Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Enemy of the State

There is something unpalatable about banning political parties. During the coldest days of the Cold War, American voters were never deprived of the chance to vote for Gus Hall and his Soviet-funded Communist Party USA. In Germany, voters can today opt for the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party. The British National Party, whose mission is to secure a future for "indigenous" white people, is there for UK voters.

In contrast, authoritarian countries show little compunction about banning. Saudi Arabia bars the Green Party; Sudan and Cuba outlaw all parties. And Syria allows opposition parties that accept the "vanguard role" of the ruling Ba'ath Party.

On Monday, the Knesset Central Elections Committee, comprising 25 politicians and one jurist, disqualified Balad and the United Arab List from running in the February 10 elections. The consensus was that both support terrorism, incitement and reject Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Arab critics retorted that the decision proved Israel is "racist" and "fascist."

The High Court of Justice, which overruled an effort to disqualify Balad prior to the 2006 elections, will make the final call. The attorney-general's office is on record as determining that there is not enough evidence to disqualify either party.

But overturning the ban this time may be harder. The Knesset recently passed a new law based on clause 7A of the Basic Law: The Knesset, which outlaws candidates who deny the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish and democratic state; engage in incitement, or support violence against Israel by an enemy state or terror organization. The amended legislation adds that anyone who illegally visited an enemy state in the past seven years can be banned.

The Supreme Court has yet to rule on challenges to the amended law.

DEMOCRACIES are not obligated to commit suicide. Spain, for instance, bans the political party affiliated with the terror group ETA. Similarly, US law makes it illegal for an organization that abets the use of violence against the government to seek office.

The case for banning Balad seems fairly plain. While it's off-putting to hear MK Jamal Zahalka say, "We are not Zionists and we will never be," the reason for keeping his party out of the Knesset is that it refuses to dissociate from its former leader Azmi Bishara - with whom Zahalka proudly consults - who fled to Syria after the Second Lebanon War, fearing arrest as a Hizbullah agent.

The case against Tibi's UAL party is not clear-cut. He is perhaps the most intellectually formidable of the Arab anti-Zionists, has a disarming personality, and calibrates his actions to stay just within the law. He won't declare unequivocally that he opposes terrorism, merely "militarization of the intifada."

At a 2007 Fatah rally in Ramallah, Tibi urged continued struggle against Israel "until all of the Palestinian land is freed." Yasser Arafat's former consigliere tells Palestinians that Israel wants to "eliminate" them "en route to the elimination of the ideas of Palestinian freedom and liberty."

Tibi says he does not oppose the state - just its policies. And he too declares that Arab citizens "will never accept Zionism..." He will not, he says, stop visiting enemy states.

Paradoxically, the disappearance of Balad and UAL from the Knesset might allow the emergence of Arab parties that actually cared about building the kinds of parliamentary alliances that can get things done for the Arab sector.

Israel's proportional representation system allowed the UAL and Balad to gain six seats in the current Knesset. The tragic dynamic is that the more radical the party, the more support it garners from the Arab public. It doesn't help matters that the major parties give Arab voters little incentive to shun the extremists.

In a world where 21 states define themselves as "Arab," and 56 proudly identify as Islamic, we do have a problem with Knesset members who begrudge Jewish self-determination within the rubric of a democratic Israel that respects minority rights.

The Likud's Bennie Begin cautions that Israeli society must be "very, very, careful" about outlawing factions or disenfranchising constituencies in wartime. To that we would add: But neither should our polity shy away from making tough decisions to protect the system from those who would destabilize it.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231866575823&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

NWN:

Is it any coincidence that the European Union seek to pass the same laws?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

And BNP members still stupidly crow on about electing Griffin to the EU. Don't the effing morons realise they need MPs to stop what is happening in Britain.

Anonymous said...

Similar draconian legislation is being imposed all over Europe. I read somewhere that the Portuguese equivalent of UKIP was forced to deregister as a political party because it had less than 5,000 members.

There is also the possibility that governments could impose codes of conduct for candidates contesting elections in order to drive people with certain political views such as opposing the EU or immigration off the ballot slip.

Anonymous said...

One can only stand for the Knesset if one accepts Jewish supremacism. Sounds very fair.

Anonymous said...

You lot think your nationalist, If you really want to change the country the BNP are all you got left and true nationalist would be men enough to put their differences aside and support them.

You sound like a bunch of silly kids belonging to sadie graham, the UAF searchlight mole, maybe your a bunch of red communists also.

And why all anon when attacking griffin, typical northerners, no bottle.

Anonymous said...

"And why all anon when attacking griffin, typical northerners, no bottle.

14 January 2009 01:19"



I'm anon because I don't have a google account. But just for you

GRIFFIN IS A FILTHY LYING SCUMBAG AND A THIEF

Kind regards

S Ebanks :)

Happy now?

Nice to see you chanting the same mantra as the other sheep

"Bah red bah bah uaf bah bah bah they don't like Griffin bah bah red red bah baaaaaah communist baaaaah bah.........Ad nauseum

Anonymous said...

TODAY GAZA, NEXT WEEK THE WEST BANK, TOMORROW THE WORLD,”The plans for ethnic cleansing against Palestinians have been written in the 1880’s and Israel is not about to refrain from those plans,” Salam continues.

The Zionist enterprise has indeed called for the annihilation of the indigenous Palestinian population beginning with Zionism’s founder, Theodore Herzl. In the late 1880’s, Herzl called for an enforced separation of Arabs from Zionist Jews:

“It is best to spirit the penniless Palestinian population across the borders by denying it any employment in our own country.”

It was Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, who in 1948, expanded on Herzl’s enforced separation, by covertly promoting an agenda of ethnic cleansing:

“The UN partition of a Jewish State being offered to us is not the Zionist objective. Within this area it is not possible to reach our historic goal. But it can serve as a decisive stage along the path to a greater Zionist implementation. Within the shortest possible time we will consolidate a Jewish force throughout Palestine.”

And in foreshadowing of what is now occurring in Gaza, in 1967, Ben Gurion overtly stated the means by which the Zionist historical goal would be implemented:

“We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid Palestine of its Arab population.”

THE BEAST WAGES WAR

“WHO IS LIKE UNTO THE BEAST?” heard St John the Divine in the “Revelation” given to him during his exile in Patmos in 64 AD.

In his Biblical account of those things which “must be hereafter,” St John spoke of this “beast” whose power was given to him by the ancient dragon, Satan himself. “Who can make war with the beast?” St John heard the multitudes exclaim in awe of the beast’s powers. And today, it is the multitude of deluded Christian-Zionists who are in awe of the Israelis, turning a blind eye to their atrocities against the Palestinians.

Anonymous said...

Bah red bah bah uaf bah bah bah they don't like Griffin bah bah red red bah baaaaaah communist baaaaah bah.

Nice one Mr Ebanks, real grown up reply mate your kids must be so proud of you.

Griffin put himself up for leader twice and democratically won , have you got a democracy problem.

I don't care who is leader its only one person out of thousands of atavists and anyone's better than brown or cameron.

You reds anarchists are obviously not bothered about healing your country, and supporting Islamists? i find you strange, if the frogs started chucking crap over into my back yard Id sure want to have a go back.

And its Ad nauseam you twit.

Anonymous said...

Griffin put himself up for leader twice ..

You fucking arselicking moron, Griffin won BNP leadership elections by lying, cheating, conducting smear campaigns against his opponents, and transgressing BNP leadership election rules, of which some he created, probably with assistance from barmy dopehead bagel Barnes, the insider zionists asset