position:coalition chairman

More moral than the Shin Bet - Opinion

A Likud legislator criticizes the security service, and people rush to defend this enabler of the tyrannical occupation

Gideon Levy Jul 30, 2017
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.804072

How scandalous: Coalition Chairman David Bitan criticized the Shin Bet security service. How dare he? He said they’re cowards who only want to get home safely. What gall! They protect him day and night and he’s a bigger coward – he hid for a month when his checks bounced.
And who raised the cry? The Zionist left, obviously. This includes all those patriots, friends of the Shin Bet, from Isaac Herzog to Ofer Shelah, as well as the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, which put on a particularly grotesque show the other day, showing what could be likened to a sequel to “The Gatekeepers.”
Whereas in Dror Moreh’s excellent documentary former Shin Bet heads lament the occupation, in which they obviously played no role, in part two they would whine about some guy Bitan daring to criticize the apple of their eyes. The old-boy network, excluding Likud’s Avi Dichter, whose spokesman said he couldn’t be located (speaking of cowards), called on politicians to keep their hands off this organization.
They’re very sensitive people, these Shin Bet chiefs, fragile and vulnerable, just like the organization they used to command. They were thus offended to the depths of their souls by Bitan’s comments, as well as those by Culture Minister Miri Regev, who called the Shin Bet’s positions “delusional.” The Shin Bet as victim – soon we’ll be passing around donation trays – the heart commiserates with this moving welfare organization and its wonderful employees, the gatekeepers of Israel who never sleep, while Bitan only talks.

Coalition chairman Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu) is working on a series of measures to legally differentiate Christians and Muslim Arabs.
▻http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Likud-MK-pushes-measures-to-legally-differentiate-Christian-and-Muslim-Arabs-

According to Levin, “this idea came from Christians who asked me to do this following similar activity pertaining to the Druse minority. It’s not surprising that Christians want to be separated from Muslims. This is the only place in the Middle East where they have security and freedom of worship. Many Christians don’t want to be known as Arabs, but as Maronites or Aramites.”

(...)

The coalition chairman asked the Interior Ministry to allow Christians to have “Christian” written as their nationality on their identity cards, as opposed to other Arabs, who have “Arab” written there.

(...)

Balad MK Basel Ghattas, a Christian Arab who also was the co-founder of Adalah, the legal center for Arab minority rights, told The Jerusalem Post that Levin is making “a provocative action,” which “is part of a divide and conquer policy that was used by the Zionist movement and by all colonial states in the world.”

Asked if Arab Christians feel part of the Arab nation, he said they do and that they have roots in Arab culture, which are very strong, and Levin cannot change this.

This move is an attempt to “leverage the situation in the Middle East and the instability where Christians are unsettled,” he said going on to criticize Levin for “cheap propaganda” and using “really marginal groups” within the Israeli Arab Christian community to support him.

Ghattas wrote a strong letter to Levin over the matter, stating that he will fight against the “cynical manipulation,” which is fueled by a “racist ideology.”

Arab Christians are strong enough to face attempts to divide them, he said.

Asked about Christian Arabs that may support Levin’s proposal, he responded that they do not represent them and a campaign against this divide and conquer strategy will take place in the coming months.

(...)

“Levin first should decide who is a Jew and then decide who is an Arab,” Jafar Farah, the director of the Mossawa Center - The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel, told The Post.

“Christians always saw themselves as part of the Arab nation” and Levin is “not going to change things now,” he added.

The Abraham Fund panned Levin’s proposals as an attempt to “divide and conquer” Israeli Arabs and took issue with Christians not being identified also as Arabs.

“These practices are being used in order to weaken the minority’s collective identity,” an Abraham Fund spokeswoman said. “This absurd proposal [is] yet another effort to discriminate against Israel’s Muslim Arab citizens by fueling internal tensions within the Arab minority.”

#diviser_pour_mieux_régner #colonialisme #nationalité #Israël

The NGO added that the measures are an attempt to condition benefits for citizens on their refraining from calling themselves Arabs.

Le chemin de croix des chrétiens en Israël
▻http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/le-chemin-de-croix-des-chretiens-en-israel-08-09-2012-1503992_24.php

#Israel MP says Christian citizens “not Arabs,” pushes for discriminatory policy
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/knesset-member-pushes-bill-favor-christian-citizens-israel-calls-

A member of the Israeli #Knesset is pushing forward legislation that would discriminate between Christian and Muslim Palestinian citizens of Israel, media reported on Wednesday. MK Yariv Levin, the coalition chairman for the governing conservative Likud-Yisrael Beitenu faction, is proposing a series of bills over the status of Palestinian Christian citizens of Israel, notably identifying them as “not Arabs,” Maariv newspaper reported. read more

#Palestine #Top_News

Soldiers’ benefits mustn’t come at the expense of Israel’s minorities
discriminations contre les Palestiniens et... contre les juifs orthodoxes
Editorial
Haaretz, 29th of October 2013
▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.554919

The softened version of the Contributors to the State bill, which was approved Monday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, was supposed to eliminate the worst of the discriminatory excesses of the original version of the draft law. The constitutional flaws of the bill’s earlier version were pointed out by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, among other.

The original bill, which was sponsored by coalition chairman MK Yariv Levin, was also approved by the ministerial committee, over the opposition of Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Health and Minister Yael German. Its provisions included preferential treatment for military or civilian national service veterans in admission to higher education, in government hiring (and wages and benefits), and in residential building rights. Weinstein ruled that the bill would cause injury to population groups that already suffer from severe discrimination and would violate the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom.

The new version, which was drafted in consultation with Knesset legal advisor Eyal Yinon, provides for “softer” benefits, such as letting soldiers in uniform jump the queue at entertainment venues, giving preference to military or nonmilitary veterans in allocating university housing and limited preference in real estate tenders. Nevertheless, it seems as if Levin and many cabinet ministers still haven’t grasped the ethical failure such a law’s very existence entails.

The Contributors to the State bill in effect constitutes systematic discrimination, in every walk of life, against entire population groups that are by law exempt from compulsory military or civilian national service. No democracy can accept such discrimination, especially when it affects already disadvantaged communities, namely Israeli Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews. The fact that military service is compulsory for a large part of the population does not justify a law that would have far-reaching consequences on civilian life, far beyond the military realm.

Many cabinet ministers have declared a fervent wish for more Arabs and Haredim in the workforce, even calling this goal a “national project” that could have a dramatic impact on the national economy.

Blind, a priori discrimination is not the way to achieve this integration. It will only create alienation and anger in these communities, sending the message that the state is lending a hand to their discrimination.

It is indeed worthy to reward those who contribute to the state through military or civilian service, but the way to do so is not by discriminating against other groups. The cabinet and Levin must draft a new bill that would recognize the contribution of veterans, such as paying higher salaries to soldiers during service. That is the only way the benefits offered in this bill will outweigh its costs.

MK Elkin: Israel Should Annex Judea and Samaria - Latest News Briefs - Israel National News
►http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/220957

Coalition chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said on Thursday that Israel should take advantage of the historical move by the Palestinian Authority in the UN and annex Judea and Samaria.

“It’s time we learned from the Arabs,” Elkin told Arutz Sheva. “Today, they control Gaza and forty percent of Judea and Samaria. Just as they make unilateral moves, we should as well.”