Democracy in jeopardy: Israel intensifying efforts to quash dissent

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Today a friend asked if I thought the story of Israel's recent deportation of Jared Malsin - the American (and Jewish) editor of a Palestinian news outlet - was important. I responded that if you consider it important that Israel arrests a working journalist, holds him in virtual solitary confinement under miserable conditions for a week until he can't stand it anymore, and then deports him under highly dubious legal circumstances - then yes, it is.

But that is not the whole story. Because this is not an isolated issue.

It is clear to all of us who work on issues related to peace, human rights or Israeli civil society, that the government of Israel is deliberately and systematically upping the ante and increasing the pressure on those who do not toe the Israel policy line.

We are seeing this in the treatment of foreigners who have anything to do with the Palestinians. For anyone who missed it, Israel also deported Faith Rowold, Jared's girlfriend who works as a volunteer for a Lutheran NGO that helps Palestinians in the Bethlehem area. And that, too, was not an isolated incident - for some context, check out this piece in yesterday's Haaretz about Israel withholding entry visas for people working for NGOs.

We are seeing it, too, in the outrageous tactics being used against peaceful and legal protests against the situation in Sheikh Jarrah, where peaceful protesters were arrested last week and spent the Sabbath in jail (36 hours), only to be released without charges as soon as they were brought before a judge (it is expected that they will be treated even worse this week).

And we are seeing this in the heavy-handed approach to foreign diplomats posted to Israel. The world is of course aware of Israel's diplomatic mauling of the Turkish ambassador, but did they notice Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon's comments a few days later threatening to expel ambassadors of countries that criticize Israel? Or did they notice the report yesterday that Israel's foreign minister is accusing diplomats of smuggling money into Gaza and is establishing a new policy requiring that diplomats and their cars be searched before entering Gaza? In one fell swoop Israel is (a) implicitly accusing foreign diplomats of financing Hamas and (b) throwing away hundreds of years of diplomatic custom that makes diplomats (their persons and their vehicles) immune from search. Does Israel seriously expect diplomats to agree to this? Of course not, but the result will be a "chilling effect" - as in, no country will agree to have its diplomats subjected to such treatment and therefore diplomats will stop going to Gaza."

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[aquart]

1. "Held for 36 hours." In what position?

You're talking to torturers here. It's really really REALLY hard to get excited about a day and a half of detention. Were they not allowed to order out?

[Name removed]

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