[GushShalom] A further threat to Gush Shalom and to what democracy there is

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Press Release, 29/10/2002

      A further threat to Gush Shalom 
      And to what democracy there is...

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Assistance to International War Crimes Tribunal to be punishable
Israeli Government Coalition Chair proposes new bill.
Gush Shalom activists would face 10 years in prison
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While the Sharon government struggles for survival, another effort to hit Israeli 
democracy and in particular Gush Shalom:

A bill tabled today at the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) would criminalize 
any assistance rendered by an Israeli citizen to the International War Crimes Tribunal 
at the Hague. It was presented by MK Zeev Boim, a senior member of the ruling Likud 
party and chair of the government coalition. Under the bill, any assistance by an Israeli 
citizen to the Hague Court would be punishable by up to ten years' imprisonment.
 The bill includes a detailed list of proscribed acts, all liable to such a punishment: 
"The provision of any information such as writings, photographs, documents, opinions 
and reports" as well as "The collection, keeping and preparation and transfer of 
information" and "The holding of investigations and the writing down of their results". 
Additionally, any association engaged in any such activities would be liable to be 
disbanded. 

Evidently, the proposed law is primarily directed against Gush Shalom, the Israeli 
Peace Bloc, which recently cautioned 15 senior IDF officers that certain actions may 
lead to their indictment in the International Court. At the time, Prime Minister Sharon 
has demanded that Gush activists be indicted. The Attorney General, Elyakim 
Rubinstein, started an investigation but - after a wave of international protests, among 
them leading Jewish voices - the AG found that the Gush Shalom action did not violate 
any existing law. Thereupon the Minister of Justice, Me’ir Sheetrit, threatened to 
initiate a new law. The Boim Bill is evidently designed to fulfil this promise. 

Once enacted, however, the new law could find a much wider application. In fact, any 
act of by human rights organization collecting and disseminating testimonies of human 
rights violations might be eventually construed as violation of the new law, on the 
pretext that the reports might find their way to the Hague Court and used by it as 
evidence. The same may hold for the Settlement Watch reports periodically issued 
which contain information about a clear violation of international law, and which are 
widely disseminated throughout the world.
 
“This bill betrays the memory of six million Holocaust victims,” declared former 
Knesset Member and Gush Shalom activist Uri Avnery. “After the Holocaust, the 
Jewish people fought with all its strength for the creation of an International War 
Crimes Court, and now the Sharon Government tries to destroy it. This is tantamount 
to an admission that they have something to hide.”
“Even the USA, which wants to exclude its soldiers from the jurisdiction of the Hague 
Court, has not dared to enact such a despicable law,” commented Adam Keller, the 
Gush Shalom spokesperson. “It would turn Israel into an international outcast - a 
country which first signed the Rome Treaty, and would now forbid its own citizens on 
pain of dire punishment from helping the same court. It would place the best of Israel's 
citizens, the sensitive and conscientious persons who care about human rights and 
international law, in an impossible dilemma: either be an accomplice to war crimes or 
face prosecution and imprisonment". Keller called upon the Labor Party, now at last 
starting to make its way out of the Sharon Government, to struggle against its 
enactment.

Under Knesset procedures, a private member's bill needs 45 days between being 
tabled and being presented to a vote, which gives some time for organizing an protest 
campaign. Sometimes during these 45 days, the Boim Bill should come up on the 
agenda of the Cabinet Legislative Committee, which should decide whether or not the 
government would back it. 

For more information:
Adam Keller +972-3-5565804 / +972-56-709603

N.B.
Protests should be addressed to 

Justice Minister Sheetrit <sar at justice.gov.il>
and/or to the fax number: + 972 (0)2 6285438;

and to 
The Foreign Minister  <sar at mofa.gov.il>
and/or to the fax number (+972-2) 5303506 / 5303896 / 5303367 


(As things look now, within a few days the Foreign Affairs portfolio might be held by 
somebody else than Mr. Shimon Peres; but whoever the minister, Foreign Ministry 
officials can be expected to be concerned for Israel's image in the world and therefore 
vulnerable to protests from abroad.) 
You can use the following text, or of course make your own.

Dear Minister

I am deeply concerned about the bill presented at the Knesset by KM Ze'ev Boim, 
which would make for Israeli citizens the collection of evidence of war crimes 
punishable as "assistance to the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague",  nd 
which could lead to up to ten years of imprisonment. 

The enactment of such a law would violate both democratic norms inside Israel and 
Israel's adherence to the international community and the institutions established by 
the community to maintain International Law. I call upon you to take all measures in 
your power to prevent such a bill from being enacted and becoming a shameful blot on 
Israel's law books.

---
    Transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site
    For Hebrew   http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html
    For English  http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html
    French available at request

At request, a selection of documents is also available in Spanish
           
Also on the site:
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    the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English 
    the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English	
    (and a lot more) 
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