/tag/activism/">Activism</a>, <a title="View all posts in Anti fascism" rel="category tag" href="http://en.wordpress.com/tag/anti-fascism/">Anti fascism</a>, <a title="View all posts in Corrupt Politics" rel="category tag" href="http://en.wordpress.com/tag/corrupt-politics/">Corrupt Politics</a>, <a title="View all posts in Democracy" rel="category tag" href="http://en.wordpress.com/tag/democracy/">Democracy</a>, <a title="View all posts in Free Speech" rel="category tag" href="http://en.wordpress.com/tag/free-speech/">Free Speech</a>, <a title="View all posts in Israel" rel="category tag" href="http://en.wordpress.com/tag/israel/">Israel</a>)</p>
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<div><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"><em>Israel’s  human rights community has been at  the forefront of the struggle  against this state of affairs. Much like the brave  Americans who spoke  out against oppression during the civil rights movement, we  love our  country and are concerned about what might become of it if the status   quo continues.</em></span></div>
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<h2><span style="color:#808000;font-family:Verdana;">McCarthy Comes to the Knesset</span></h2>
<h4><span style="font-family:Verdana;">By Uri Zaki*</span></h4>
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<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">The danger of  the Knesset’s decision to set up a  McCarthy-style committee for  investigating Israeli human rights organizations  was aptly summed up by  Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin. He warned that the inquiry  would be a  “show trial” and stressed in a newspaper interview: “We must stop  this  murky wave.” Regrettably, only two of Rivlin’s colleagues from the   governing Likud party joined him in publicly opposing this sinister  effort,  which was approved in the Knesset by a vote of 41 to 16.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">It seems  inevitable that after 44 years in which  one nation occupies another and  deprives it of basic human and civil rights, the  occupying society  would also come to be affected by the occupation. Indeed,  increasingly  the tools of occupation — the restrictions of personal and  political  freedoms — are no longer confined to the territories. These methods  are  now being extended beyond the Green Line, which divides sovereign  Israel  from the occupied West Bank, and are tainting Israeli democracy.  The rise of  Avigdor Lieberman — whose Yisrael Beiteinu party sponsored  the push for the  investigative panel — and the presence in the Knesset  of unabashed racists like  Michael Ben-Ari, a Kahanist who represents  the National Union party, is  testament to how the ongoing occupation is  penetrating Israeli  society.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Last year, we  witnessed a surge of anti-democratic,  and often racist, legislation and  rhetoric. Now, in the first week of 2011, the  Knesset has launched a  witch hunt against Israel’s human rights community. In  justifying this  initiative, Lieberman accused human rights organizations of  supporting  terrorism. Only 15 years ago, such political incitement led to the   assassination of our prime minister; with his unrestrained vitriol,  Lieberman  has placed a target on the backs of all of us who work on  behalf of human  rights.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">When B’Tselem  was established in 1989 to monitor  human rights abuses in the Occupied  Territories, the organization’s founders  would never have imagined that  the occupation would still exist 22 years later.  They would not have  believed that a third generation of settlers would be born  in the West  Bank, enjoying the full rights of any other Israelis, while   Palestinians in neighboring villages and towns continue to live under  military  occupation, deprived of basic rights such as freedom of  movement, freedom of  assembly, and the right to a fair trial and due  process.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Israel’s human  rights community has been at the  forefront of the struggle against  this state of affairs. Much like the brave  Americans who spoke out  against oppression during the civil rights movement, we  love our  country and are concerned about what might become of it if the status   quo continues.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Speaking in  synagogues and at universities across  America, I encounter American  Jews who have been instructed by the  representatives of established  Jewish organizations to unconditionally support  Israel. To this I  answer that in human affairs the only place where  unconditional love  exists is within a family. If you were to learn that a member  of your  family was headed in a dangerous direction, would you simply support him   or her unreservedly? Or would you try to help your loved one  understand the  dangerous path he or she was taking?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">It is not too  late. Israel is still a democracy.  Only very recently we saw that our  court system did not hesitate to convict a  former president of rape.  Our media is still free and vocal, and yes, our civil  society is more  determined than ever to sustain the only democracy in the Middle  East.  The Knesset has now put Israel’s human rights organizations on the front   line of the struggle to preserve Israeli democracy. We are taking a  stand, but  we cannot do it alone. We need the help of all of those who  care about Israel’s  future.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><em>*Uri Zaki is U.S. director of B’Tselem:  The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied  Territories.</em> </span></span></p>
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<div><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Written </span><a href="http://forward.com/articles/134600/"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">FOR</span></a></div>
<div><strong><span style="color:#111111;font-family:Verdana,Arial;font-size:xx-small;"><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;font-size:xx-small;"><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;font-size:xx-small;"><em>The   views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the   author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.</em></span></span></span></strong></div>
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<p><a href="http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/racism-isnt-the-only-danger-facing-israel-today/">RACISM ISN’T THE ONLY DANGER FACING ISRAEL TODAY « Desertpeace</a>.</p>
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