Israel’s new entry law is anti-democratic and should be rescinded.
As the insidious movement supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel has gathered steam, this newspaper took a stand: We repeatedly declared our unequivocal opposition to BDS.
Now we declare with equal fervor our opposition to a bill passed earlier this week in Israel’s Knesset that forbids entry into the country to any foreigner who supports BDS.
To put it simply, this new law constitutes anti-democratic thought control.
That’s not just our opinion. In addition to left-leaning organizations such as J Street and the New Israel Fund, the staunchly Zionist American Jewish Committee declared in a statement that this new law will not “help Israel’s image as the beacon of democracy in the Middle East.”
To be clear, the law was overkill from the get-go. Israeli policy, like that of other nations, already permitted border and passport controls to deny entry to individuals deemed a legitimate security threat.
This new law is not that.
Many diaspora Jews support selective forms of boycott, refusing to buy Israeli products originating in West Bank Jewish settlements or, indeed, visiting those areas. Some of these Jews are Zionists. Some are rabbis, such as Rabbi David Cooper, who contributed an op-ed in this week’s J. concerned whether he will be permitted to enter Israel on one of his upcoming visits. His fear would be ludicrous were it not plausible, particularly in the wake of former S.F.-based Federation CEO Jennifer Gorovitz’s detainment at Israeli border control late last month by overzealous security officers.
Debate over the wisdom of Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank is part of the global Jewish conversation. Lumping in this mainstream, if heated, political discourse with a global campaign to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel is a colossal mistake. It would throw out baby Moses with the bathwater.
As Knesset member Tamar Zandberg wrote earlier this week, BDS is an intellectually impoverished idea because it is laughably black-or-white and wields too broad a brush in condemning Israel. The new entry law, she argues, echoes that same simplistic thinking.
These are dangerous times. The sort of political polarization we are seeing in the United States is playing out in Israel as well. This fraying of democracy is deplorable and must be reversed. Israeli society is strong enough to handle dissent.
We repeat our longstanding condemnation of BDS. But in the interests of democracy, debate and dialogue, we condemn this misguided new law. Israel should rescind it immediately.
How can you be so blind, BDS use sthe democratic shield to fight against Israel and its people.
And now you play along with its game. Democracy is the best system we have so far indeed, but it has lots of flaws and BDS and all antizionists, the UN, or as the Torah calls it “the amalekim” use every breaches and flaws to penetrate the minds of people like you who thinks Democracy is the new Torah.
I’m not jewish and even I understood this very obvious trap.
PS : if your ban my comment, it’ll show you how much you’re being hypocrite with your positions.
Apparently, many of our tribe no longer embrace “Two Jews, three opinions.”
you have the right to your opinion
you dont have the right to enter a country you wish to see destroyed
Not if that opinion advocates for the destruction of the State of Israel.
every country has no fly lists
it is not undemocratic to do so
the goal of bds is to destroy the jewish state
foreigners who promote this ideology do not have the right to enter the state that they wish to see destroyed
PERIOD
Why would someone who promotes a boycott of Israel ever want to go to Israel??
It would be find difficult to find anything remotely accurate in this bizarre, rambling–at times Orwellian–diatribe against the State of Israel, but I will restrict myself to the following point; the editorial states that:
“In addition to left-leaning organizations such as J Street and the New Israel Fund,”
Left-leaning? NOT EXACTLY.
J Street is a radical, fringe organization that has little, if any, actual support within the Jewish-American community. In recent years, J Street has called for direct negotiations with Hamas — a terrorist group that is proudly committed to the Jewish state’s destruction. J Street also partners with aggressively anti-Israel groups that support an economic, political and academic boycott of Israel. And J Street often features rabidly anti-Israel speakers in the name of “open debate.”
Furthermore, the NIF is also a radical, fringe organization that grants a significant portion of its money to groups that work tirelessly to delegitimize Israel, undermining the soldiers protecting Israel, and pushing war crimes tribunals and sanctions against Israel in world courts, the United Nations, and many other jurisdictions.
Both J Street and the NIF are on the ADL’s top-ten list of anti-Israel organizations.
I could go on and on exposing all of the factual errors and defamatory statements against Israel in this editorial, but instead I will simply conclude by stating that this is without a doubt one of the most intellectually dishonest editorials I have ever read.
The best that can be said for the J. staff here is that they are stupid.
The Palestinians have learned that they cannot destroy Israel militarily and have undertaken a policy of trying to defeat and destroy Israel using political and economic means. Have you heard about this J. staff?
I repeat, the object of BDS is not to criticize Israel. It is not to open a dialogue. It is not to exchange ideas with Israel. It is explicitly and openly intended to destroy Israel. Have you heard about this J. staff?
The Jewish state was not founded to placate the enemies of the Jews. It was founded to provide a place where Jews could be safe from their enemies. You, know, those who would destroy them and their state. Have you heard about this, J. staff?
“not “help Israel’s image as the beacon of democracy in the Middle East.” If we know one thing for certain about the enemies of Israel, it is that their objection to Israel is not its image. it is its existence. Have you heard about this, J. staff?
Border controls to keep out security threats apply to people who present military threats. But BDS is by explicit declaration of the PLO agitators who invented it, intended as non-military warfare against Israel with the intention of destroying it. Have you heard about this, J. staff?
Now we come to a controversial issue that J. staff may have some problems accepting. Some would argue that Israel has a right to defend itself, even if Israel-haters don’t like it. Some would even argue that Israel has the right to defend itself not only against military attempts to destroy it, but even against political and economic attempts to destroy it. Like BDS. And even if enemies of Israel don’t like it. Have you heard about this, J. staff?
“anti-democratic”? How exactly is it anti-democratic, J. staff? You left out of your editorial any reason for your position, didn’t you? But I will fill it in for you. It is “anti-democratic” if the existence of the state and society of Israel is a subject that is open for debate. But it isn’t open for debate. Have you heard about this, J. staff?
No more so than in any other country of the world. So much is it not a matter of debate that in every country, attempts to destroy the government and society are punished as treason. Not as a subject for debate, treason. Under American law, the penalty for treason is not being kept out of the country, it is death. Not debate, death. Have you heard about this, J. staff?
Since the new Israeli law merely sends people back to their home country rather than imposing the death penalty as the US and many other countries do, it is if anything, under-kill. Have you heard about this, J. staff?