Comments on: We Have Talented Writers Who Live in Israel

By: dahlia

dahlia — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:31:30 +0000

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.

By: themiddle

themiddle — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:22:13 +0000

Not in Sderot, Barry. They have brand new shelters!

By: Barry

Barry — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:15:49 +0000

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!

By: SarKE

SarKE — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:55:13 +0000

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.

By: Tom Morrissey

Tom Morrissey — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:52:32 +0000

So this is what it’s like, up at the top of the slippery slope…

By: Grand Muffti

Grand Muffti — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:47:25 +0000

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.

By: Ben-David

Ben-David — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:02:15 +0000

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.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:38:05 +0000

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.

By: LB

LB — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:01:54 +0000

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…

By: mother in israel

mother in israel — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:39:51 +0000

Nothing happened today, at least not around here. The siren is going off country-wide tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11.