One of the typical symptoms of election fever
is a life-threatening outbreak of populist legislation. The epidemic
does not distinguish between radical right and center-right, and does
not spare politicians hiding behind the label of
center-left. Unfortunately for those elected officials, the media is
busy these days with public corruption scandals and the governing
coalition crisis over the military draft law for ultra-Orthodox Jews.
They have sidelined the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its
implications, such as the instability of the Palestinian Authority,
Israel’s only potential partner for peace. Nonetheless, Knesset members
are energetically promoting a series of proposed bills that could
indicate the agenda of the coming election campaign. Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu may avoid starring in television and radio campaign
advertising spots in light of his many ongoing criminal investigations,
but his hallmark slogan and the title of the book he published in 1995 —
“Fighting Terrorism” — will continue to take center stage.
On March 5, the Knesset gave overwhelming initial approval
to proposed legislation allowing Israel to deduct money from various
taxes it collects for the PA to punish it for “supporting
terrorism.” Fifty-two lawmakers voted for the bill, which
openly violates a 1994 interim agreement between Israel and the
Palestinians. Only 10 refused to greenlight this distortion of the Paris Protocol,
the interim agreement regulating economic ties between Israel and the
PA under which Israel commits to collect taxes for the Palestinians,
such as customs import duties and income tax deducted from the pay of
Palestinians working in Israel, and transfer these revenues to the PA.
Knesset member Dov Khenin of the Joint List said during the Knesset debate on
the bill that Israel was not doing the Palestinians “any favors” by
handing over the money and was not doing so out of the “goodness of its
heart.” His fellow party member Aida Touma-Sliman suggested changing the
language of the bill to replace the word “deduct” with
“steal.” However, in addition to eight of her party members, only two
Knesset members of the left-wing Meretz opposed the proposed law. Twelve
Zionist Camp Knesset members and eight members of Yesh Atid, both
opposition parties, voted in favor of the bill.
As far as anyone knows, no Knesset member has ever suggested a bill
that would deduct funding for rabbinical colleges or the West Bank
outposts that have served as home to Jewish terrorists, mosque arsonists, students who beat up soldiers and rabbis who incite
against Palestinians. Israeli taxpayers continue to funnel massive
budgets to religious institutions that advocate xenophobia.
State-supported local councils collaborate with Jews stealing
Palestinian lands. No one even considered withholding social welfare
benefits from the widow and orphans of mass murderer Baruch Goldstein,
who killed 29 worshippers in a Hebron mosque in 1994, nor from the
families of other Jewish terrorists.
Supporters of the bill, which faces two additional Knesset votes
before it becomes law, complain that the PA and its leadership “glorify”
terrorists who attack Israelis, while Israel has named innumerable
streets and town squares after the pre-state Etzel and Lehi underground
organizations responsible for the killing of dozens of Arab bus
passengers and passersby as well as British and Jewish soldiers
suspected of collaborating with the enemy. The bill, however, is not
simply an expression of contempt for a signed pact with the Palestinians
for the sake of picking up a few votes. It is being promoted at the
expense of endangering the voters. Subjecting the PA budget to cuts
means withholding pay from its employees, among them members of the
security forces. The greatest beneficiaries of such moves are Hamas and
the Islamic Jihad, the two Islamist Palestinian groups funded directly
by Iran and Qatar. Israeli defense officials consistently praise the
coordination with the Palestinian security agencies that has saved the lives of many Israelis.
On March 6, the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee voted for a bill
initiated by Bezalel Smotrich of HaBayit HaYehudi, authorizing district
police commanders to prevent the handover of Palestinian terrorists’ bodies to their families if an officer entertains “reasonable suspicion”
that the funeral procession would endanger lives by “inciting to
terrorism or identifying with a terrorist organization or activity.” In
explanatory remarks, the bill’s author noted that in some cases, funeral
procession participants have raised banners and made speeches
expressing support for the attack in which the terrorist had died or
calling for additional attacks.
The lawmakers have obviously never seen the funerals of Jewish
settlers killed in West Bank terror attacks. They have never heard
participants’ calls for revenge
and incitement to carry out tit-for-tat attacks against Arabs.
Committee members were unmoved by the reservations of the state
prosecutor’s representative, attorney Gavriela Pissman, who said the law
was unnecessary given that both the penal code and anti-terrorism laws
address suspicions that a funeral procession could turn into an
incitement parade. She noted that the prosecution had been unable to
establish a link between incitement and terrorism, adding that she would
be “glad” to get research supporting such claims. However, with the
threat of another Knesset member hijacking the legislative initiative
and raking in public plaudits, who needs research studies? Never mind
that they may show that refusal to hand over bodies intensifies hatred
of Israel and encourages Palestinian violence.
Next week, Israel’s Security-Diplomatic Cabinet is expected to debate proposed death penalty
legislation for terrorists. The objection by different security
branches to the law has not deterred Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman,
who is leading the initiative. He has even threatened to bring down the
government if the religious parties in the coalition continue resisting
the bill. Netanyahu, who has in the past objected to the death penalty,
adapted his views to the findings of polls indicating support among
right-wing voters for the execution of terrorists — only Palestinians
ones, of course. Poll findings presented March 4 at the annual Sderot
Conference on Israeli Society suggest that almost 70% of Israeli Jews support the death penalty for terrorists who kill Jews.
In an article in Haaretz, former Shin Bet security agency head Ami
Ayalon and researcher Idit Shafran Gittleman wrote that numerous debates
had been conducted about the death penalty during the terrorist attacks
of the second intifada. Participants had concluded that not only does
the death penalty not pose a deterrent, it could even enhance the martyr ethos
among young Palestinians. “Woe to the state whose elected officials do
not tremble before signing populist legislation for political needs,
even when it runs counter to the position of the defense establishment
and could even result in the deaths of Israelis in revenge terror
attacks and intensify the cycle of violence,” the two wrote. How true.
How depressing.
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