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The approval came "after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ruled in August that no investigation should be launched against such groups." Opposition MKs and human rights groups vocally disapproved. As a result, the Knesset debate was stormy, "charged, (and) filled with heckling and interruptions." So much so that security guards were present "to prevent physical altercations" between opposing sides.
MK Nitzan Horowitz called the initiative "a shame on the Knesset....The persecution campaign against human rights and citizens rights groups has reached a new low. (It's) a brutal act of political persecution using a coalition majority and Knesset funding, under the legal guise of an investigation committee. Human rights and citizens rights groups save the honor of Israel in the world and maintain its character as a democratic state." Extremist MKs want to destroy it. "All to whom Israeli democracy is dear must oppose this committee of persecution."
Gideon Levy's Critical Op-Ed
In Haaretz on January 6, he headlined, "When did it become illegal to be a leftist in Israel," saying:
"The police, the legal system, the Knesset, the Shin Bet, and the IDF have joined forces with the propagandists of the right to act as prosecutors without a trial." Coming next perhaps will be "declar(ing) the left an illegal entity....From then on, whoever thinks left, acts left, demonstrates left or tolerates left will belong in jail."
Israel stands humiliated, shamed and exposed for its extremism. As a result, a "land-stealing settler is a Zionist; a warmongering right-winger is a patriot; an inciting rabbi is a spiritual leader; a racist who expels foreigners is a loyal citizen. Only the leftist is a traitor."
What Knesset members proposed would even make Joe McCarthy and some of today's American right-wingers blush. Though never finding any, McCarthy targeted alleged communists for political advantage. America's current Congress pursues terrorists, again for the same purpose and as justification for Washington's imperial wars.
As a result, personal safety in both countries is jeopardized. The common atmosphere is charged with extremism, racism, militarism, and opposition to anyone challenging state authority, especially its most lawless aspects, targeting innocent people at home while rampaging abroad against groups or nations posing no threat to either country.
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