First, a h/t to ramara for bringing the raw story, and to Jewish Voice for Peace, an American organization that immediately pitched in to help the beleaguered Israeli groups.
This diary is intended to bring more info from an insider perspective, and place it in the larger context.
Everyone was wondering what would be the first practical implications of having racist-fascist Lieberman's party as senior partner in Israel's new governing coalition with de-facto veto power (they have 15 out of 74 coalition seats, and 61 are needed to govern). Yesterday's action is perhaps a first tangible on-the-ground sign. Israel's new Minister of Police is Itzhak Aharonovic from Lieberman's party. As the party builds its appeal on witch-hunting "disloyal" elements inside Israel, this is a logical step.
(more ->)
What Happened?
On Sunday morning, Israeli police raided the homes of five activists in the anti-militarist NGO New Profile. They confiscated all computers in each home - including one belonging to a 4th-grade kid - and took the activists to the station for interrogation. They were released later that day, under the condition of not contacting any fellow activist in the group, not writing to the group's distribution list for 30 days. the main charge is probably "inciting to shirk enlistment to the IDF" or something along these lines.
Here's from a statement by New Profile itself:
Amongst those interrogated: Analeen Kish, aged 70, a ceramics artist, daughter of a family of the the "Righteous among the Nations" who converted to Judaism after her marriage to Holocaust survivor Dr. Eldad Kish, active in organizations of Dutch Holocaust survivors in Israel. The pair have six grandchildren; Miriam Hadar, age 51, an editor and translator, mother of two, married to professor of psychology Uri Hadar. The two women were born in Holland and continue to hold Dutch citizenship.
Additionally detained for interrogation were Amir Givol, a resident of Jerusalem, Sergei Sandler, a resident of Beer Sheva, and Roni Barkan, a resident of Tel Aviv. The computers of all those interrogated were taken by the police, who presented search warrants.
All five were interrogated in the Ramat Hachiyal station in the Yarkon Region of the police. At the conclusion of the interrogation they were released on bail and under limitng conditions, and all were told that during the next 30 days they are forbidden to contact other members of the movement.
Additionally, under the pretext that one of the activists was working there, the police raided the Jeruslem-based NGO "Hotline" (formally "Center for the Defense of the Individual"), which delivers day-to-day human-rights assistance to Occupied Palestinians. They demanded that Hotline hand over all of its computers as well - which would have practically shut down its activities - but the workers there objected citing attorney-client confidentiality, and the police left them alone.
Is this a Precedent?
Tolerance of dissent has always been much lower towards Israel's Left than towards the Right (a plague, I may venture, shared by most nation-states). But waves of actual persecution have come and gone. We've seen worse before: in the early 90's some venerable, respected peace activists sat in jail for months, for the "crime" of meeting openly with PLO leaders and talking about peace.
The mid to late 90's were definitely a time of more tolerance, but once hostilities renewed in 2000 police and Shin Bet secret police intrusion into anti-Occupation groups has made a comeback. Some activists found themselves blacklisted to receive an "Arab Treatment" at the airport when traveling abroad (several-hour delay, interrogation, strip-search - not just to you but to your entire travel party; in 2004 I even flew from Israel a day ahead of my wife & kids just in case. I wasn't on the list, but personally know people who were at the time). Some others were invited to friendly interviews at the Shin Bet (unlike America's FBI, ordinary Israelis cannot contact the Shin Bet; it's a "don't call us, we'll call you" operation). In these interviews, besides being lectured on the errors of their ways by all-knowledgeable secret agents, they were given a friendly offer to become informers.
In fact, it is assumed that any anti-Occupation group of some significance is probably infiltrated. Israel's human-rights community lore has it that in the late 80's agents provocateurs infiltrated and derailed a couple of groups. The consensus solution is just to clean up your act internally and externally (as you should anyway), focus on the task and shy away from empty provocation.
So in general, this is far from the worst persecution of this type in Israeli history; but it is definitely a high-water mark in the current wave. In more general, Jewish groups have always been treated with kid gloves, compared with Arab-Israeli groups who are consistently under the Shin Bet's thumb.
About the Groups
New Profile was established in the late 90's, to promote an agenda of demilitarizing the Israeli mentality. The group argues that building a national identity around the military is not healthy. It seeks to research and educate on the effects of militarism, and advocates to allow an open option for IDF conscripts to choose alternative civil service (currently boys are barred from this, and girls can get civil service if they declare being too religious to serve). It also provides counseling and moral support to youngsters considering becoming conscience objectors (CO's).
All in all, a rather benign mission - even if off-mainstream in Israel. No wonder that during its early years, New Profile was supported by the New Israel Fund, a major donation channel for liberal American Jews. However, once the fit hit the shan in the Holy Land in late 2000, things changed. Israel attitudes hardened and by extension, so did Diaspora Jewish attitudes. Meanwhile in Israel-Palestine those hesitating youngsters were facing not a relatively boring 3 years serving militarism, but 3 years full of Palestinian-repression action. So a whole wave of 18-year-olds decided to refuse, and New Profile became the natural home for many of their parents. As far as I know, the NIF stopped funding them over the issue of supporting CO's.
All in all, New Profile is far from being the largest actor in Israel's anti-Occupation scene, not even on the CO front (the 18-year-olds themselves have their own groups; and older soldiers are active via Yesh Gvul). But it has dedicated activists who provide valuable information from a unique perspective.
As to "Hotline", this is a far more consensual NGO which has been funded by NIF all along. It provides bread-and-butter grassroots human-rights assistance to Occupied Palestinians (including East Jerusalem). I volunteered there in 1989-1993.
Where is this all Going?
The current crackdown fits well not only with Lieberman's hold on power, but also with a general siege mentality and paranoia taking over the Israeli public sphere. In particular, the issue of falling enlistment rates to the IDF has been whined about repeatedly. It is interesting, even amusing in a way, that while Israel's political center-of-mass had drifted way to the right and to trigger-happy opinions, the enlistment rate is steadily falling. I wrote about it a while ago, explaining this via the Israeli ambivalence between the official "wonderful" IDF, and each family's own private IDF which includes far less jolly experiences (a diary that earned me front-page appearance in a right-wing hate site).
The vast majority of youngsters who skip or cut short their IDF experience, does it the smart way (i.e., via medical/mental release, or becoming such a troublemaker that the IDF asks you to do it a favor and leave) - not the heroic "stupid" way (outright declaration of being a CO).
One thing is absolutely clear: persecuting New Profile to fix the enlistment crisis is like persecuting Cindy Sheehan to fix problems in Iraq. Just like Lieberman's hugely successful campaign against Israeli Arabs, this is more about picking a weak easy target to make political hay, than anything else.
What the police and its political masters are not counting on, is that the Israeli "radical left" community (most of us are not really radical anything, we just think the Occupation is an un-excusable evil and a the country's worst plague, and it must be dealt with now not later), I repeat, the "radical left" community is much broader, more resilient and shows more solidarity and cooperation than ever before.
Here's again from New Profile itself:
The New Profile Movement noted today: "These recent acts confirm what we have been contending for many years: the militarism of society in Israel harms the sacred principles of democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of political association. One who believed that until now criminal files were conjured up "only" for Arab citizens of Israel saw this morning that none of us can be certain that s/he can freely express an opinion concerning the failures of society and rule in Israel."
Israel's anti-Occupation community will not sit scared in the corner and wait to see who's next.
And also - last not least - I think the government has forgotten that the world is inter-connected, and that people abroad whose opinions do matter to Israel's leaders, will not like this at all, and may wonder how this plays out with the Israeli government's demands for endless unconditional support, on account of being "the only democracy in the Middle East."
Please answer Jewish Voice for Peace's call and contact Israel's Attorney General.
Contacting Israel's Embassy or Consulate are also not a bad idea.
----------- 4-ish PM PDT UPDATE: -----------------
Thanks to the participants in a semi-lively discussion.
There were some strange arguments put forth to defend the Israeli police raids. One went along the lines of,
"well, in Israel there are no guaranteed basic rights, so free speech and right to privacy cannot be argued. Just move along and stop whining, will you."
<Jon Stewart Gaze>
Dude, you've got the roles wrong. It is I who am supposed to remind the readers Israel has no basic human-right guarantees (I actually wanted to write it originally to explain how the raids could even happen - but the diary took too long), and you who are supposed to say it ain't so, or to explain it away (via "security" the common escape), etc. etc.
Bottom line, we seem to be in agreement that New Profile are basically persecuted right now for expressing their views. So what are you arguing exactly, that human rights do not exist? Or they are conditional upon governments recognizing them? Or that a US-dependent nation can pretend to be a "model democracy" and persecute its dissenters at the same time? (I think that's what this commenter's argument boiled down to in the end)
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Another issue is "draft-dodging". Kicked around a while in the thread. Some for draft-dodging, some against draft-dodging, whatever. Let me declare my neutrality on the matter and clarify the role of New Profile, and the social situation in Israel. Via a great American analogy: Abortion.
"Draft-dodger" bashers are like "pro-Life" activists. They have their ideal world view and family/social structure, which they want to impose on everyone else ("soldiers are heroes, dodgers are scoundrels"). In that respect, Israel is like an abortion-ban country.
However, in practice there is always, always has been and always will be (I guess) a great demand for abortion (read: a great number of kids who can't imagine spending the next 3 years in compulsory military service, for various reasons). Currently they use mostly the back-alley: doctor/mental releases, family ties (when I was a platoon sergeant back in 1987, the nephew of a prominent Likud MK got a release from our unit after a few months), jail time, etc. etc.
New Profile is like a family planning NGO in an abortion-ban country. They want to inject sense and balance into the problem, and give youngsters some tools to deal with it and take control over their future, and make safe healthy choices. They also lobby the public and government (with precious little success) to forge more sane policies. Bottom line again: most would-be conscripts don't use New Profile, wouldn't go near it. Rather, they go to the back alley. They ask friends/acquaintances who managed to dodge, how they did, and take it from there. So persecuting New Profile is completely bogus, baloney, political theater, but more than anything else - a witch hunt.
Repeat: New Profile did not create the problem of "draft-dodging". Both New Profile and draft-dodging are side effects of the IDF's stranglehold over the country, and of the sick Occupation regime that is intimately related to this stranglehold. (see again my 2007 diary linked a few paragraphs up)
Finally: right now Israel is observing its Memorial Day. One of the most revered national holidays, in which people remember the fallen. How cynical of the Israeli police to raid the homes of "draft-dodger supporters" exactly one day before Memorial Day. How crass. How shameful. How typical of Israel's political powers.