53 thoughts on “Israel Outlaws Nation’s Leading Muslim Group – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
task-attention.png
Comments are published at the sole discretion of the owner.
 

  1. The Kach (Meir Kahane) Party has been outlawed in Israel, and Israel’s Knesset is examining whether to outlaw the Lehava group as well.
    Israel won’t tolerate any political group, Jew or Muslim, that advocates violence.

    “That scenario sounds pretty far-fetched here in the U.S. (though China currently does precisely this to Tibetan Buddhists and the Falun Gong, and Iran does the same to the Bahai”
    I case anyone didn’t know, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong and the Bahai, are peace loving groups that do not advocate violence.

    1. @ Ida Flemstein: Stuff & nonsense. Not only does Israel tolerate political groups adovcating violence, the Israeli state itself is based on violence. If I went through the entire Knesset I could find 40-50 members who’ve advocated violence of one sort or another against one Israeli or Arab group or another. Probably more. Especially cabinet ministers.

      Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong and the Bahai, are peace loving groups that do not advocate violence.

      The Islamic Movement doesn’t advocate violence either. It advocates resistance.

      1. I believe that Sheikh Raed Salah has just begun serving 11 months in jail for his 2007 conviction for incitement to violence and racism. His second appeal has just been rejected.

        The words that got the Sheik in trouble were as follows;

        “Jerusalem be purified with the blood of the innocent, who shed it in order to separate from their souls the soldiers of the Israel occupation, also in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
        He further said that “our finest moment will be when we meet Allah as martyrs in Al-Aqsa.”
        Immediately after the sermon, a crowd of Palestinian men confronted Border Police troops, wounding three of them.

        Sounds like textbook incitement to violence to me.

        1. It does not sound like a incitement to violence to me. The brutal armed forces of Israel have killed many innocents , whose blood Salah thinks is purifying. As for the finest moment, likewise; a belief in an afterlife meeting at a sacred place. The violence of Israel towards the oppressed Palestinian interpreted as martyrdom.

          1. @roberto: Not to mention Thomas Jefferson’s famous phrase that the “Tree of Liberty must be watered by the blood of patriots from time to time.”

            Jefferson would’ve understood Salah completely.

        2. “Jerusalem is under occupation and we won’t give up on the value of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. With spirit and blood we will redeem Al-Aqsa.”

          Saleh was convicted in connection with a sermon he delivered in 2007 in Jerusalem. The cleric originally lost an appeal over an eight-month sentence he received last year, and was sentenced in March to eleven months in prison when racism charges were added to the case. He appealed again, but the Jerusalem District Court ruled against him.

          Patriotism Sans Borders

        3. @Ida: So was Mordechai Analewicz’s speech before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising & Eleazar ben Yair’s speech as Flavius Josephus records it–all incitements to violence. Against unjust, immoral forces which decimated their own people. Not to mention white Americans’ claims that Malcolm incited race riots. These leaders spoke truth to power. Sheikh Salah is a leader no different from them.

          1. Richard.
            I’m an old lady, but I’m not that old that I’d remember Eleazar ben Yair’s speech.
            The Warsaw ghetto speech was without a doubt a successful incitement to violence speech.

            As for Saleh’s 2007 speech, the proof is in the pudding. Immediately after the sermon, mobs of Arabs who’d heard Sadeh’s sermon attacked the Border Police and injuries resulted.

            I don’t think that banning the Northern Movement is a great idea. It sounds draconian and overly broad. But please don’t tell me Saleh’s speech wasn’t an incitement to violence. Both the Jerusalem Trial Court, and the Appeals Court said it was an incitement. Also, the fact that the ‘racism’ charge was originally dismissed, tells me that Saleh had effective counsel.

          2. @ Ida: No Palestinian needed Salah’s speech to be enraged by Israel’s gradual encroachment on Al Aqsa. Israel has been doing this for years & resentment built up among Muslims there over that time. To blame Salah alone for Israel’s crimes is absolutely dead wrong.

            I will tell you Salah’s speech wasn’t an incitement to violence. But I might change my mind if you acknowledge that BIbi’s speech from the Jerusalem balcony was an incitement to murder & that Bibi is as responsible for Rabin’s assassination as Salah is for the latest Intifada. And if so, I’m sure you would agree that Bibi deserves a far worse prison sentence than Salah for his crime??? What say you?

            As for what Israeli courts say, I have no interest whatsoever. Justice is defined by the regime & meted out by it. This is not real justice. It’s justice settler-style. Ratifying the worst excesses of the system. Your counsel in such cases matters nothing. Judges do not respond to counsel. They respond to what the security system requires of them.

          3. How funny that this ‘old lady’ (whom we never heard of before), suddenly shows up here and starts monopolizing the threads, right after ‘Hopper’ was banned and ‘vorten’ was so disgraced that he took his leave. I wonder how long ‘she’ will last. 🙂

          4. @ Elisabeth. It’s like tag team wrestling. Two commenters are beaten in the ring & two new ones come to take their place. Don’t forget Gilead. He’s a new one too. I wonder if they flew in on the same flight on Hasbara Airlines from Ben Gurion??

            I love the obviously fake “Flemstein.” “S/he” thinks it’s a piece of snarky wit. When the only “Flem” here is his/hers.

      2. Don’t pretend to be naive, Richard. I am sure that you are aware that the Arabic word for resistance, “Muqawama” is used by terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hizbullah, and refers to violent opposition.

        1. @ Yehuda: Ah now you’re an expert Arabic speaker. How versatile. Did you take the Hasbara Institute short course? Frankly, I don’t trust your “grasp” of the language.

          Neither you nor I know what word Salah used when speaking of resistance. Nor do you or I know the nuances of this word, even if he did use it. The word “jihad” has both violent physical connotations & purely spiritual ones in Arabic. Yet to hear you speak of it, it would only connote violence. You thereby do violence to the language.

        2. The Resistance (i. e. Muqawama) in Europe during WW2 included all kinds of activities: Sabotage, forging food stamps, hiding Jews, downed pilots or people hunted for slave labour, printing illegal newspapers, sending messages to London, and definitely also violent opposition to the Occupation.

  2. “Israel is a State going to Hell in a handbasket. It’s worst enemy is itself. I have never witnessed a train wreck. But watching this insanity slowly unfold is the closest thing to it.”

    It’s only a train wreck because it’s not going the way YOU want it. I think every political debate boils down to predictions. Here you repeat your oft-made prophecy that Israel is falling apart, committing national suicide, this time specifically because of Yaalon’s actions, which you consider a suppression of freedom.
    (BTW, as far as I know, by most measures– economic, health care, social– Israel is moving up the ladder in the context of Western countries, not down.)
    It’s like you get so absorbed by the moment that you forget that this conflict, the same shit, has been going on for 100 years. Everything new seems like a catastrophe. Everything is a new low.
    But all of this has happened before. That Jews and Arabs fight each other, with words and deeds, is nothing new.
    And the sky has not fallen. Even if Ya’alon is mistaken (and I’m not saying he is)
    Everything will be fine. Take a deep breath.

    1. Is Israel Western? As Primo Levi predicted, it has become another Middle East country with its tribalism, dictatorship, fundamentalism, abuse of human rights.

      1. Roberto: “Is Israel Western?”

        A very good question, that. And I suspect that the answer infuriates Netanyahu.

        Note that in the last year or so:
        Israel bombed the crap out of Gaza. Result: it was deemed newsworthy, but there was no expressions of empathy from “the West” towards the Palestinians. No “We Are All Gaza” shit.

        ISIS blows up a Russian plane over the Sinai. Result: newsworthy, but not worthy of any empathy from “the West”. Nobody holds vigils or holds up signs stating “We Are All Russia”.

        ISIS explodes bombs all over Beirut. Result: see above. No govt buildings gets draped with flags of a Big Ol’ Cedar Tree.

        ISIS goes on a rampage in Paris. Result: a vast outpouring of empathy from “the West” towards the Parisians. Everything that doesn’t move is lit up Red, White and Blue. Icons of the Eiffel Tower are everywhere. Not a dry eye in the house.

        Netanyahu: “The time has come for the world to wake up and unite in order to defeat terrorism. The time has come for countries to condemn terrorism against us to the same degree that they condemn terrorism everywhere else in the world”. Result: [insert sound of crickets]

        Netanyahu’s Nacissism(tm) is breathtaking, and quite unseemly.

        But beneath it is something else that must worry him deeply i.e. lack of empathy being shown to Israel during this “knife itifada” is because – deep down, even at a subconscious level – he dimly perceives something that Yehuda doesn’t i.e. “the West” doesn’t regard Israel as “Western”.

        They see it instead as Just Another Middle East Country That Is Based Around Ethnic Intolerance, and run by a bunch of brutes who wear funny hats and behave in ways they can’t relate to.

        Sorry, Bibi. Sucks To Be You, Yehuda.

        1. Yeah, i fear you are Right.

          However, Israel regards itself as part of the West and we should hold it by that self image and judge it by the standards commensurate with it.

          1. “However, Israel regards itself as part of the West and we should hold it by that self image and judge it by the standards commensurate with it.”

            No, I don’t think so, because then Israel will attempt to convince “the West” to cut it some slack because, heck, We Are You And You Are I, Unlike All Those “Others” That We Pick On.

            Nope. It is a Middle East country, and an aggressive one at that.

            It is unexceptional in every way except that all the other nasty little ethno-centric regimes in the Middle East pervert some version of Islam to support their intolerance. This one simply perverts another religion as the basis for it ethnic intolerance.

            But that’s really the only difference, and it’s not really much of a difference at all.

    2. @ Yehuda:

      as far as I know, by most measures– economic, health care, social– Israel is moving up the ladder in the context of Western countries, not down.

      The key phrase in this statement is “as far as I know.” Apparently, you don’t know very far. Israel falls far short on many indexes compared to other countries including on indices measuring corruption, free speech, press freedom, OECD wealth disparity, democracy, etc. There are a few indices on which it scores well including a “happiness” index. I’m not sure what that is or how they measure it. But if you’d search through polls and indexes about which I’ve blogged in the past, you’d find many posts here documenting this fact.

      Everything will be fine. Take a deep breath.

      It is precisely because of Know Nothing attitudes like yours that Israel may be doomed. There were some Jews who right before the Holocaust wanted to believe the same thing. Things are bad, but they can’t get much worse and what choice do we have. You remind me of them. I’m not saying a Holocaust is coming to Israel. But a catastrophe of Israel’s own making may be coming, partially thanks to the smugness of people like you.

  3. In the US there is a Second Amendment and are his speeches protected by individual freedom. Israeli laws are descriptive of the victor in oppressing the minority. This can en never will last.

    The long arm of the Israeli government. In my native country this is called being railroaded:

    UK court releases Raed Salah as government case flounders – July 2011

    From the beginning, Salah claimed Israel had a hand in the exclusion, arrest, unlawful detention and attempt to deport him from the UK. “Israel carries the full responsibility for his detention in the United Kingdom,” a press release said at the time.

    Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), at the time said to the press: “The primary cause for the arrest is Israeli pressure and the pressure of Zionist elements inside Britain.” (“Raed Salah arrested after UK appearance,” Ynet, 29 June 2011).

    Arab MKs were outraged at the arrest. “Instead of supporting our just struggle for democracy, freedom and political activism British authorities are condoning Israeli policy of persecution against Arabs,” MK Hanin Zoabi said.

    She claimed there was no legal basis for Salah’s arrest and pointed a finger at Israel. “The primary cause for the arrest is Israeli pressure and the pressure of Zionist elements inside Britain.”

    The MK called for Salah’s release. “I suggest that the British act more wisely in matters pertaining to Palestinians’ rights in Israel. We as Arab leaders must act more vigorously on the international level so the world will understand Israel’s racist policy against us.”

  4. To ban a pro-terror radical Islamist group that is a source of incitement and violence is “racist” and “Islamophobic”?

    I don’t think so.

  5. RS: I like your analysis and think it likely that a remnant of the group will go underground and some of the underground fragment will resort to violence.

    The other thing, also hinted at by yiou, is the reminder: “First They Came For The * * * :

    First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Socialist.

    Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Jew.

    Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

    A reminder, inter alia, that the Nazis may not have begun with and did not limit their victims to the Jews.

  6. “According to the Israeli Jewish narrative, everyone is to blame for anti-Israel terror: ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam–and now the Northern Movement.”
    Don’t forget Raed Salah’s female counterpart, Haneen Zoabi (the most hated woman in Israel, according to I can’t remember who and whether it was a compliment or the contrary).
    How come I’ve got the impression they’re going to find something to get rid of her too.

    1. I love this woman. She’s right on everything she said. Europe has right to protect herself, just like any country in the world.

      I remember in high school we had to read one of her books. I loved it and learned a lot of new things.

      1. It’s nothing personal to Ayaan, it’s the audience she appeals to … Islamophobes, bigots and racists. Was true in The Netherlands (Theo van Gogh, Pim Fortuyn and Geert Wilders), US (AEI, Neocons and Daniel Pipes crowd) and in a broader sense in Israel, naturally. Geert Wilders is a poster boy of violence against Palestinians, he gets a warm welcome from Netanyahu.

        See articles by Richard Silverstein here and here.

        The rush of patriotism and nationalism I witnessed in my surroundings of fellow students and friends in the mid 1960s as Lyndon Johnson escalated the Vietnam War, is seen everytime leaders decide to wage war. Its’s of all ages … it surplants people’s senses and they become robots, tools prone to propaganda. Human kind is supposed to be made up of individuals using their God given intellect, not blindly following some golden calf.

      2. You had to read Ayaan Hirsi Ali in high school ? What country was that ? I’m really courious to know in what place someone could put such a hater/liar/ignorant on the program. Don’t tell me it was in Israel …..

      3. @Bad Boy: YOu, like Hirsi Ali have learned all the wrong things. Not to mention that her narrative, like your own, is a total fraud. Just as nothing in her backstory is true, nothing in Israel’s backstory as presented by propagandists like you is true.

          1. @Bad Boy: Why am I not surprised? This is not a substantive comment & violates the comment rules. Make sure there is an actual idea or argument in future comments. Letting us know yr personal opinion without having anything substantive to say is not a legitimate contribution.

        1. My name is “bachur tov” and means “good boy”, not “bad boy”.

          I am capable of learning a lot of of things. In fact, I do learn a lot of new things every day!

          1. @Bad Boy: Sorry, but to your grandma you’re a “Good Boy.” To me, you’ll never be.

            If you do learn anything it certainly isn’t here. Here you spout tired old hasbara talking pts.

          2. Aren’t you way too old to be referring to yourself as any kind of boy? Don’t you feel like you’re a man? Work that problem out with a therapist maybe. And it’s disingenuous go by the name “good boy” on Richard’s site, and something else on Mondoweiss. And your habit of attempting to incite and insult others is all you’ve offer. Are you an only child whose always gotten his way like the typically overindulged, underdisciplined israeli brat?

          3. @marnie

            I am young. How do you want me to refer to myself? I feel like a bachur with my whole life ahead!

            I am not inciting and I have never insulted anyone. I have an education. I’m just stating my opinion. I am not asking you to share or endorse my opinions, but to respect them, just like I respect yours, even if I don’t agree with you. Respect is a two-way street. I will always respect you and your opinions, and I will never insult you. But you’re not respecting me at all.

            Mondoweiss doesn’t accept names in Hebrew letters, so I was forced to pick a different name. Also, I am failing to understand why is it “disingenuous” not to use the same username on every website. Anyway, my username (or my feelings, for that matter) is not your business.

            I just want to share my thoughts and get along with everyone here, including yourself.

          4. @ Bad Boy:

            I am not inciting and I have never insulted anyone.

            The only possible way you could say that is by not considering Muslims and Palestinians “anyone.” You insult them in every comment you write here. Not to mention insulting our intelligence, but that’s another matter.

            As for respecting your opinions…why should anyone respect opinions based on lies, ignorance and hate? I should respect that you admire Hirsi Ali, who called Islam a “death cult??” Why should I respect you for this?

            Your username is my business if you review the comment rules. But I don’t mind you using a different username here than at other sites. But you must continue using only one username here.

          5. @Richard Silverstein

            “The only possible way you could say that is by not considering Muslims and Palestinians “anyone.””

            Muslims and Palestinians are human beings, just like you and me. I don’t hate Muslims. I even have Muslim friends.

            You’re assuming a lot of bad things about me when you don’t even know me or anything about me.

            “You insult them in every comment you write here.”

            I have never insulted Muslims. Could you please quote a comment in which I am allegedly insulting them?

            Thank you.

            “why should anyone respect opinions based on lies, ignorance and hate? I should respect that you admire Hirsi Ali, […]??”

            My opinions are not based on lies, ignorance or hate. Yeah, you should respect the fact that I admire Ayaan Hirsi Ali just like I should respect that you don’t like her. You know, respect is a two-way street.

          6. @ Bad Boy:

            I even have Muslim friends.

            Where have we heard this before? “Some of my best friends are Negro.”

            I have never insulted Muslims. Could you please quote a comment in which I am allegedly insulting them?

            You falsely called the Islamic Movement:

            a pro-terror radical Islamist group that is a source of incitement and violence

            Even the Shabak chief disagrees with you.

            I have been a bit too harsh on you. After reviewing all your comments they are only mildly insulting to Muslims. I overstated things, but only by a bit.

          7. @Richard Silverstein

            “Where have we heard this before? “Some of my best friends are Negro.””

            Are you implying that saying that I have Muslim friends makes me a racist? Really? I have Muslim friends. Do you want me to claim otherwise even if that’s not the truth?

            “You falsely called the Islamic Movement: […]”

            The Islamic Movement is a pro-terror radical Islamist group that is a source of incitement and violence. This is the truth. The Islamic Movement supports and has close ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. It doesn’t even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and wants to enforce Sharia as the sole law in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. And the fact that it’s a source of incitement and violence is undeniable. The Islamic Movement has been spreading the lie that the State of Israel wants to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque and in 2012 founded the Murabitat and Mourabitoun, violent groups whose only purpose is to harass and attack Jews visiting the Temple Mount. These groups have also attacked US Members of Congress.

            To say this is insulting Muslims as a whole? Are you kidding me? So I guess that according to your reasoning, to call Kach or the JDL “pro-violence radical Zionist groups” (that’s what they are) is insulting Jews and, therefore, anti-Semitic.

            “I have been a bit too harsh on you. After reviewing all your comments they are only mildly insulting to Muslims. I overstated things, but only by a bit.”

            No, you have been very harsh on me, not “a bit”. I have never insulted Muslims. You didn’t overstate things, you completely made them up.

            I think you should apologize. You wantonly slandered and disrespected me.

            P.S. My name is not “bad boy”.

  7. @Yeah
    Yes Israel is all that. But the fact is that we are far more preoccupied with Israel than with all those other nasty states. One of the standard retorts to Israeli complaints about double standards has been that if Israel calls itself a democracy (unlike those other states) it should behave like one. In other words we are holding it to its self image.

  8. If sombody will come out of space and will read only RS blog he will think that israel is the source of evil in the world and the angeles are: ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam–and now the Northern Movement.

    1. @ Reb Gilead: This is not a substantive comment. There is nothing new in it. In fact, it repeats about 100 other comments published over years here by other hasbara warriors. If you have nothing new & on topic to add to the conversation do not publish. When you do have something substantive to say, do so.

      This is a comment rule violation.

  9. RE: “Israel Outlaws Nation’s Leading Muslim Group”

    SEE: “How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas”, By Andrew Higgins, The Wall Street Journal, 01/24/09

    [EXCERPT] Surveying the wreckage of a neighbor’s bungalow hit by a Palestinian rocket, retired Israeli official Avner Cohen traces the missile’s trajectory back to an “enormous, stupid mistake” made 30 years ago.
    “Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” says Mr. Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades.
    Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
    Instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. . .
    . . . When Israel first encountered Islamists in Gaza in the 1970s and ’80s, they seemed focused on studying the Quran, not on confrontation with Israel. The Israeli government officially recognized a precursor to Hamas called Mujama Al-Islamiya, registering the group as a charity. It allowed Mujama members to set up an Islamic university and build mosques, clubs and schools. Crucially, Israel often stood aside when the Islamists and their secular left-wing Palestinian rivals battled, sometimes violently, for influence in both Gaza and the West Bank.
    “When I look back at the chain of events I think we made a mistake,” says David Hacham, who worked in Gaza in the late 1980s and early ’90s as an Arab-affairs expert in the Israeli military. “But at the time nobody thought about the possible results.” . . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275572295011847.html

  10. To Palikari AKA good boy –
    You insult and inflame by assuming the readers share your ideology, likes and dislikes. I’ll break that down for you with a scenario. You’d be the guy in KKK regalia attending a #BlackLivesMatter function and then acting surprised by the obvious outcome. Like one of Prince Charles’ son, don’t remember which, who attended a costume party dressed in Nazi regalia, then acting all “what’d I do?” about it. You’re a fake. You know you say the most ridiculous things considering the sites you troll, then claim to be respectful? Sell it to someone else, I’m not buying it.

    1. @Marnie

      My name here is “בחור טוב”, “bachur tov” or “good boy”. I am “Palikari” on Mondoweiss because you can’t choose a name in Hebrew letters there. So please, call me by my name. Thank you.

      I am not assuming readers share my ideology. In fact, I know they don’t. But that doesn’t stop me from sharing my thoughts. Debate and pluralism are very nice and the most basic building blocs of democracy. I always enjoy a good debate based in respect and a wide range of different points of view.

      I have never insuted anyone and I am not inflaming. I am just sharing my thoughts in a respectful way. If you’re so sensitive that you can’t stand my comments, just don’t read them and be happy. No one is forcing you to read.

      I am not trolling. I am sharing my thoughts, just like you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *