…but it was left to the Muffti to post this?
Israel held it’s largest ever war drill today. Maybe the Israelis would like to give an account of how it went, what happened?
In other news, Muffti became aware recently of a strange bill making it’s way through the knesset known as the ‘Nakba’ law will aim to stifle any anti-celebrations on Yom Haatzmaut, punishable by up to 3 years in prison. You can probably guess which party the bill’s originator, Alex Miller, is a member of if you think hard. As a dyed in the wool free speecher, Muffti hopes this fails and that such nonsense is left out of the political sphere so real problems can be focused on.
mother in israel
5/31/2009
Nothing happened today, at least not around here. The siren is going off country-wide tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11.
LB
5/31/2009
I can no longer find the link, but I read that the bill is going to be changed, and instead of such a gross infringement on free speech the proposed law would deny public funding from any organization that participates in “nakba” celebrations. I have no problems with such an amended bill. If there are such organizations already, that are beneficiaries of tax shekels, then it’s disgusting. Then again, I wouldn’t be shocked. I should be, but I wouldn’t…
Joshua
6/1/2009
Um, Muffti, Israel does this stuff already. You could call “suppressing Holocaust denial” a necessity, but it’s the same thing. That being said, yeah, I would sorta have a problem with the bill as it was. Denying state funds to organizations involved in “Naqba” observances, fine with me.
Ben-David
6/1/2009
We also have laws here prohibiting proselytizing of Jews by people of other faiths… although that could be seen as a form of verbal assault rather than pure free speech.
Grand Muffti
6/1/2009
Muffti doesn’t really understand a defense of an attack on free speech that says ‘we already do this anyways…’, though he is less against denying state funds to anti-state celebrations than he is outright banning naqba observance.
Tom Morrissey
6/1/2009
So this is what it’s like, up at the top of the slippery slope…
SarKE
6/2/2009
I’m at the affilicon conference and was downstairs. I didnt even hear the siren, just knew about it via twitter! Maybe I should’ve gone upstairs to hear it….but downstairs was the protected space. Ha. That’s ironic. Most of the people I’ve spoken to havent taken it too seriously. Drills are funny that way.
Barry
6/2/2009
After nearly three years, I finally saw our shelter at work (hopefully for the first and last time). So that’s where all our old office furniture ends up!
themiddle
6/2/2009
Not in Sderot, Barry. They have brand new shelters!
dahlia
6/4/2009
I was at Kikar Rabin, and here’s what it was like: sirens go off, some people stop their lunches and go to shelters, responsible authorities tell people not to smoke in the shelters, 5 minutes passes, drill over. It was sort of a joke, to be honest.
With regards to the Naqba law, Yair Lapid wrote a great article about it. His article had a lot of hyperbole, but he had one great quote, “Those who argue that Nakba Day undermines the pillars of the Israeli state apparently don’t believe that its pillars are strong enough.” I think that just about says it; democracies should encourage freedom of speech, and so long that that speech is not used to encourage harm to others, it ought to be protected.