Meretz USA is saddened and dismayed by the deaths of at least nine international activists taking part in the Gaza-bound "Freedom Flotilla", following the Israel Defense Forces' armed raid of the Mavi Marmara shipping vessel.
In response to a court petition by the Israeli NGO, Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, the government of Israel has for the first time admitted that it has specific written guidelines for its Gaza Strip blockade which outline which goods it will, and which it will not, allow into Gaza, and in what quantities.
Last week, Kadima MK Yulia Shamalov Berkovich introduced an urgent motion to the Knesset plenum, accusing "organizations supported by the New Israel Fund" of, "treasonous behavior", "involvement in subversive activity against ... officers in the Israel Defense Forces," and, "making common cause with our greatest enemies to realize their goal - the obliteration of Zionism". The Kadima MK compared the NIF to the Nazis ("we won't go like sheep to the slaughter").
Knesset members from the Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, National Union, and United Torah Judaism parties joined the ominous chorus.
New Movement-Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz rose to an impassioned defense of the New Israel Fund. Comparing the Knesset members' attacks to a "witch hunt", he said:
The Meretz party's Knesset faction will be submitting a motion of no-confidence in the Netanyahu government over its ongoing massive construction in East Jerusalem. This week, Israel authorized the construction of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, creating a diplomatic crisis during the visit of US Vice President Biden. The Meretz faction termed the Netanyahu government's moves, "the policy of a pyromaniac".
Meretz chair, MK Haim Oron, attacked the government in a press release: "This is an inebriated government ["Adloyada government", in Hebrew], which, by its own hand, is making a dangerous mockery of its professed desire to renew diplomacy."
The Meretz party's electronic bulletin this week boasted, sadly, that Meretz is the only party in Israel that has been united in defense of Israeli democracy, following the attack on the New Israel Fund and its President, Naomi Chazan. Here are sections of the bulletin:
This week, we mark a full year since the Knesset elections that dealt us a sharp blow. The McCarthyist campaign of lies and hatred of the last two weeks against the New Israel Fund and ... its President, Naomi Chazan, clarified the meaning of last year's election results: A dangerous and frightening erosion of democracy in Israel.
On February 2, Meretz USA President Lawrence Lerner and Chair Theodore Bikel issued the following statement to the press:
This is an ominous hour for Israeli democracy. The recent attack on the New Israel Fund and its President, Prof. Naomi Chazan, by the Im Tirtzu organization - base and reprehensible as it is - is just the most recent in a frighteningly consistent series of events in Israel that evokes the McCarthy period in America, and worse.
On February 2, Meretz USA President Lawrence Lerner and Chair Theodore Bikel issued the following statement to the press:
This is an ominous hour for Israeli democracy. The recent attack on the New Israel Fund and its President, Prof. Naomi Chazan, by the Im Tirtzu organization - base and reprehensible as it is - is just the most recent in a frighteningly consistent series of events in Israel that evokes the McCarthy period in America, and worse.
On Tuesday, January 26, nine human-rights organizations in Israel re-issued a call to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, asking him to, "establish, without delay, an independent and impartial investigation mechanism to thoroughly examine the allegations raised regarding violations of international law during Operation Cast Lead" - the Gaza war of December '08-January '09.
The Meretz party has submitted a motion of no-confidence in the Binyamin Netanyahu government. This came after his Cabinet revised Israel’s list of “national priority zones” on Sunday to include more West Bank settlements. Inclusion within a ‘priority zone’ guarantees preferential governmental treatment and tax incentives for education, housing, infrastructure and employment. Over ¾ of all West Bank settlements will now be eligible for this treatment.
The Meretz party's Knesset faction will be submitting a motion of no-confidence in the Netanyahu government over its ongoing massive construction in East Jerusalem. This week, Israel authorized the construction of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, creating a diplomatic crisis during the visit of US Vice President Biden. The Meretz faction termed the Netanyahu government's moves, "the policy of a pyromaniac".
The Meretz party's electronic bulletin this week boasted, sadly, that Meretz is the only party in Israel that has been united in defense of Israeli democracy, following the attack on the New Israel Fund and its President, Naomi Chazan. Here are sections of the bulletin:
