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Human rights groups under legal threat - Israel
Human rights groups critical of the Israeli government are under threat from a series of anti-democratic bills sweeping the Knesset. The latest anti-democratic legislation - submitted to the Knesset last Wednesday by over forty lawyers - aims to explicitly entrench the status of Israel as a 'Jewish state.’
The proposed law would rescind Arabic as one of Israel’s official languages and make government rule subservient to the state’s definition as 'national home for the Jewish people.' ACRI - the Association for Civil Rights in Israel - says that if the legislation passes it would continue to delegitimize human rights organizations.
This follows foreign minister Avigdor Leibermann’s recent attempt to pass legislation calling on the investigation of groups accused of “anti-Israeli activities” and the foreign funding of such organizations. Several human rights organizations are fighting back under the pressure and plan to sue Leibermann for libel after he denounced them as “terror groups” last month - saying the groups were undermining Israel’s legitimacy.
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“Israel puts pressure on human-rights organization,” 7 August 2011, The National.
“Kadima lawmakers retract support for bill scrapping Arabic as official language in Israel,” 5 August 2011, The Ha’aretz.
“Lawmakers seek to drop Arabic as one of Israel’s official languages,” 4 August 2011, The Ha’aretz.
“New Profile: Why does independent thinking threaten Israeli leaders as much as terrorism?,” 22 July 2011, Mondoweiss.
“Livni: Bill to probe NGOs is anti-democratic, hurts Israel,” 20 July 2011, The Ha’aretz.
“MPs reject bill to probe ‘anti-Israeli’ NGOs,” 20 July 2011, AFP.
“Leftist groups to sue Liebermann,” 18 July 2011, Ynet News.