Be'er Sheva mayor bans Machsom Watch photo exhibit

[Englander]

By Itim

Be'er Sheva Mayor Ya'akov Turner prohibited Monday the launch of a photo exhibit in the city organized by Machsom Watch, a women's group that monitors the behavior of Israel Defense Forces soldiers toward Palestinians at West Bank checkpoints.

The ten-day exhibit was slated to have opened on Sunday at the Teachers' Center in the city, after completing a month-long run in Tel Aviv.

The exhibit was coordinated in advance with a city council representative and with the mayor's bureau. However, Turner announced on Thursday that he will not allow the exhibit to take place on city property, explaining that its contents are harmful to the sensitivities of the public.

The exhibit's organizers protested what they called, "The mayor's assault on freedom of expression and the use of his authority to prevent political activity that is not compatible with his own world view."

The organizers added that they are appalled by the notion that a mayor in a democratic state can prevent residents from seeing pictures of what goes on in the Palestinians territories.

Link;
Haaretz

[Violet_Crumble]

1. For those 'champions' of freespeech when it comes to the Mohammed cartoons

I hope yr all completely outraged by this act of censorship. And for those who know what the definition of censorship is, this falls into it as it's being done by government officials...

Violet...

[Englander]

2. Give 'em time.

It takes time to build up the necessary level of outrage.

;-)

[Violet_Crumble]

4. You'd think just the title of the thread would give them a hint...

...that censorship is afoot and they'd be rushing in to voice their outrage with multiple uses of their favourite words 'censorship', 'freedom of speech'. But then again, the keywords 'Islam' 'Muslim' and 'Mohammed' aren't contained anywhere in the article, so there ya go :)

Violet...

[Englander]

6. Well, that could be the deciding factor.

I found an article that describes the exhibition;

'The ugly face of Israeli checkpoints
By Rachel Shabi in Tel Aviv

Wednesday 08 March 2006,

There is a bottleneck of people at the small entrance to Endless Checkpoints, a recently opened photography exhibition in Tel Aviv.

To get into the main exhibition hall, where pictures of daily strife at a series of West Bank checkpoints are exhibited, visitors must first pass a TV screen showing footage of the Qalandiya checkpoint.

And here is where they stop.

Hundreds of Palestinians are depicted waiting to reach the inspection point, squashed, flanked by wire fences. The camera pauses on a young mother on the edge of tears as she tries to comfort a screaming toddler.

Like the photographs on display inside, this is not an uncommon image. But it is one that it is rarely seen inside Israel.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/538819C6-CAE9-4CFC-9DBA-8A3787D79885.htm

[Violet_Crumble]

7. I'm positive it is...

n/t

[Englander]

10. Yes, certainly looks like it.

Also, this story must be ever-so-confusing, if one is a fan of the checkpoints,
*&* 'free speech', there must be a degree of conflict, over which way to turn!

[Violet_Crumble]

11. After looking through the photos...

..it'd be damn hard for anyone to continue to be a fan of the checkpoints...


Violet...

[pelsar]

21. sure we can....

when the next kid is caught with a bomb at the checkpoint.....and then unfortuantly its becomes justified. unless of couse one prefers dead and maimed bodies to checkpoints....

[Englander]

34. Repugnant strawman.

Which, sadly, is predictable, that the most prejudiced, imo, eg would be used.
I guess it goes with the territory, being a fan of these checkpoints means using
prejudiced arguments to make a case for these checkpoints.

[pelsar]

35. simple history...

no checkpoints...lots dead israelis........

check the history out....not much prejudice in the numbers

[Englander]

36. QED, with regards to my previous point. n/t

[Violet_Crumble]

38. I've checked the numbers...

There's infinitely more dead Palestinians than Israelis. Trying to use security as some bizarre sort of justification for checkpoints in the West Bank is lame...

Violet...

[pelsar]

43. yes there far more dead palestenians than israelis...

i'm not disputing that at all, we have improved greatly in not getting killed while killing....

however before the checkpoints, we had lots of dead do to successful suicide bombers...now we have very very very few....ignoring that simple fact is "closing ones eyes to reality"...those are the numbers i'm talking about.

and the bombs caught at the checkpoints, the knives?...they probably were really meant to hurt anybody...and here I'll save some posts....they're were bombs, lots and lots of succesful suicide bombers before the checkposts,

[Violet_Crumble]

46. There were no checkpoints in 2002?

Wasn't that when most of the suicide bombings were happening?

Violet...

[pelsar]

49. very few.....

and only near the larger cities....and the rules were very lax

[Englander]

53. 'Dozens of new checkpoints'

Israeli Checkpoints Take on New Permanency
By Ben Lynfield
Christian Science Monitor
January 7, 2002

>snip

Dozens of new checkpoints

And no less of a challenge for statehood is that dozens of new Israeli army checkpoints have been established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in moves the army says are aimed at thwarting attacks on Israelis.

While Israel announced last week that it is removing some of the barriers, Palestinians say no real change has been made and that the announcements are a show to impress visiting US envoy Anthony Zinni. "I don't see that it has made a real difference on the ground," says Bassem Eid, director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group.

A leading Israeli analyst of Palestinian affairs predicts that many of the new checkpoints will become permanent. "The Palestinians might be on the way to establishing the first virtual state," says Hillel Frisch of the Besa Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University. "Virtual statehood" would include governing institutions and international recognition, but it would lack territorial contiguity, he says. "The Palestinians have lost the basic trust of the Israelis, so the Israelis will do everything possible to remote-control the state. Israel will want to slice the state up, to keep the checkpoints."

According to Didi Remez, spokesman of the dovish Peace Now group, which opposes settlement construction, an "extremely significant" number of bypass and military roads have been created since the start of the uprising on land seized from Palestinians. A new map issued by the PA's Palestinian Geographic Center, shows 78 new checkpoints.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/israel-palestine/land/2002/0107chkpt.htm

Map;

[Violet_Crumble]

37. Yr 'argument' would make a bit of sense if...

..you were talking about checkpoints between the Occupied Territories and Israel, but these checkpoints are peppered throughout the West Bank...

You know what I prefer? That Israel not insist on having illegal settlements in the West Bank. That it dismantles them and every checkpoint that isn't actually between Israel and the OT. That's what everyone should support, unless of course one prefers humiliation and continued terrorisation of Palestinians...

Violet...

[pelsar]

44. theres a reason for them.....

at first they werent "peppered" throughout the westbank...they increased gradually as the suicide bombers and their handlers got more and more sophisticated at smuggling in their bombers and bombs....and disrupting their methods became more acute

its not that i have any liking for the settlements.....but i do prefer to stay alive in the meantime until its worked out

[Violet_Crumble]

45. Nope, that ain't the reason...

It gets a bit dull and boring when the same lame security 'argument' is used to justify checkpoints that are nowhere near the 'border' between Israel and the Occupied Territories. The reason for them has a lot more to do with making the lives of Palestinians as intolerable as possible and to break their spirit....

Violet...

[pelsar]

50. i take it....

you probably have little understanding of the actual process of how the bombs, bomber and handler get through......

[Violet_Crumble]

54. Nice try but no cigar...

I understand that as well as understanding the tendency to attempt to justify the continued humiliation and oppression of people as being a 'security' measure...


Violet...

[Phx_Dem]

25. Maybe they need to staff the checkpoints better

So the lines are shorter. I could go down to Nogales AZ and take pics of people waiting in long lines to cross the border. I know it's not the same thing exactly, but security is necessary.

[pelsar]

30. its a very slow process....

the checking...and very cruel and very beurocratic for a multitide of reasons....no soldier wants to be the one who let through a bomber that killed 30+ people.....

[Englander]

33. So am I. n/t

[norml]

3. Can't post photos in here either. This forum is the elephant in the DU...

living room.

Concerning the overall nature of the post:

Do not embed graphics or photographs of any kind into your messages. Maps or statistical graphs are okay.

[Violet_Crumble]

8. Were you going to post photos from the exhibition?

I posted a link to the photos. It kind of sucks with the rule about photos, but there's a good reason for that rule to exist, as I've seen in the past :)

Violet...

[Violet_Crumble]

5. Endless Checkpoints...

Here's a link to the exhibit...

http://www.ziv-p.com/MW/

[Violet_Crumble]

9. No takers from the anti-censorship folk?

No surprises there, I guess...

Violet...

[King Mongo]

48. Censorship

There can be good and bad things about censorship. But, lately, maybe I'm leaning more towards the direction of discouraging censorship.

Is there a need to censor photography? Nudity is natural beauty. Nature is almost as beautiful as nudity. Pictures of life is fascinating with its different settings. Pictures of war show us our faults. Pictures of racism show us things which we need to change. Pictures of animal sex, or similar acts don't interest me and so I have no desire to look at them.

Is censorship necessary?

[Tom Joad]

12. This is worse than an assault on "freedom of speech".

It is the sledgehammer of brute power, being used to protect the status quo.

[pelsar]

18. no.....your confused again

fear of printing cartoons is an assult on freedom of speach...as in borders book store refusing to post a magazine because it has the cartoons.

images of the checkposts, of hebron is hardly anything new...nor has anyone ever been threatened by israelis (by palestenians yes) for printing, showing whats happening in the territories.

The mayor may be a bit confused about what free expression is all about...but beersheve is not all of israel...and freedom of expression is a lot freerer in israel than in most western democracies.

He is wrong...nor do I see anybody defending him....

[Tom Joad]

26. I beg to differ.

"nor has anyone ever been threatened by israelis"
"for printing, showing whats happening in the territories."

Ask Uri Avnery about that.

[Violet_Crumble]

39. 'a bit confused about what free expression is all about'

Ferdogssake, it's CENSORSHIP! Remember? Censorship's that thing you were rushing to label any protest against the Mohammed cartoons as without even realising that what you were really doing was trying to stifle the freedom of speech of the vast majority of folk who found the cartoons offensive but didn't engage in violence...

Violet...

[Tom Joad]

13. The Mayor has good reason to fear these women

I think if most Israelis really understood what happens at the checkpoints, the dehumanization of Palestinians that happens day in and day out, that this would be a threat to the status quo.

I won't forget the violence i saw at checkpoints. This is where the Israeli military controls Palestinian lives. For example, one time when i was observing a young soldier propped a m-16 on my shoulder, and fired rounds into an empty field. Just to show his power, just to prove to me that he was crazy (there is a military strategy, that Nixon was fond of, that you do things that appear to be crazy to put fear in your opponents, making you seem to be totally unpredictable, so this might have been this man's thinking... but i tend to go with the theory that he just was a sick young man). Another threatened to strike an old man wanting to go home to his village. Another fired rounds above the head of an old woman who wanted to return home from a medical appointment. The holding of Palestinians who will be released in a few hours (what is the purpose of holding people and then releasing them?) To think this is routine, that anything i saw was repeated at hundreds of checkpoints around palestine on the same day, and then the next, and the next..... is to really grasp that Palestinians are a people under siege, that there is a concerted effort to make their lives unbearable, unlivable. Most of these checkpoints are not near the green line, but in the middle of the West Bank. It is not for "security", it is for control.

this is where Palestinian children, living in the West Bank, encounter Israelis. This is where they learn who Israelis are. Nothing they learn from textbooks is nearly as powerful as seeing grandpa being threatened at a checkpoint by some pimple-faced kid with a US supplied M-16, where fathers are reduced to begging and pleading for passage, and that their work, their lives, are at the mercy of the person who is in charge at the checkpoint on that day.

The people of Machsom Watch know that if there is going to be peace, there must be an end to the daily humiliation of checkpoints and start dismantling the whole apparatus of oppression.

[pelsar]

19. we do know ...

thats where your constantly mistaken....those kids go home on weekends ......their dads did the same.......you somehow believe that that the IDF is not part of the general population......your wrong.

[Englander]

14. Kick for Free Speech. n/t

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Violet_Crumble]

40. Free speech was a veil for some Islamophobes to hide behind...

That much was very clear. They're the ones who got themselves into a frenzy and insisted that the media must keep on republishing a cartoon that was deeply offensive to a lot of people. They're the ones who didn't seem to comprehend that the refusal of many newspapers to reproduce the cartoons wasn't censorship, nor a stifling of freedom of speech, but in many cases a belief that republishing something deeply offensive to Muslims which had been an excuse for extremists to riot would be irresponsible and insensitive and pandering to the Islamophobes who howled for them to be republished...

What the Mayor of Be'er Sheva has done is most definately censorship. Government officials deciding what people can and can't see (with the obvious exceptions of something that's illegal like kiddy porn for instance) fits the description of censorship to a tee. People who say they think a cartoon is offensive aren't supporting censorship - they're expressing their freedom of speech. It appears very much like some people only support freedom of speech and abhor censorship when it's something that fits their agenda...

As for the last bit of yr post, the rules say: 'Do not use the term "Jew" to mean "Israeli".'

Violet...

[Tom Joad]

15. another kick for free speech n/t

[Phx_Dem]

16. What was the Mayor thinking?

Can he be overruled by someone higher up in the Gov?

[pelsar]

17. whats the problem?......

theres a discussion of whether its appropriate or not....i personally see no problem with it, but you will note that no one in israel is being threatened..no embassys being burnt down.

Free speach is exactly that the abiility to express oneself....whether or not something is appropriate or not is also open for discussion (porn in a religious neighborhood)....

but threatening those you disagree with?............or worse being not posting something out of fear? as in borders book store, many newspapers, CNN ..

i'll bet not one of those will have a problem in posting picts from any checkpost...discussing Beersheveas decision-pro and con, as its done in israel today...and none will be afraid of having their head lopped off.

oh yea..for those "sensitive folks who were for censorhip....i would guess your also for censorship here, not wanting to hurt the feelings of some israelis....or is this "sensitive thing...just for the muslims?

[Phx_Dem]

23. I think the pics should be shown

I'm not sure whether you think so or not from your post.

[pelsar]

32. im for them being shown...

and i'm also for the discussion about it as well. There is a constant pull, conflict between various interest groups....the worst situation, as in the cartoons, is where the subject cant even be discussed without some kind of limitations (cant show the subject matter), where people fear for their lives when it comes to the issue.

and perhaps whats even worse....are pseudo liberals who are for censorship and consequently book burning as well.....

[Violet_Crumble]

41. Who are these DUers who were for censorship?

You keep on saying there are DUers who support censorship. Who were they? Coz I saw DUers who expressed their opinion that the cartoons were offensive accused of supporting censorship...


Violet....

[pelsar]

22. no he cant.....

a govt official has no power....a citizen can go to the courts and have his ruling over turned.....you know, the way things work in democracies.....

[Phx_Dem]

24. well he had power enough to stop the exhibit

I know very little about the formal structure of the local Israeli gov. But if a Mayor in AZ was to do this, the decision would be immediately appealed to county or state courts. Mayors have to follow the const. like every one else.

FYI--I don't know whether the pics are an accurate portrayal of the situation but censorship really bothers me.

[Tom Joad]

27. No pictures could even come close to describing the constant

humiliation, degradation Palestinians face every day at the checkpoints.
Grandmothers are denied passage simply because a soldier decides that he doesn't want her to move that day. A musician, who has a violin, is told he must play music for the soldiers.
Many Palestinians have been robbed by soldiers.

It is a violence that is beyond belief.

[pelsar]

29. so so so niave....

did you ever discover why the violen player played his violen at the checkpoint....you should do some research sometimes........

the violence which is beyond belief is when a young lady tells the soldiers that the metal detector goes off because of an operation she had...and then blows herself up and the soldiers....or a bomber slipping through and blows up a bus, a resturant full of families....some obviously prefer that kind of violence (israeli dead) to the lesser violence of the checkpost...to each his own

[pelsar]

28. i have no patience for censorship....

it really depends on the citizens of beersheva..if someone there disagrees....it can go to the courts....and he'll have no choice.

[pelsar]

31. bump for the bookburners....

its seems those of us who are against censorship..see its as a universal......and those who are for censorship and bookburning tend to be very selective as to which groups are more "equal than others"..

but then thats what censorship is all about......some more equal, some less equal (guess who's more and guess whos less?)

[Violet_Crumble]

42. If yr opposed to censorship...

Then can I ask why yr nowhere near as outraged at a clearcut case of censorship as you were when making the mistake of thinking that people who thought the cartooms were offensive were supporting censorship?

Violet...

[pelsar]

51. sure...i'll explain.

liberal societies have the right to protect themselves locally. That means no porno in a religious neighborhood, no anti muslim cartoons in a local paper serving a local muslim community. ....As long as its local, some restrictions have to be accepted.

National newspapers dont have that restriction nor do international media. They cannot restrict themselves to "local sensitivies" since that would mean severe restriction on freedom of the press, of art etc. In fact they must resist all forms of local censorship.

More so democracies are based on solving conflicts by certain non violent means. Conflicts will arise, they always do and in fact those conflicts are based on freedom of expression, freedom of speach. So if some mayor wants to restrict something, i fully expect him to try, just as christians might protest 'deep throat playing in a nearby neighborhood....that is their right to protest.

But they do not have the right to threaten, to scare or use and or imply violence. That is the difference. The mayor should lose if it goes to court, that is obvious, but no one is being threatened, no one is scared. I suspect that he'll forbid the use of municiple buildings...but that wont stop the exhibit. Nor will there be rioting. I may not like his attitude, but that attitude is part of an open society and the tug of wills that make a democracy, hence i 'am not "outraged".

The protest of the cartoons have already killed, have scared borders bookstore into not carrying a magazine out of fear, CNN wouldnt even show the cartoons out of fear......that is worldwide censorship....the threat of violence for those who'show the cartoons"....for those who agree with a worldwide ban...thats worse than bookburning because there is also the implied threat that goes along with it.

[Violet_Crumble]

55. That makes no sense...

You support censorship as long as it's on a municipal level. Gotcha. Unlike you I oppose censorship no matter if it's on a small or large scale...

I've got no clue as to why you appear to think censorship's something not worth worrying about as long as there's not violence involved, especially when you insist on referring to incidents that were NOT censorship...

You also seem to think that censorship in a democracy is somehow more acceptable than in states that aren't democracies. That's the most bizarre justification of censorship I've seen in a while...

btw, I posted a link to an article from The Age that said that the Australian media didn't republish those offensive cartoons coz they didn't feel the need to republish something that would deeply offend Australian Muslims and could discuss the issue without republishing them. Yet back then you insisted that the Age was just making up excuses and in reality they weren't showing them out of fear. So why are you trotting out something about CNN being scared? Have you got a link to CNN actually saying that? I doubt it...

Violet...

[pelsar]

59. you also support censorship...

kiddie porn...
___________________________
so the question then becomes a matter of degree. The Australian media didnt publish because they were afraid for violence. How can anybody decide if the cartoons are offensive or not if nobody can see them? .. They probably showed the pictures from Iraq and the prison correct? They too were shown on CNN...strange isnt it?....a world wide news item about some drawings and yet those same images were never shown?....somehow all of a sudden its not worthwhile to show some cartoons that some will and some wont find insulting? How can anyone discuss if if they cant even see them? The only company that came out bluntly was Borders Book Store that said that security for their employes was more important.

I understand the "tug of wills" that happen in a democracy and i am for it. I think the neo nazis should be out in the open, as should the KKK as well as anti semtic anti muslim mayors. They should be able to attempt to muzzle free speach, that is their right, and i expect them to attempt to try everything that they can to do it, within the confines of the law. Democracy is based on freedom of speach and expression...that means for EVERYBODY, including those who hate others.

And just as you believe kiddie porn should be censored, you probably believe other things as well should be censored (anti allah cartoons?.. I see them as art and i believe should be in a museums-and I see the media as a type of a people museums as museums are not defined by physical walls)

Whereas i do believe in local self censorship, as i mentioned previous, its has to remain local and be voluntary....anything intl has to have no constraints.

_______________________________________

as far as dictatorships go...i see them all as illegal states and anything they do to be non acceptable and i have no expectations for them, other than that they should be all be on the UNs list for countries that have to "go" and have limited rights in any world forum...but thats something else.

i understand that you are for not printing the "anti muslim" cartoons...does this also include Englands award winning anti semetic cartoon?

[Violet_Crumble]

62. No, I don't...

Kiddie porn is illegal. As is many other things like rape and murder. How exactly is that supporting censorship??

Pelsar, yet again you claim the Australian media didn't republish the cartoons coz they were scared. Yet again I'm going to remind you that I posted an editorial in this forum from The Age explaining why they and other major Australian media outlets chose not to republish, and it had zero to do with fear. Why keep on repeating the same thing over and over again when I've supplied a link to an editorial in this forum that proves you wrong?

Anyway, considering you admit you do support censorship, I consider this whole thing trying to accuse me of supporting censorship to be a bit silly. Is there some point to this?



Violet...

[pelsar]

52. my outrage...

is not against those who are insulted (in the cartoon case-some muslims or many....) my outrage is the way pseudo liberals are pro censorship and bookburning.

My outrage is for those who proclaim free speach is important, etc...yet when threatened immediatly cave in and become bona fid bookburners.

Freedom of speach and expression will always be in conflict with various individuals sensitivies....and many cretens will somehow try to explain how some "types of thoughts" should never be heard or seen....for those people i disagree with, but for "liberals" to come along, journalists, book store owners, people who are supposed to defend freedom of speach, to see all of a sudden join the cretens, the bookburners, witchhunters..well for them i am outraged

[Violet_Crumble]

56. You've accused posters here of being pro-censorship...

No-one here was supporting censorship, so could you point me to posts where DUers did support censorship?

btw, yr pro-censorship as long as it's local and not global, so why would it bother you even if there were kindred spirits at DU?

Violet...

[pelsar]

58. there were many remarks...

about how the cartoons shouldnt be shown.....and even fewer defending the right to print them....

and yes i am pro self censorship on a local community level.......as every local community has the rights within the boundries of the law to set some local regulations. Note its regulations and not laws. They can request that their sensitivities be honored, but no more than that.

and of course if there is a disagreement, the only venu is through peaceful protest and the courts.

[Violet_Crumble]

61. I asked you to show me support of censorship...

What you did was tell me some DUers said they thought the cartoons shouldn't be shown. That's not censorship - that's actually freedom of speech...

fwiw, I don't think anyone who supports censorship really is in any position to go around acting outraged about censorship when it happens anywhere, not that censorship was involved in the opinions of any DUer who posted about the cartoons....

Violet...

[Englander]

47. Haaretz;

High Court upholds ban on Machsom Watch exhibit in Be'er Sheva

By Itim

The High Court of Justice has decided not to interfere with Be'er Sheva Mayor Ya'akov Turner's decision last week to ban a Machsom Watch photo exhibit at the Teacher's Center in the city.

Machsom Watch is a women's group that monitors the behavior of soldiers toward Palestinians at checkpoints. The pictures in question depict interactions at the Qalandiyah and Hawara checkpoints in the West Bank.

Turner announced the ban last Thursday, claiming that the contents of the exhibit are harmful to the sensitivities of the public.

Justices Edna Arbel, Miriam Naor and Elyakim Rubinstein ruled that Turner acted in accordance with his authority, which gives him the right to ban a public exhibit in a municipal building.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/700776.html

[Englander]

57. Shulamit Aloni;

'Just make sure we don't know

Machsom Watch women struggle to show what's happening on stolen land
Shulamit Aloni

There once was a nation in whose name the country's hallowed army and security forces, both secret and less secret, committed the most barbaric of crimes.

The country claimed "we didn't know," even as the army looted homes and attacked foreign lands. Government PR/ propaganda was very helpful for people who didn't know.

Our actions are an existential need," they claimed. "The enemy is dangerous," "Our army is the most moral in the world," "Our country needs us, and we are patriots. Therefore, we must be understanding of everything, even if we don't like it," and they continued to sing patriotic songs and to enjoy the spoils they'd stolen.

Then, one day the nation that "didn't know," and the world who figured it out too late, sobered up and woke up to the horrors. Since then, the right to know and even the responsibility to report has become one of the hallmarks of modern society.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3236941,00.html

[pelsar]

60. free speach.....

"Meanwhile, Machsom Watch spokeswoman Adi Dagan told Ynet: "We received a request from the Nachson battalion, asking us to speak to the soldiers about human rights violations at checkpoints and we accepted. Our main activity is watching and documenting the (IDF's) conduct at internal (West Bank)checkpoints."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3219620,00.html

how open societies work...some try to muzzle information but there are other ways of getting it out...all legal.

[Englander]

63. But, not in Beer Sheva.

Have you not realised that? Machsom Watch's right to 'free speech', not free peaches,
has been denied, by the Be'er Sheva Mayor Ya'akov Turner, that *censorship* exists.

[Behind the Aegis]

64. censorship does exist...

European dance magazine bans Israeli articles

[pelsar]

65. its a process:

Dozens of Machsom Watch activists are currently demonstrating in Be'er Sheva in protest of the town's mayor decision to ban the display of a photo exhibit portraying the organization's activity in IDF roadblocks. The groups will file an appeal Sunday against the decision, in a bid to allow for the exhibition to be held

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3235125,00.html

_____

thats how the israeli democracy works....unlike the cartoons where people rioted, and killed people...

I guess israel is once again the "evil israel" for having a democractic process for working out difference of opinion...but them some prefer dictatorships i guess, they're faster in their decisions.

[Englander]

66. So, why aren't you utterly outraged?

The Mayor has censored these activists' exhibition, I thought you were for freedom of
speech, before you were for censorship, before you were against censorship, before you
were for freedom of speech, but only in certain circumstances? I'd have thought that the
levels of outrage would be through the roof, considering that you've said these photos
should be shown...