Can you punish a person for a crime not yet committed? Israel’s new #FutureCrime law passed 2nd and 3rd readings.
-------
The Constitution Committee approved for second and third readings the bill that establishes one year imprisonment for a person who systematically consumes publications by #Hamas and #ISIS, which include words of praise, solidarity or encouragement for acts of terror. However, consumption of publications done sporadically, in good faith or for a legitimate purpose will not be prohibited consumption. During the discussions, the committee added to the test of systematic and ongoing consumption, a circumstance indicating identification with the terror organization.
“Intention to commit treason.”
Israeli society and media are sliding down a slippery slope into a dark and gloomy abyss from which there may be no way back.
After posting on #Facebook about Palestinian civilians who were killed in the bombings of #gaza Israeli Civics teacher Dr. Meir Baruchin from Jerusalem was arrested, under suspicion of “intention to commit treason”. Police search turned his house upside down.
This is what an Israeli father, who knew of Dr. Baruchin, wrote to his friend a couple of days earlier:
“My son is supposed to study in the high school you manage in a few years […] and as someone who knows Meir, follows him closely on Facebook and has met his former students, I pray that he will be one of my son’s teachers and his classmates.”
He then warns:
The automatic, absolute and blind mobilization of most of the Israeli media in favor of the silencing and intimidation campaign we are now at its peak (or heaven forbid only its beginning) should worry and frighten every Israeli citizen, regardless of his political views and tendencies. Today it is Meir Baruchin, who despite having written explicitly more than once that he is “against killing innocent civilians, against kidnappings, against rape of women” dared in parallel, heaven forbid, to show compassion and pain in light of the shocking and heart-wrenching sights coming out of the #Gaza Strip. Yesterday it was someone who sprayed graffiti with the number “1400” near the home of Likud MK Dov Khenin in protest of the abandonment of southern residents which cost the lives of 1,400 people, and tomorrow it will be someone who writes a word or two about the exclusion of women, religious coercion or discrimination against LGBT people.
Hebrew: https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/2023-11-12/ty-article-opinion/.premium/0000018b-c3c9-dc2b-a3fb-e7ddb1520000
#FutureCrime
@israel
@palestine
@academicchatter #IsraelHamasWar