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Under a newly proposed Knesset bill, however, any organization may be outlawed "if there a reasonable basis to conclude that the organization is providing information to foreign bodies or is involved in lawsuits abroad against senior officials in the government of Israel and/or officers in the Israeli army regarding war crimes."
Other human rights activists and Arab Knesset members are also at risk. Mohammad Barakeh and Said Naffaa had their parliamentary immunity stripped, and face criminal prosecutions.
According to the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the "charge of meeting a foreign agent (is vague and broad enough to criminalize) almost any Arab who establishes legitimate relations with political and social activists in the Arab world." Or perhaps anyone anywhere.
Targeting Political Activists
At any time, Israel holds from 7,000 - 12,000 prisoners, mostly for political, not criminal reasons, and in detention they're treated harshly. They're violently arrested, beaten on the way to detention, interrogated up to six months for as long as 18 hours or longer a day, during which time, torture, abuse, and other degrading treatment is commonplace.
Afterwards, they're either held administratively or charged with one or more bogus offenses, then (unless lawyers arrange plea bargains) tried in military, not civil, courts where international and Israeli laws don't apply. Justice, of course, is impossible, long sentences often imposed against designated "state enemies" - activists or ordinary people asserting their right to be free.
For months, Israeli security forces, politicians, and extremist groups have been targeting human rights groups and activists for supporting the Goldstone Commission report, the damning account of Israel's crimes of war and against humanity during the Gaza war.
Unlike similar accounts, this one touched a nerve, resonating globally enough to shake Israel's security apparatus and leave top government and military officials vulnerable (if they travel) to prosecutions anywhere under Universal Jurisdiction (UJ) authority. The response - vilify Judge Richard Goldstone and silence internal voices of dissent, the last refuge of scoundrels caught red-handed.
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