Ahmed Khalefa’s life turned upside down after he was charged with inciting terrorism for chanting in solidarity with Gaza at an anti-war protest in October 2023.
The lawyer and city counselor from central Israel says he spent three difficult months in jail followed by six months detained in an apartment. It’s unclear when he’ll get a final verdict on his guilt or innocence. Until then, he’s forbidden from leaving his home from dusk to dawn.
The Knesset held a series of discussions about the proposed law. Professionals representing government ministries and the Knesset‘s legal counsel stated clearly that this is unconstitutional legislation that cannot be implemented, and if it reaches judicial review it will be revoked. Knesset members from right-wing parties nonetheless decided to advance it, though they are well aware that it is a populist bill not worth the paper it is written on, in order to set the stage for a confrontation between the Knesset, professional groups, and the Supreme Court.
What are the problems with the law? This is not a law at all: it is a populist pamphlet, which, like many other things this terrible Knesset is doing, is intended to mark Arab citizens and residents as disloyal, whose presence is contingent on containment.
The bill was attacked during the debate in the plenum by Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi, who retweeted a statement by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) arguing that its purpose was “to regulate the discourse in schools and to harm teachers whose statements and worldview do not coincide with those of the education minister and the political parties controlling the Education Ministry.”
“The purpose of the law is to threaten teachers and principals of Arab schools, to mark them and make them a target for surveillance and persecution,” the rights group stated, arguing that the tools already at its disposal before the current law were “adequate and sufficient.” “The law severely violates the rights to expression, employment and pedagogical autonomy of teachers and administrators,” it added. The teachers’ unions also opposed the bill.
Rashad was killed for his talent and inspiration – for daring to be a voice of hope in a world that so desperately needs it. Israel is not just targeting individuals; it is trying to break us as a people, to erase Palestinian culture, identity and existence.
These efforts at erasure have been ongoing for 76 years, since the Nakba. They have targeted our leaders, intellectuals and artists. Indeed, Rashad’s story is not unique: Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians like him, people who dared to dream of a better world, and to use their talents to inspire others.
I don’t know what to say or do in the face of such grief. Rashad shone so brightly. I will not let his memory fade.
MK Cassif said to journalists, “In spite of the fascist menace and terrorization, we marched today, thousands of Jews and Arabs together, to protest against the criminal massacre in Gaza, the occupation and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, against social injustice, class exploitation and fascism, and for the release of the hostages on the basis of ‘all-for-all’ principle, for social and national equality, democracy, and just peace.”
(05.03.2024)
Three Hadash-Ta’al lawmakers met Monday, March 4, with Jordan’s King Abdullah amid concerns that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan could amplify tensions in occupied East Jerusalem stemming from the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip. MK Ayman Odeh, the head of the parliamentary Hadash-Ta’al alliance, MKs Ahmad Tibi and Youssef Atawneh traveled to Amman and asked the Jordanian monarch to pressure Israel to ensure freedom of worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan and for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Racist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir appears to threaten Hadash MK Ayman Odeh with impeachment, tweeting out a picture of him with the message “next in line.” The photo shared by Ben Gvir shows Odeh holding the arm of Khalida Jarrar, a legislator and senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as she flashes a victory sign following her release from prison in September 2021. On last December 27, Jarrar was arrested again by occupation forces.
The far-right leader’s message comes hours after members of the Knesset House Committee overwhelmingly supported a motion to expel Hadash-Ta’al party lawmaker Ofer Cassif, voting 14-2 to advance his impeachment to the Knesset plenum following two days of contentious debate. During Tuesday’s debate on Cassif’s impeachment, Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi warned the Communist lawmaker’s ouster would “set a precedent” allowing for the impeachment of “all the Arab MKs in the Knesset.” “This is a black day for the Knesset,” Tibi declares following the vote.
30/01/2024
Today, the Knesset’s House Committee voted to expel Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, based on his public support for South Africa‘s application to the ICJ accusing Israel of genocide. Adalah: The motion is a deliberate attempt to suppress political dissent against Israel‘s brutal military campaign on Gaza
The petition was filed after the police refused on Tuesday to approve the protest, for the third time.
The petition states that the police‘s refusal to approve the protest „joins the systematic oppression of protests, even small demonstrations, that criticise the combat, its results, and demand a diplomatic solution“.
We urge the Attorney General not to remain silent when the police transform into a political tool, targeting those who dissent from the government‘s stance.
Particularly in times of war, it is crucial to safeguard freedom of expression and the right to protest.
“Police’s silencing of Arab-Jewish Hadash front is an alarming phase in the erosion of Israeli democracy,” according today’s (Dec. 10) Haaretz editorial. “The attempt by the Israel Police to prevent a conference by the left-wing Arab and Jewish Hadash front scheduled for next Saturday in Shfaram shows that under the cover of the war, the ‘temporary’ violation of basic rights threatens to become permanent. Israeli Police are trying to prevent a Hadash national convention scheduled for Saturday, December 16, claiming that it would feature ‘inciting speeches that would endanger the public’s well-being.‘”
(08.12.2023)
According Hadash and CPI, “utterly reject the fascist intimidation acts by the Israeli establishment. We insist on raising our voice against the war and against fascism – courageously and responsibly. We will carry out the congress on the scheduled date. A decision about the location will be reached later. We call on all our activists to take part in our struggle against this persecution of our party and front for its political role.”
“We call on all our cadres, all the Jewish and Arab progressive forces, and the international anti-fascist forces to protest this McCarthyistic persecution, targeting all voices that stand out against this criminal war and against the deterioration of Israel into fascism. This process began before the war, but the government saw its eruption as an occasion to accelerate the attacks on the already diminished democratic space.”
(26.11.2023)
In the majority of the cases, the indictments included accusations of supporting or identifying with a terrorist organization, according to section 24a of the Law of the Fight Against Terror and accusations of incitement to terrorism according to section 24b of the same law.
According Adalah, Israeli authorities have accused dozens of individuals of “supporting terrorist organizations” or engaging in “incitement to terrorism” for planning protests and expressing their opinions on social media platforms. The posts, interactions, and other means of expression largely fall within the rights protected by freedom of expression. The speech includes opposition to the targeting of civilians in Gaza, expressions of sympathy for the Palestinian people in Gaza, opposition to collective punishment and war crimes, and the dissemination of news about Gaza.
(November 11, 2023)
We told the police that we are going to have this protest, that it’s going to be only leadership, that it’s not going to be a massive demonstration or something like this. The next day, when Barakeh was heading to Nazareth, they arrested him.
How do you interpret these crackdowns? Is this an attempt by the Israeli government to effectively criminalize expressions of Palestinian identity and solidarity?
Not only the Palestinian identity. I think that whatever they couldn’t pass through the judicial overhaul, they are passing now under the cover of the war.
„I have to condemn totally, with no reservation, of course, the terrible slaughter that Hamas carried out against innocent civilians in the south of Israel. There was no justification for such a massacre,“ Cassif, a Jewish member of the Arab-Jewish opposition coalition Hadash-Ta‘al, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
„Having been saying that, there‘s no justification for the carnage that Israel carries out at the moment. Because those who are harmed, assaulted and killed [are] mostly innocent civilians.“
“I have to condemn totally, with no reservation the terrible slaughter that Hamas carried out against innocent civilians in the south of Israel. There was no justification for such a massacre,” MK Ofer Cassif, (Hadash) told “As It Happens” host Nil Köksal broadcasted by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). “Having been saying that, there’s no justification for the carnage that Israel carries out at the moment. Because those who are harmed, assaulted and killed [are] mostly innocent civilians.” The following is an excerpt from his conversation with Köksal.
(11.10.2023)
Our Israeli partners are already publishing clear messages in social media and the press against violent escalation and for using this crisis as a turning point. They are supporting reserve refusers to the war. They are planning and leading protests in the streets. They are taking part in creating civilian de-escalation direct intervention teams, to patrol mixed Arab-Jewish cities, where in similar situations in the past violence erupted between gangs of nationalists.
It’s clear that immediate funds are critically needed to help groups on the ground. Your donations can help in amplifying the voices, messages, and actions of war resisters, in preventing escalation of violence, and in using this moment to build the movement for a just peace.
Standing Together is a grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice. While the minority who benefit from the status quo of occupation and economic inequality seek to keep us divided, we know that we — the majority — have far more in common than that which sets us apart. When we stand together, we are strong enough to fundamentally alter the existing socio-political reality. The future that we want — peace and independence for Israelis and Palestinians, full equality for all citizens, and true social, economic, and environmental justice — is possible. Because where there is struggle, there is hope.
A few weeks ago, I was among the organizers of the March of the Dead in Tel Aviv. 147 coffins signifying all the Arabs killed this year were carried by young Arab men and women. Many Jews marched with us and along with great sadness we had hope that we were not alone. But for the members of the families – the orphans – this is not enough. In many of these murder cases, the victim’s family live next to the murderer who is not charged by the police because there is a lack of evidence or proof. Imagine a situation where a despicable murderer walks free alongside relatives of the murdered. What human society could allow this to occur?
Protests against the Netanyahu government‘s judicial overhaul efforts took place in cities across Israel on Saturday night, with this week‘s demonstrations shining a spotlight on Israel‘s failure to address rising violence in Arab society.
At the main rally in Tel Aviv, demonstrators walked from Habima Square to Kaplan Street in a protest march against government inaction on the rising number of Arab community homicides. Protesters carried mock coffins to symbolize the 159 Arab Israelis murdered this year.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara rejected the idea, noting that it would violate Arab citizens’ democratic rights.
One of the four victims killed earlier tonight in Abu Snan was running in the upcoming race. The director of Tira gunned down last night was also targeted in a dispute related to the upcoming election.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees the police, published a post on his Facebook account on Wednesday morning calling Arab armed gangs “terrorist organizations” with “huge budgets and hundreds of thousands of weapons at their disposal, including millions of bullets, explosive charges, and grenade launchers.”
Ben Gvir warned that such “militias” will soon direct their attacks against the State of Israel, and called once again for the establishment of a national guard to prevent local crime.
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Four men were shot at point-blank range. Among them was Ghazi Sa’ab, a well-known member of the community, a former border police officer, and a candidate for the head of the local council.
Police say the quadruple murder was planned in advance, carried out only two hours after Sa’ab launched his municipal campaign. The four victims were standing in an olive grove near one of the entrances to the town when a squad of assassins drove up to them, exited the car, and shot them.
“Health workers in Israel oppose discrimination in treatment. We are currently in a dystopic reality. The Israeli government is controlled by dangerous extremists that support discrimination against women, the elderly, Arabs, secular people and homosexuals,” Levine who is also chairman of the country’s Association of Public Health Physicians, says.
(03.08.2023)
Sponsored by a group of lawmakers led by MK Limor Son Har Melech, from the racist coalition faction Otzma Yehudit, and MK Yulia Malinovsky from right-wing opposition party Yisrael Beytenu, the new law marked a rare case of cross-Knesset alignment and passed 39 to 7 on its final reading.
Sharp criticism of the law quickly came in from Hadash-Ta’al lawmakers and Israel’s rape crisis center umbrella organization, with both alleging the law improperly creates a ranking of the severity of such crimes. Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma-Sliman, a former head of the Knesset’s Women’s Status Committee, told the Knesset: “Do not punish according to hierarchies and classifications.” “Shame on these laws,” she continued, tweeting after the law passed, “Don’t promote racism on the backs of victims!”
The Association for Civil Rights Israel (ACRI) is the oldest and most influential civil and human rights organization in Israel. Founded in 1972, ACRI is the only NGO in Israel advocating across the broad spectrum of human rights and civil liberties for everyone living in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Our strategic focus areas include: social and economic rights, civil and political rights, Arab society, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and migrants, refugees and statusless peoples.