Ministers okay bill banning Nakba Day
By Tomer Zarchin and Jack Khoury
The ministerial committee for legislation yesterday approved a bill that would make it illegal to treat Israel's establishment as a day of mourning, effectively banning Israeli Arabs' commemoration of Nakba Day. The proposal, which was initiated by a member of Yisrael Beiteinu, sparked charges that such a prohibition would infringe on freedom of expression and increase alienation and extremism rather than encouraging cohesiveness.
The private member's bill was proposed by MK Alex Miller and calls for a violators. It will be brought before the Knesset for a preliminary reading. The explanatory notes accompanying the bill call for "harsh punishment for those who take advantage of the democratic and enlightened nature of the State of Israel to bring it down from within."
"I opposed the law because I believe that it could impair freedom of expression and freedom of protest and achieve the opposite goal - increasing alienation and strengthening extremists, who are on the margins of Arab society," said Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog. "The law won over the representatives of Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu because it's easy to support, their reasoning being that we must protect ourselves from these elements. I don't believe in such legislation."
Lees verder: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1087978.html
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