The Shin Bet State Is Here
As part of the war that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is waging against the “enemy within”
– that is, anyone who thinks differently than he does – the state has
adopted the despicable practices of a thought police in its attempt to
intimidate and silence opponents of the occupation from Israel and abroad.
The way the Shin Bet
security service squirmed over its involvement in detaining an American
leftist at the Taba crossing on Sunday does not diminish the
seriousness of the incident.
On the contrary, it shows that the
circle of the political persecutors and persecuted is widening. The Shin
Bet confirmed that Simone Zimmerman, who works for the NGO Gisha, and
Abigail Kirschbaum, who worked for the Mideast Quartet, were questioned as directed by the Shin Bet,
but that it was not this agency that initiated or conducted the
questioning. That was done by border-crossing security personnel, and
the Shin Bet did not instruct them to ask political questions, such as
Zimmerman and Kirschbaum’s opinion of Netanyahu.
But the distinction
between the Shin Bet and border-crossing security is not of any real
importance. Neither is the crucial question of “who gave the order” –
the Shin Bet or a “patriotic” border-crossing supervisor.
Because
this is not an isolated instance or a mistake, rather it is a ramping
up of the political persecution of opponents of the occupation within
Israel. Not only the Shin Bet, but the border-crossing personnel, are on
the lookout for leftists.
Three
fronts can be seen in the persecution of opponents of the occupation:
The Interior Ministry prevents the entry of non-Israeli BDS supporters
who appear on a list provided by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs; the
Population, Immigration and Border Authority profiles tourists on behalf
of the Shin Bet to find leftists coming to Israel to protest the
occupation; and the Shin Bet detains Israeli leftists at the airport or
summonses them to Jerusalem for a “warning conversation.”
The illusion held by
many Israelis that persecution and silencing of others as practiced in
the occupied territories would not trickle over the pre-1967 border, and
would not hurt non-Arabs, is now shattering, and the last word has not
yet been said.
A test of loyalty to
Israel’s policies has gained the status of an entry visa under the
auspices of the Shin Bet and other surveillance services. Those who have
been hurt by this conduct should be encouraged to ask the High Court of
Justice to rule on whether this type of interrogation at Israel’s
borders is legal, and to require the security services to institute
transparent procedures.
Opposition MKs must
demand that the “black lists” collected in Gilad Erdan’s Public Security
Ministry and by other ministries be made public, and they must launch
legislation to ban political persecution of visitors to Israel. We
should not wait until other countries adopt the shameful practices of
the Israeli government and apply them to tourists from Israel, in order
to realize the extent of the damage Israelis may incur from the
government’s policy.
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