17 apr 2016
Dareen Tatour, 33, a Palestinian poet, photographer and activist was arrested at her home in Oct. 2015. They didn’t have a search order or a warrant.
At 3:00am before dawn, on October 10, 2015, patrol cars from Nazareth police, escorted by a unit of Israel’s notorious “Border Guards”, surrounded a quite house in the nearby village of Al-Reineh. They broke in and waked up the terrified family. Their target was Dareen Tatour, 33, a Palestinian poet, photographer and activist. They didn’t have a search order, neither an arrest warrant, but they carried the astonished Dareen with them anyway.
Who is a martyr?
October 2015 saw a wave of mass struggle by the Palestinians, centered in Al-Quds as response to Israeli provocations in Al-Aqsa, but spreading throughout Gaza, the West Bank and the 48 occupied territories. But Dareen didn’t expect to be arrested. She didn’t take part in the demonstrations this time. She used to go to demonstrations before and as a photographer was targeted by the police. She was wounded in 2008, as settlers and police attacked the March of Return in Saffuriya.
But why now?
Apparently the immediate reason for Dareen’s detention was a status that she published on Facebook. On October 9 a Palestinian woman from Nazareth, Israa Abed, a mother of 3 and a post-graduate student of genetic engineering, was shot by Israel soldiers in the central bus station in ‘Afula, on her way home from her studies. The films of her cold-blooded shooting by several Israel soldiers were published everywhere. The Arab public was shocked. According to the Israeli police Dareen posted Israa’s picture and wrote “I will be the next martyr”.
For the Israeli racist regime, media and public every Palestinian that is shot by the Israelis is immediately defined as “Mekhabel” – a special term invented in Hebrew to de-humanize Arab resistance fighters, not even describing them as regular “terrorists”. While every single Arab that looked at the film saw clearly that Israa didn’t attack anyone, and concluded that any Arab now can be shoot for no reason, the Israeli media hysterically interpreted the same incident as a proof that any Arab can be “Mekhabel”. (Luckily Israa didn’t die from her wounds and Israel later dropped any “security” accusations against her.)
For the Israelis any Palestinian “martyr” (Shahid) is a suicide bomber. For the Palestinians not only freedom fighters but every innocent victim of the occupation is a Shahid. In this bloody period Dareen was identified as an enemy and can be regarded lucky to be arrested and not shoot at and actually becoming Shahida, like so many others.
The case against Dareen
Having Dareen in their custody, with her computer and smartphone, the best brains of the Israeli police in Nazareth worked hard to prove that she is a real security threat and stitch a file against her. On Monday, November 2, Dareen was indicted on charges of incitement to violence and supporting a terrorist organization. (I didn’t see the official indictment, but here are media reports about it in Arabic and Hebrew.)
At 3:00am before dawn, on October 10, 2015, patrol cars from Nazareth police, escorted by a unit of Israel’s notorious “Border Guards”, surrounded a quite house in the nearby village of Al-Reineh. They broke in and waked up the terrified family. Their target was Dareen Tatour, 33, a Palestinian poet, photographer and activist. They didn’t have a search order, neither an arrest warrant, but they carried the astonished Dareen with them anyway.
Who is a martyr?
October 2015 saw a wave of mass struggle by the Palestinians, centered in Al-Quds as response to Israeli provocations in Al-Aqsa, but spreading throughout Gaza, the West Bank and the 48 occupied territories. But Dareen didn’t expect to be arrested. She didn’t take part in the demonstrations this time. She used to go to demonstrations before and as a photographer was targeted by the police. She was wounded in 2008, as settlers and police attacked the March of Return in Saffuriya.
But why now?
Apparently the immediate reason for Dareen’s detention was a status that she published on Facebook. On October 9 a Palestinian woman from Nazareth, Israa Abed, a mother of 3 and a post-graduate student of genetic engineering, was shot by Israel soldiers in the central bus station in ‘Afula, on her way home from her studies. The films of her cold-blooded shooting by several Israel soldiers were published everywhere. The Arab public was shocked. According to the Israeli police Dareen posted Israa’s picture and wrote “I will be the next martyr”.
For the Israeli racist regime, media and public every Palestinian that is shot by the Israelis is immediately defined as “Mekhabel” – a special term invented in Hebrew to de-humanize Arab resistance fighters, not even describing them as regular “terrorists”. While every single Arab that looked at the film saw clearly that Israa didn’t attack anyone, and concluded that any Arab now can be shoot for no reason, the Israeli media hysterically interpreted the same incident as a proof that any Arab can be “Mekhabel”. (Luckily Israa didn’t die from her wounds and Israel later dropped any “security” accusations against her.)
For the Israelis any Palestinian “martyr” (Shahid) is a suicide bomber. For the Palestinians not only freedom fighters but every innocent victim of the occupation is a Shahid. In this bloody period Dareen was identified as an enemy and can be regarded lucky to be arrested and not shoot at and actually becoming Shahida, like so many others.
The case against Dareen
Having Dareen in their custody, with her computer and smartphone, the best brains of the Israeli police in Nazareth worked hard to prove that she is a real security threat and stitch a file against her. On Monday, November 2, Dareen was indicted on charges of incitement to violence and supporting a terrorist organization. (I didn’t see the official indictment, but here are media reports about it in Arabic and Hebrew.)
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The main clause of the indictment is based on a poem that she (or somebody else using her name – the case is still in the court) published in “youtube” under the title: “” – “resist my people, resist them”. There is nothing illegal in this poem, not even according to Israel’s anti-democratic laws. But the poem is read against a background of Palestinian youth clashing with the occupation forces. The Israeli prosecution and media now relate to such iconic images as “Palestinians engaged in terrorist activity”!
Another main clause in the indictment relates to an item from the news, cited in a post on Dareen’s Facebook page, according to which “The Islamic Jihad movement calls for continuing the Intifada all over the (West) Bank…” The same post calls for “comprehensive intifada”. You can argue what this call for intifada means, but there is no support for Islamic Jihad there. |
The same report could appear, using exactly the same language, in an Israeli media… But Palestinians are always suspected of not really loving their oppressors.
Endless tireless persecution
The harshest part of Dareen’s saga started after the indictment. In some similar cases, only involving some mild posts on Facebook, the accused were transferred to house arrest as the trial went on.
The prosecution in Nazareth fought a trench war to extend Dareen’s detention as long as possible. They wouldn’t agree to house detention in her parent’s home and demanded that she will be deported far away from the district altogether. This doesn’t make any sense, as all the charges against Dareen related only to publications on the net, where geography is not relevant. But at this stage they already inflated the case against Dareen as their main crusade to guard “the security of the region”. And in Israeli courts the word “security” transforms almost any judge to an obedient stamp carrier at the service of the prosecution.
The prosecution went on to demand that Dareen will be held in a house that is isolated from the internet, under the supervision of volunteer guards that should be with her for 24 hours a day and pay a high penalty in case of any infringement. They objected to any specific proposal that met these harsh conditions and appealed to the district court over any decision of the low court that seemed a bit lenient toward Dareen.
As a result Dareen spent more than 3 months in different prisons, suffering harsh conditions and attending endless court hearings. Finally she was transferred (on January 14, 2016) to detention in a house that her brother rented especially in a remote suburb of Tel Aviv. She is not allowed to exit the small apartment at any time. An electronic device attached to her ankle is supervising her movements, in addition to the hapless “guards”.
The first hearing of the trial
On Wednesday, April 13, I went to Nazareth to attend the first hearing of Dareen’s trial. The small supporting crowd included some of Dareen’s relatives as well as Muhammad Barakeh, the head of the Arab High Follow-up Committee (the official united leadership of the 48 occupied Palestinians) and Knesset member Haneen Zoabi.
The prosecution started to rest her case by bringing the policemen that translated the “Qawem” poem to Hebrew. The scene was completely surrealistic. Poems, by their very nature, are contradictory to the concept of “proven beyond reasonable doubt” that stands at the heart of the criminal law. The (policeman) witness was struggling with the ambiguities of the poem’s words, supplying his intuitive interpretation to the phrases. We were torn between the urge to laugh loudly and bewilderment at the knowledge that the freedom of our dear Dareen depends on this nonsense.
The fact that the prosecution and the judge continued to discuss seriously the supposed incitement in the poem is only another demonstration of the way the Israeli oppressive apparatus is blinded by its own hatred and lies. But the lack of any semblance of justice and the zero value that they give to the basic Human Rights of the Palestinians is even more blatantly proved by their careless decision to use as translator a policeman with no special competence at translation. He testified breezily that his competence was based on studying literature at high school and his love for the Arab language. They are confident they can rob Dareen of her freedom according to an interpretation of her poem without even caring to bring a proper translator!
(If you read Hebrew you can read a detailed report about this amazing literary experience.)
Solidarity required
The case of Dareen Tatour is just another small example of Israeli oppression against the Palestinians. Till now I don’t know of any specific solidarity actions with her, nor inside Palestine, neither abroad. This is understandable, taking into account that Palestinians of all ages are shot and killed every day, there are thousands of Palestinian prisoners (many of them children) and many hundreds are held in prison for years without any trial.
Yet I think that the case of Dareen deserves special attention.
She is a women and a poet. The main accusation against her is her poem. This is a good opportunity for poets and writers to make a stand against the occupation and its practice of criminalizing any Palestinian expression of the desire for freedom and dignity.
Also, Dareen’s lawyer, Abed Fahoum, raised in court the principled issue of discriminatory enforcement of the law against incitement. Israeli social and official media is boiling with calls to kill Arabs, some by prominent politicians and rabbis. The racist attitude of the prosecution, going exclusively against the freedom of expression of the Arab population while turning a blind eye to Zionist incitement, should be exposed. Pursuing this line of defense is a major interest of the Palestinian Arab public in general. Dareen and her lawyer will need all the help they can get during the next few weeks in the court and out of it to make this point heard.
Website: http://freehaifa.wordpress.com/
Free Haifa is one of a million new spaces which opened to develop and display the thinking of the Arab revolution.
Endless tireless persecution
The harshest part of Dareen’s saga started after the indictment. In some similar cases, only involving some mild posts on Facebook, the accused were transferred to house arrest as the trial went on.
The prosecution in Nazareth fought a trench war to extend Dareen’s detention as long as possible. They wouldn’t agree to house detention in her parent’s home and demanded that she will be deported far away from the district altogether. This doesn’t make any sense, as all the charges against Dareen related only to publications on the net, where geography is not relevant. But at this stage they already inflated the case against Dareen as their main crusade to guard “the security of the region”. And in Israeli courts the word “security” transforms almost any judge to an obedient stamp carrier at the service of the prosecution.
The prosecution went on to demand that Dareen will be held in a house that is isolated from the internet, under the supervision of volunteer guards that should be with her for 24 hours a day and pay a high penalty in case of any infringement. They objected to any specific proposal that met these harsh conditions and appealed to the district court over any decision of the low court that seemed a bit lenient toward Dareen.
As a result Dareen spent more than 3 months in different prisons, suffering harsh conditions and attending endless court hearings. Finally she was transferred (on January 14, 2016) to detention in a house that her brother rented especially in a remote suburb of Tel Aviv. She is not allowed to exit the small apartment at any time. An electronic device attached to her ankle is supervising her movements, in addition to the hapless “guards”.
The first hearing of the trial
On Wednesday, April 13, I went to Nazareth to attend the first hearing of Dareen’s trial. The small supporting crowd included some of Dareen’s relatives as well as Muhammad Barakeh, the head of the Arab High Follow-up Committee (the official united leadership of the 48 occupied Palestinians) and Knesset member Haneen Zoabi.
The prosecution started to rest her case by bringing the policemen that translated the “Qawem” poem to Hebrew. The scene was completely surrealistic. Poems, by their very nature, are contradictory to the concept of “proven beyond reasonable doubt” that stands at the heart of the criminal law. The (policeman) witness was struggling with the ambiguities of the poem’s words, supplying his intuitive interpretation to the phrases. We were torn between the urge to laugh loudly and bewilderment at the knowledge that the freedom of our dear Dareen depends on this nonsense.
The fact that the prosecution and the judge continued to discuss seriously the supposed incitement in the poem is only another demonstration of the way the Israeli oppressive apparatus is blinded by its own hatred and lies. But the lack of any semblance of justice and the zero value that they give to the basic Human Rights of the Palestinians is even more blatantly proved by their careless decision to use as translator a policeman with no special competence at translation. He testified breezily that his competence was based on studying literature at high school and his love for the Arab language. They are confident they can rob Dareen of her freedom according to an interpretation of her poem without even caring to bring a proper translator!
(If you read Hebrew you can read a detailed report about this amazing literary experience.)
Solidarity required
The case of Dareen Tatour is just another small example of Israeli oppression against the Palestinians. Till now I don’t know of any specific solidarity actions with her, nor inside Palestine, neither abroad. This is understandable, taking into account that Palestinians of all ages are shot and killed every day, there are thousands of Palestinian prisoners (many of them children) and many hundreds are held in prison for years without any trial.
Yet I think that the case of Dareen deserves special attention.
She is a women and a poet. The main accusation against her is her poem. This is a good opportunity for poets and writers to make a stand against the occupation and its practice of criminalizing any Palestinian expression of the desire for freedom and dignity.
Also, Dareen’s lawyer, Abed Fahoum, raised in court the principled issue of discriminatory enforcement of the law against incitement. Israeli social and official media is boiling with calls to kill Arabs, some by prominent politicians and rabbis. The racist attitude of the prosecution, going exclusively against the freedom of expression of the Arab population while turning a blind eye to Zionist incitement, should be exposed. Pursuing this line of defense is a major interest of the Palestinian Arab public in general. Dareen and her lawyer will need all the help they can get during the next few weeks in the court and out of it to make this point heard.
Website: http://freehaifa.wordpress.com/
Free Haifa is one of a million new spaces which opened to develop and display the thinking of the Arab revolution.
Hamas' military wing responded to the recent closure of their spokesperson’s Twitter account on Saturday by saying it proved the effectiveness of the brigades in delivering their message.
In a statement on the Hamas movement’s website Saturday, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Ubaida said that “Twitter’s persistence in shutting down our accounts shows that our true voices have exposed the Zionist enemy and its proxies.”
After Abu Ubaida’s account -- followed by 196,000 -- was shut down Friday, he promptly opened a new one the following day.
Twitter previously closed all the official accounts of the brigades in Arabic, Hebrew, and English in March, which collectively had over 200,000 followers.
The move was part of the social media company’s campaign to combat the spread of Islamic extremism on the site, which has seen some 125,000 accounts linked to “terrorists” deleted since mid-2015, predominately targeting the Islamic State group.
“We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service,” Twitter said in a statement published on their website in February.
Many have pointed out the ineffectiveness of the campaign, as groups simply open new accounts after they are shut down.
During Israel’s 50-day assault on the Gaza Strip in 2014, Twitter also deleted all accounts associated with Hamas.
Hamas said it was emboldened by Twitter’s efforts and that it would continue to spread the movement’s message to its millions of supporters worldwide.
Abu Ubaida said that shutting down accounts amounted to censorship in favor of Israel by Twitter, a company that has long defined itself as a platform for free speech and open discussion.
“Twitter chose to side with the (Israeli) occupation, which refutes its claims of honesty and impartiality.”
In a statement on the Hamas movement’s website Saturday, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Ubaida said that “Twitter’s persistence in shutting down our accounts shows that our true voices have exposed the Zionist enemy and its proxies.”
After Abu Ubaida’s account -- followed by 196,000 -- was shut down Friday, he promptly opened a new one the following day.
Twitter previously closed all the official accounts of the brigades in Arabic, Hebrew, and English in March, which collectively had over 200,000 followers.
The move was part of the social media company’s campaign to combat the spread of Islamic extremism on the site, which has seen some 125,000 accounts linked to “terrorists” deleted since mid-2015, predominately targeting the Islamic State group.
“We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service,” Twitter said in a statement published on their website in February.
Many have pointed out the ineffectiveness of the campaign, as groups simply open new accounts after they are shut down.
During Israel’s 50-day assault on the Gaza Strip in 2014, Twitter also deleted all accounts associated with Hamas.
Hamas said it was emboldened by Twitter’s efforts and that it would continue to spread the movement’s message to its millions of supporters worldwide.
Abu Ubaida said that shutting down accounts amounted to censorship in favor of Israel by Twitter, a company that has long defined itself as a platform for free speech and open discussion.
“Twitter chose to side with the (Israeli) occupation, which refutes its claims of honesty and impartiality.”
15 apr 2016
With incitement against Moshe Ya'alon only on the rise, the Shin Bet is taking no chances; the volatile discourse surrounding Ya'alon has elements of political motivation.
The individual who uploaded a photograph depicting Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon through the lens of a sniper scope has been exposed. Contrary to Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi's unequivocal conclusions that the offender could not be a member of Likud or sane, it turns out he is, in fact, both.
He's not a senior official in Likud—just a junior and incensed activist. It is not yet clear whether there is any basis on which he can be charged, it at all. Law enforcement officials are presently more interested in his motivation than anything else. However, it's reasonable to assume that it will be difficult for him to upload hateful posts of this sort in the near future.
The average internet user must understand that, today, there is almost no anonymity on the web. Even the inciter who published pictures of the prime minister and Supreme Court justices in Nazi uniforms and the defense minister as the Führer was exposed. It turned out that that this "patriot" chose to express his love from afar, all the way from the United States, and thus was lucky enough to receive a personal visit from FBI agents.
To what extent is the Shin Bet seriously addressing this intensifying atmosphere of hate and its various aspects among right-wing circles that currently focus on the defense minister? The answer: Extremely seriously. No wonder that right-wing leaders at the forefront of criticizing Ya'alon—spearheaded by Education Minister Naftali Bennett—have toned down their rhetoric against him. MK Avigdor Lieberman, while not having opposed the incitement, at least has ceased his criticism. It would appear that someone brought in the politicians for a talk and explained the consequences of their pronouncements.
Last week, during an event held at Beit Berl College in Kfar Saba with Ya'alon's participation, attendees were forced to wait for a full hour outside the hall as security personnel conducted increasingly meticulous checks. Furthermore, the Ya'alon's security detail was noticeably larger.
It's uncertain just how many visits Ya'alon was supposed to make recently in settlements, yeshivas or pre-military preparation programs. However, it is clear that today he feels significantly less comfortable visiting such places for personal security reasons. The Shin Bet certainly would not be keen to suggest that he continue his regular visits to such places. It's difficult to believe that, just a year ago, Ya'alon was considered an invited family member in this sector.
Ya'alon was aware that he was being sought. He knew that a political battle was being waged against him. He was prepared for the possibility that land mines awaited him when it came to issues such as military operations in Gaza or the evacuation of illegal structures.
However, when it comes to the case of the soldier who recently shot a neutralized terrorist in Hebron, he stumbled into an ambush. The defense minister did not anticipate that voicing his opinion would give rise to such wide scale public outcry with him at the center.
The operational picture seemed absolutely clear to him, and he did not, therefore, hesitate to immediately voice his doubts regarding the soldier's actions, intending to prevent Palestinian unrest and an upsurge of international condemnation over what was being portrayed as an IDF execution policy.
Political figures' exploitation of the opportunity to censure Ya'alon took him completely by surprise. Moreover, he never imagined that, when the three leading security figures (the chief of staff, defense minister and prime minister) fell into line on ethical issues, the public would oppose them.
Fanning the flames
It 's fair to assume that in the the Shin Bet's security division's past few weeks of evaluations of the current situation vis-à-vis the growing incitement against Ya'alon held in, the fundamental question being raised by the Shin Bet is: At what point does a smear campaign, intended to cause political "assassination," become a physical threat to the protected person.
The defense minister's central position in the Likud party is not one of the Shin Bet's concerns. However, the atmosphere of incitement which is likely to result in pushing some into committing violent acts against him is a red line which they cannot ignore. The answer to this critical question begins and ends with the intelligence gathered around Ya'alon, and the material which flows from every possible intelligence agency.
It begins with the police monitoring of nationalist figures with criminal backgrounds with the Jewish division of the Shin Bet, which investigates threats emanating from Jewish anarchistic organizations. In addition, all the Arab divisions in the Shin Bet attempt to locate Palestinian terrorist elements likely to hurt the minister.
Anyone who attended the legal proceedings conducted against the soldier who shot dead the immobilized terrorist, including his the prosecutor's charge of manslaughter, would have encountered a bounty of demonstrators: Some of them were citizens who identified with the soldier, while some were affiliated with organizations such as La Familia (a far-right group of football supporters), Kach (an outlawed ultra right-wing Jewish terrorist movement), and Lehava (an anti-assimilation Jewish movement). These people likely know how to carry out attacks.
One method of locating individuals from the Jewish sector who may escalate incitement into violence is the surveillance of social media. During the first two days following the incident in Hebron, almost 30,000 people engaged in social-network conversations on the issue, a number which only continued to increase.
It was necessary to fish out of this gigantic group the problematic people, those who posed a risk or those who could potentially lead investigators to people who can provide important clues. These included people who follow the defense minister, those who showed interest in his schedule, and those who inquired where the minister lives.
As the hostile atmosphere encircling the minister intensifies, so too does the Shin Bet's alertness. While it will not prevent Ya'alon from proceeding with his scheduled as planned, his security arrangements have been tightened. What the public sees—a group of security personnel escorting Ya'alon—is something of an optical illusion. In addition to them is a covert security detail concerned with accumulating intelligence on potential threats. Dozens of people are involved in every public event.
The raw material that fans the flames of incitement around Ya'alon continues to flow even when it seems—and perhaps because it seems —that public interest in the Hebron soldier has dissipated. The fact that Ya'alon has received support from both poles of the political spectrum and from both past and present military and security experts only strengthens the resolve of certain political figures to continue their defamatory campaign against him.
Their methods are familiar.. During the past two weeks, Ya'alon was surprised to hear from a number of high-ranking officers who served with him, including at least one minister of defense, that they had received phone calls from people claiming to be "investigators" looking into Ya'alon's personal and military history, including particularly intimate details.
According to one story, which has already managed to find its way online, a soldier who fought during the first Lebanon War in 1982 claimed that he had witnessed Ya'alon, who was then a commander in the paratroopers' 890th battalion, present at the execution of a Syrian prisoner. During that war, though, Ya'alon commanded an elite commando unit which operated in Lebanon.
The battalion commander of the 890th at the time, then-Lt. Col. Mati Harari, dismissed the story as fictitious. This doesn't bother the "investigators," who continue to rummage around, frantically searching for dirt on Ya'alon which can be passed off as evidence that he participated in incidents significantly more serious than that of the Hebron soldier. This is an attempt to besmirch the reputation of the defense minister with the goal of weakening his public standing and garnering political gains by exploiting a soldier who has committed a transgression.
However, Ya'alon is either not a colorful enough character, or, alternatively, was involved in overly classified affairs. Either way, in the meantime he is not providing the goods: juicy stories which would ultimately produce headlines and send him packing.
Some of these "investigators" did not conceal the fact that they were working for the Hebron soldier's family, which has become—willingly or not—a pawn for political figures who have been riding the coattails of this affair since the day of the shooting three weeks ago.
Those PR-minded politicians who wrote the letter distributed by the soldier's family comparing Abu Jihad's assassination in Tunisia by the elite commando unit which Ya'alon commanded to the Hebron soldier's actions.
Among Ya'alon's close circle, questions are also being raised about the seemingly altruistic motives of Sharon Gal, a former MK for Yisrael Beytenu, who volunteered to act as a public relations mouthpiece for the soldier's family. They believe that Gal's act is simply part of the battle conducted by his former boss, Avigdor Lieberman, in an effort to undermine Ya'alon.
Shin Bet's comprehensive protection
The Hebron shooting affair constitutes only one element of the seemingly legitimate political battles launched by right-wing parties and the leading Likud party against the defense minister. The ultimate goal, however, is to replace the minister and to change the current government policies towards the demands of the West Bank settlers. The strategy is to detach Ya'alon from what is thought to be one of his main sources of power on the right: settlers.
During the Likud primaries, the NGO Regavim, which considers itself at the forefront of the struggle to defend state land in the territories from Arab control, operated against the defense minister. The organization circulated a pamphlet among party officials claiming that Ya'alon abuses his office. At the same time, video clips were distributed in which he was depicted as a demolisher of communities in the West Bank.
The end of 2015 saw the Dreinoff buildings crisis, in which a number of illegal structures were demolished by the IDF in Beit El, a step even requested by some settlers. However, ministers from the Habayit Hayehudi party used the demolition orders as a pretext to attack the defense minister and label him an enemy of the settlements. In January 2016, the evacuation of Jews from two buildings near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron at the behest of the minister marked a turning point in which Ya'alon was, once again, portrayed as an enemy. The method worked.
Subsequently, even Ya'alon's natural home turf, the pre-military preparation programs, suddenly felt less like home. Habayit Hayehudi, Yisrael Beytenu and representatives of the more extreme wing of Likud, such as Moshe Feiglin, succeeded in undermining his alliance with the settlers.
Then came the affair of shaving beards in the IDF. Despite the fact that the decision was not taken by Ya'alon, the relevant political parties explained to the electorate that the defense minister was harming the Jewish state.
Matters reached their peak when the chief of the General Staff decided to transfer the matter of the Jewish Affairs Division from the responsibility of the Military Rabbinate to the head of the Personnel Directorate. From their point of view, this provided indisputable proof that Ya'alon had crossed the line. Support for LGBT people? Standing by the Supreme Court? There can be no doubt that Ya'alon is no longer one of us, the attitude went.
Now, the Hebron soldier fell into their lap. The same public figures and the same parties leading the campaign against the defense minister, intending to deliver a political blow. However, they did not take into account that labeling him as an enemy of the settlements is likely to prompt violence among certain people, the kind of people who are determined to prevent another Likud member like Ariel Sharon from betraying them by uprooting Jews from biblical soil.
When dealing with matters of personal security, Shin Bet's approach is comprehensive. Even if there is not an advance warning about a specific individual planning to attack the defense minister on a specific day, a mere suspicion of a physical attack is sufficient to treat it as a concrete threat. This is one of the key lessons taken from the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Indeed, his assassin, Yigal Amir was influenced by a similar atmosphere.
The defense minister is presented today not only as someone who is harming right-wing values, but also as someone who has defamed an IDF soldier. There are people who are likely to conclude that one of the ways of removing him before he causes more damage is to resort to a physical strike.
There are a few more similarities: using the Nazi uniform, for example. Security services take seriously the "clothing" of the heads of state in such uniforms, particularly in light of the well-known Israeli phrase: "Nazis should and must be killed."
Three decades ago, it was no easy task to identify the designer of the famous poster depicting Rabin as a Nazi. Today, however, the matter is far less complicated. Private Israeli companies equipped with advanced technology know how to track movements on the internet, including political incitement. Locating the inciter's address is a matter of days, depending on how technologically sophisticated he is. This is most likely the method by which the individual who posted a picture of Ya'alon in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle target was located.
In addition to the private companies, intelligence agencies are also capable of monitoring internet activities. During recent months, against a background of security threats sparked by intense incitement propagated on Palestinian social media, the technology designed to monitor internet activity underwent significant updates. Technology development experts in the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet made exceptional efforts.
Indeed, to fully appreciate the importance that the Shin Bet has placed in obtaining the highest level of intelligence in this field, appreciate that one of every six employees, so it is said, is employed in a technological capacity. This amounts to almost double those employed during the last decade. Moreover, human resources departments in the Shin Bet responsible for technological intelligence increased during the last four years by more than 25%, which are mostly engineers.
The seven people in Israel who must, by law, be protected by the Shin Bet are the prime minister, the defense minister, the foreign minister, the president, the president of the Supreme Court, the head of opposition and the speaker of the Knesset. In addition, for a set period of time, past defense ministers and prime ministers are temporarily protected. Security details are also assigned by a special committee to individuals outside of governmental or security offices, but who are considered potential targets. These include individuals such as Benjamin Netanyahu's children and his wife. Ariel Sharon also continued to receive protection even as he lay in a coma for years in hospital.
On Tuesday, Ya'alon met with military journalists. From his point of view and that of the army, the Hebron soldier incident is over. The classified operational investigation is true and thorough. Whatever happened afterwards, when lawyers and PR figures entered the fray, is of no relevance to the military.
There is no hesitation whatever in the IDF with regards to the soldier's actions, and one can't force norms upon it to which it does not subscribe, nor those with which it is unable to live. But the affair, taken as a whole, reflects a political struggle against the defense minister and the government's policies. The struggle has certainly left scars among the public, which has lost faith in the army. Furthermore, the affair has fanned the flames of incitement and violence. The Hebron soldier will be quickly forgotten, but the story has not yet concluded.
The individual who uploaded a photograph depicting Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon through the lens of a sniper scope has been exposed. Contrary to Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi's unequivocal conclusions that the offender could not be a member of Likud or sane, it turns out he is, in fact, both.
He's not a senior official in Likud—just a junior and incensed activist. It is not yet clear whether there is any basis on which he can be charged, it at all. Law enforcement officials are presently more interested in his motivation than anything else. However, it's reasonable to assume that it will be difficult for him to upload hateful posts of this sort in the near future.
The average internet user must understand that, today, there is almost no anonymity on the web. Even the inciter who published pictures of the prime minister and Supreme Court justices in Nazi uniforms and the defense minister as the Führer was exposed. It turned out that that this "patriot" chose to express his love from afar, all the way from the United States, and thus was lucky enough to receive a personal visit from FBI agents.
To what extent is the Shin Bet seriously addressing this intensifying atmosphere of hate and its various aspects among right-wing circles that currently focus on the defense minister? The answer: Extremely seriously. No wonder that right-wing leaders at the forefront of criticizing Ya'alon—spearheaded by Education Minister Naftali Bennett—have toned down their rhetoric against him. MK Avigdor Lieberman, while not having opposed the incitement, at least has ceased his criticism. It would appear that someone brought in the politicians for a talk and explained the consequences of their pronouncements.
Last week, during an event held at Beit Berl College in Kfar Saba with Ya'alon's participation, attendees were forced to wait for a full hour outside the hall as security personnel conducted increasingly meticulous checks. Furthermore, the Ya'alon's security detail was noticeably larger.
It's uncertain just how many visits Ya'alon was supposed to make recently in settlements, yeshivas or pre-military preparation programs. However, it is clear that today he feels significantly less comfortable visiting such places for personal security reasons. The Shin Bet certainly would not be keen to suggest that he continue his regular visits to such places. It's difficult to believe that, just a year ago, Ya'alon was considered an invited family member in this sector.
Ya'alon was aware that he was being sought. He knew that a political battle was being waged against him. He was prepared for the possibility that land mines awaited him when it came to issues such as military operations in Gaza or the evacuation of illegal structures.
However, when it comes to the case of the soldier who recently shot a neutralized terrorist in Hebron, he stumbled into an ambush. The defense minister did not anticipate that voicing his opinion would give rise to such wide scale public outcry with him at the center.
The operational picture seemed absolutely clear to him, and he did not, therefore, hesitate to immediately voice his doubts regarding the soldier's actions, intending to prevent Palestinian unrest and an upsurge of international condemnation over what was being portrayed as an IDF execution policy.
Political figures' exploitation of the opportunity to censure Ya'alon took him completely by surprise. Moreover, he never imagined that, when the three leading security figures (the chief of staff, defense minister and prime minister) fell into line on ethical issues, the public would oppose them.
Fanning the flames
It 's fair to assume that in the the Shin Bet's security division's past few weeks of evaluations of the current situation vis-à-vis the growing incitement against Ya'alon held in, the fundamental question being raised by the Shin Bet is: At what point does a smear campaign, intended to cause political "assassination," become a physical threat to the protected person.
The defense minister's central position in the Likud party is not one of the Shin Bet's concerns. However, the atmosphere of incitement which is likely to result in pushing some into committing violent acts against him is a red line which they cannot ignore. The answer to this critical question begins and ends with the intelligence gathered around Ya'alon, and the material which flows from every possible intelligence agency.
It begins with the police monitoring of nationalist figures with criminal backgrounds with the Jewish division of the Shin Bet, which investigates threats emanating from Jewish anarchistic organizations. In addition, all the Arab divisions in the Shin Bet attempt to locate Palestinian terrorist elements likely to hurt the minister.
Anyone who attended the legal proceedings conducted against the soldier who shot dead the immobilized terrorist, including his the prosecutor's charge of manslaughter, would have encountered a bounty of demonstrators: Some of them were citizens who identified with the soldier, while some were affiliated with organizations such as La Familia (a far-right group of football supporters), Kach (an outlawed ultra right-wing Jewish terrorist movement), and Lehava (an anti-assimilation Jewish movement). These people likely know how to carry out attacks.
One method of locating individuals from the Jewish sector who may escalate incitement into violence is the surveillance of social media. During the first two days following the incident in Hebron, almost 30,000 people engaged in social-network conversations on the issue, a number which only continued to increase.
It was necessary to fish out of this gigantic group the problematic people, those who posed a risk or those who could potentially lead investigators to people who can provide important clues. These included people who follow the defense minister, those who showed interest in his schedule, and those who inquired where the minister lives.
As the hostile atmosphere encircling the minister intensifies, so too does the Shin Bet's alertness. While it will not prevent Ya'alon from proceeding with his scheduled as planned, his security arrangements have been tightened. What the public sees—a group of security personnel escorting Ya'alon—is something of an optical illusion. In addition to them is a covert security detail concerned with accumulating intelligence on potential threats. Dozens of people are involved in every public event.
The raw material that fans the flames of incitement around Ya'alon continues to flow even when it seems—and perhaps because it seems —that public interest in the Hebron soldier has dissipated. The fact that Ya'alon has received support from both poles of the political spectrum and from both past and present military and security experts only strengthens the resolve of certain political figures to continue their defamatory campaign against him.
Their methods are familiar.. During the past two weeks, Ya'alon was surprised to hear from a number of high-ranking officers who served with him, including at least one minister of defense, that they had received phone calls from people claiming to be "investigators" looking into Ya'alon's personal and military history, including particularly intimate details.
According to one story, which has already managed to find its way online, a soldier who fought during the first Lebanon War in 1982 claimed that he had witnessed Ya'alon, who was then a commander in the paratroopers' 890th battalion, present at the execution of a Syrian prisoner. During that war, though, Ya'alon commanded an elite commando unit which operated in Lebanon.
The battalion commander of the 890th at the time, then-Lt. Col. Mati Harari, dismissed the story as fictitious. This doesn't bother the "investigators," who continue to rummage around, frantically searching for dirt on Ya'alon which can be passed off as evidence that he participated in incidents significantly more serious than that of the Hebron soldier. This is an attempt to besmirch the reputation of the defense minister with the goal of weakening his public standing and garnering political gains by exploiting a soldier who has committed a transgression.
However, Ya'alon is either not a colorful enough character, or, alternatively, was involved in overly classified affairs. Either way, in the meantime he is not providing the goods: juicy stories which would ultimately produce headlines and send him packing.
Some of these "investigators" did not conceal the fact that they were working for the Hebron soldier's family, which has become—willingly or not—a pawn for political figures who have been riding the coattails of this affair since the day of the shooting three weeks ago.
Those PR-minded politicians who wrote the letter distributed by the soldier's family comparing Abu Jihad's assassination in Tunisia by the elite commando unit which Ya'alon commanded to the Hebron soldier's actions.
Among Ya'alon's close circle, questions are also being raised about the seemingly altruistic motives of Sharon Gal, a former MK for Yisrael Beytenu, who volunteered to act as a public relations mouthpiece for the soldier's family. They believe that Gal's act is simply part of the battle conducted by his former boss, Avigdor Lieberman, in an effort to undermine Ya'alon.
Shin Bet's comprehensive protection
The Hebron shooting affair constitutes only one element of the seemingly legitimate political battles launched by right-wing parties and the leading Likud party against the defense minister. The ultimate goal, however, is to replace the minister and to change the current government policies towards the demands of the West Bank settlers. The strategy is to detach Ya'alon from what is thought to be one of his main sources of power on the right: settlers.
During the Likud primaries, the NGO Regavim, which considers itself at the forefront of the struggle to defend state land in the territories from Arab control, operated against the defense minister. The organization circulated a pamphlet among party officials claiming that Ya'alon abuses his office. At the same time, video clips were distributed in which he was depicted as a demolisher of communities in the West Bank.
The end of 2015 saw the Dreinoff buildings crisis, in which a number of illegal structures were demolished by the IDF in Beit El, a step even requested by some settlers. However, ministers from the Habayit Hayehudi party used the demolition orders as a pretext to attack the defense minister and label him an enemy of the settlements. In January 2016, the evacuation of Jews from two buildings near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron at the behest of the minister marked a turning point in which Ya'alon was, once again, portrayed as an enemy. The method worked.
Subsequently, even Ya'alon's natural home turf, the pre-military preparation programs, suddenly felt less like home. Habayit Hayehudi, Yisrael Beytenu and representatives of the more extreme wing of Likud, such as Moshe Feiglin, succeeded in undermining his alliance with the settlers.
Then came the affair of shaving beards in the IDF. Despite the fact that the decision was not taken by Ya'alon, the relevant political parties explained to the electorate that the defense minister was harming the Jewish state.
Matters reached their peak when the chief of the General Staff decided to transfer the matter of the Jewish Affairs Division from the responsibility of the Military Rabbinate to the head of the Personnel Directorate. From their point of view, this provided indisputable proof that Ya'alon had crossed the line. Support for LGBT people? Standing by the Supreme Court? There can be no doubt that Ya'alon is no longer one of us, the attitude went.
Now, the Hebron soldier fell into their lap. The same public figures and the same parties leading the campaign against the defense minister, intending to deliver a political blow. However, they did not take into account that labeling him as an enemy of the settlements is likely to prompt violence among certain people, the kind of people who are determined to prevent another Likud member like Ariel Sharon from betraying them by uprooting Jews from biblical soil.
When dealing with matters of personal security, Shin Bet's approach is comprehensive. Even if there is not an advance warning about a specific individual planning to attack the defense minister on a specific day, a mere suspicion of a physical attack is sufficient to treat it as a concrete threat. This is one of the key lessons taken from the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Indeed, his assassin, Yigal Amir was influenced by a similar atmosphere.
The defense minister is presented today not only as someone who is harming right-wing values, but also as someone who has defamed an IDF soldier. There are people who are likely to conclude that one of the ways of removing him before he causes more damage is to resort to a physical strike.
There are a few more similarities: using the Nazi uniform, for example. Security services take seriously the "clothing" of the heads of state in such uniforms, particularly in light of the well-known Israeli phrase: "Nazis should and must be killed."
Three decades ago, it was no easy task to identify the designer of the famous poster depicting Rabin as a Nazi. Today, however, the matter is far less complicated. Private Israeli companies equipped with advanced technology know how to track movements on the internet, including political incitement. Locating the inciter's address is a matter of days, depending on how technologically sophisticated he is. This is most likely the method by which the individual who posted a picture of Ya'alon in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle target was located.
In addition to the private companies, intelligence agencies are also capable of monitoring internet activities. During recent months, against a background of security threats sparked by intense incitement propagated on Palestinian social media, the technology designed to monitor internet activity underwent significant updates. Technology development experts in the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet made exceptional efforts.
Indeed, to fully appreciate the importance that the Shin Bet has placed in obtaining the highest level of intelligence in this field, appreciate that one of every six employees, so it is said, is employed in a technological capacity. This amounts to almost double those employed during the last decade. Moreover, human resources departments in the Shin Bet responsible for technological intelligence increased during the last four years by more than 25%, which are mostly engineers.
The seven people in Israel who must, by law, be protected by the Shin Bet are the prime minister, the defense minister, the foreign minister, the president, the president of the Supreme Court, the head of opposition and the speaker of the Knesset. In addition, for a set period of time, past defense ministers and prime ministers are temporarily protected. Security details are also assigned by a special committee to individuals outside of governmental or security offices, but who are considered potential targets. These include individuals such as Benjamin Netanyahu's children and his wife. Ariel Sharon also continued to receive protection even as he lay in a coma for years in hospital.
On Tuesday, Ya'alon met with military journalists. From his point of view and that of the army, the Hebron soldier incident is over. The classified operational investigation is true and thorough. Whatever happened afterwards, when lawyers and PR figures entered the fray, is of no relevance to the military.
There is no hesitation whatever in the IDF with regards to the soldier's actions, and one can't force norms upon it to which it does not subscribe, nor those with which it is unable to live. But the affair, taken as a whole, reflects a political struggle against the defense minister and the government's policies. The struggle has certainly left scars among the public, which has lost faith in the army. Furthermore, the affair has fanned the flames of incitement and violence. The Hebron soldier will be quickly forgotten, but the story has not yet concluded.
MK Aida Touma-Sliman
A meeting of a Knesset committee held Wednesday debated the issue of segregation between Palestinian and Jewish women in Israeli maternity wards, following media reports and allegations of racial discrimination in Israel’s hospitals, according to a Knesset press release.
A recent report by Israel Radio exposed various Israeli hospitals that segregate Palestinian and Jewish women in their maternity wards -- a policy the hospitals denied, though some acknowledged they accommodate requests by women for separate rooms.
Though not an official policy in Israeli hospitals, testimonies documented by Haaretz describe women being directed to separate rooms either automatically or at their request as “an attractive bonus for those who choose to give birth in a hospital.”
Chairwoman MK Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Joint List said at the committee meeting “the discussion surrounding the phenomenon has exposed a difficult reality -- not only the segregation in hospitals, but the entire issue of segregation based on nationality and race which exists in other places. The health system can and should be an island of sanity.”
She criticized Jewish Home Party MK Bezalel Smotrich’s inflammatory tweets in reaction to the media reports, which said: “My wife is really no racist, but after giving birth, she wants to rest and not have a party like Arab women do after giving birth.”
In another tweet, he said, "It's only natural my wife would not want to lie next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might murder her baby in another 20 years."
In spite of the outrage the tweets garnered from across the political spectrum, MK Ahmad Tibi, also of the Joint List, pointed out Smotrich merely verbalized already commonly held racist views and “thanked” Smotrich for "placing a mirror in front of the ugly face of Israeli society.”
“Smotrich and his wife have apparently not read Jewish history. I suggest that he go back a few decades, so he’ll know where these words originate from, because in German it sounds more authentic,” Tibi added.
Former health minister MK Yael German of the Yesh Atid party brushed off accusations of racism saying that Israel's health system "is a model of coexistence” and noted that the percentage of Palestinian employees in the health system is higher than in any other government system, "because there is no discrimination in this system.”
For Zionist Camp MK Yael Cohen Paran, segregation came down to business. “The fact that [pregnant] women ‘shop around’ for maternity wards creates a situation where hospitals try to attract them. Hospitals offer private rooms and a private midwife for money. This is what ultimately creates the segregation.”
CEO of the Rabin Medical Center Dr. Eran Halpern defended the ethical soundness of Israel’s medical system as the “cleanest” system in the country, remarking on cases where Palestinian doctors treated Israeli soldiers and Jewish doctors treated “terrorists.”
“Our situation is good,” Halpern said, and went on to favorably compare Israel’s hospitals to those in the United States by saying “a black man in Chicago will not receive the same treatment he would receive at the Soroka or Rabin medical centers.”
Dr. Sigal Taub of the Health Ministry attested to the “homogeneousness” among hospital patients in Israeli hospitals, dismissing allegations of segregation as “false.”
Two other Israeli doctors addressed the committee insisting that separation in maternity wards is not racist, saying that Palestinians also sometimes ask to be separated, and that haredi women might be separated from secular women who have tattoos or speak on their cell phones during Shabbat.
In response, MK Yousef Jabareen of the Joint List said “cultural and social compatibility cannot defend racist positions. A distinction must be made between practical compatibility -- such as religion and keeping the Sabbath -- and racist positions.”
Dr. Lina Qassem from Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHRI) said that during her time as an intern at Shaare Zedek hospital she regularly witnessed explicitly racist attitudes among midwives.
“There, women are not called by their names, but are referred to as ‘the Ethiopian,’ ‘the Arab,’ or ‘the Russian.’”
(Palestinian) women from occupied East Jerusalem are treated with "disrespect and prejudice," Qassem added, and are “placed in the corridor, (which has) medical repercussions as well. When a midwife brings an Arab baby to the nursery, workers tell her: ‘What, you brought another terrorist?’”
Tamar Doron, a former nurse and PHRI member told the committee that midwives are instructed to only put Jewish women in the spacious rooms.
MK Touma-Sliman concluded the meeting saying, ”This meeting is particularly important today, when the atmosphere in the country is becoming more and more racist,” calling on the Health Ministry and hospital directors to lead a policy which “respects the state law which forbids discrimination.”
At the end of March, Touma-Suleiman charged other parliament members of using incitement and racism for political gain, referencing a recent poll conducted by the Coalition for the Fight against Racism reporting that 52 percent of Israelis believe Israeli society is becoming more racist.
”If we do not find ways to change this reality, we will find ourselves in a serious problem,” Touma-Suleiman said in her address.
”Unfortunately, there are MKs who use incitement or racism against the Arab population, against asylum seekers, and against other groups within society, only for the sake of political gain and to get more votes.”
A meeting of a Knesset committee held Wednesday debated the issue of segregation between Palestinian and Jewish women in Israeli maternity wards, following media reports and allegations of racial discrimination in Israel’s hospitals, according to a Knesset press release.
A recent report by Israel Radio exposed various Israeli hospitals that segregate Palestinian and Jewish women in their maternity wards -- a policy the hospitals denied, though some acknowledged they accommodate requests by women for separate rooms.
Though not an official policy in Israeli hospitals, testimonies documented by Haaretz describe women being directed to separate rooms either automatically or at their request as “an attractive bonus for those who choose to give birth in a hospital.”
Chairwoman MK Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Joint List said at the committee meeting “the discussion surrounding the phenomenon has exposed a difficult reality -- not only the segregation in hospitals, but the entire issue of segregation based on nationality and race which exists in other places. The health system can and should be an island of sanity.”
She criticized Jewish Home Party MK Bezalel Smotrich’s inflammatory tweets in reaction to the media reports, which said: “My wife is really no racist, but after giving birth, she wants to rest and not have a party like Arab women do after giving birth.”
In another tweet, he said, "It's only natural my wife would not want to lie next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might murder her baby in another 20 years."
In spite of the outrage the tweets garnered from across the political spectrum, MK Ahmad Tibi, also of the Joint List, pointed out Smotrich merely verbalized already commonly held racist views and “thanked” Smotrich for "placing a mirror in front of the ugly face of Israeli society.”
“Smotrich and his wife have apparently not read Jewish history. I suggest that he go back a few decades, so he’ll know where these words originate from, because in German it sounds more authentic,” Tibi added.
Former health minister MK Yael German of the Yesh Atid party brushed off accusations of racism saying that Israel's health system "is a model of coexistence” and noted that the percentage of Palestinian employees in the health system is higher than in any other government system, "because there is no discrimination in this system.”
For Zionist Camp MK Yael Cohen Paran, segregation came down to business. “The fact that [pregnant] women ‘shop around’ for maternity wards creates a situation where hospitals try to attract them. Hospitals offer private rooms and a private midwife for money. This is what ultimately creates the segregation.”
CEO of the Rabin Medical Center Dr. Eran Halpern defended the ethical soundness of Israel’s medical system as the “cleanest” system in the country, remarking on cases where Palestinian doctors treated Israeli soldiers and Jewish doctors treated “terrorists.”
“Our situation is good,” Halpern said, and went on to favorably compare Israel’s hospitals to those in the United States by saying “a black man in Chicago will not receive the same treatment he would receive at the Soroka or Rabin medical centers.”
Dr. Sigal Taub of the Health Ministry attested to the “homogeneousness” among hospital patients in Israeli hospitals, dismissing allegations of segregation as “false.”
Two other Israeli doctors addressed the committee insisting that separation in maternity wards is not racist, saying that Palestinians also sometimes ask to be separated, and that haredi women might be separated from secular women who have tattoos or speak on their cell phones during Shabbat.
In response, MK Yousef Jabareen of the Joint List said “cultural and social compatibility cannot defend racist positions. A distinction must be made between practical compatibility -- such as religion and keeping the Sabbath -- and racist positions.”
Dr. Lina Qassem from Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHRI) said that during her time as an intern at Shaare Zedek hospital she regularly witnessed explicitly racist attitudes among midwives.
“There, women are not called by their names, but are referred to as ‘the Ethiopian,’ ‘the Arab,’ or ‘the Russian.’”
(Palestinian) women from occupied East Jerusalem are treated with "disrespect and prejudice," Qassem added, and are “placed in the corridor, (which has) medical repercussions as well. When a midwife brings an Arab baby to the nursery, workers tell her: ‘What, you brought another terrorist?’”
Tamar Doron, a former nurse and PHRI member told the committee that midwives are instructed to only put Jewish women in the spacious rooms.
MK Touma-Sliman concluded the meeting saying, ”This meeting is particularly important today, when the atmosphere in the country is becoming more and more racist,” calling on the Health Ministry and hospital directors to lead a policy which “respects the state law which forbids discrimination.”
At the end of March, Touma-Suleiman charged other parliament members of using incitement and racism for political gain, referencing a recent poll conducted by the Coalition for the Fight against Racism reporting that 52 percent of Israelis believe Israeli society is becoming more racist.
”If we do not find ways to change this reality, we will find ourselves in a serious problem,” Touma-Suleiman said in her address.
”Unfortunately, there are MKs who use incitement or racism against the Arab population, against asylum seekers, and against other groups within society, only for the sake of political gain and to get more votes.”
