…What’s needed very badly, however, is for Israelis to realize that the occupation is hurting the Palestinians terribly, that it’s driving them to try to kill us, that we are compelling them to engage in terrorism, that the blood of Israeli victims is ultimately on our hands, and that it’s up to us to stop provoking our own people’s murder by ending the occupation. And so long as we who oppose the occupation keep pretending that the Palestinians don’t have the right to resist it, we tacitly encourage Israelis to go on blindly killing and dying in defense of an unholy cause.…There’s no time for equivocation anymore, if there ever was. The mental and moral paralysis in this country must be broken. Whoever the Palestinians were who killed the eight Israelis near Eilat last week, however vile their ideology was, they were justified to attack. They had the same right to fight for their freedom as any other unfree nation in history ever had. And just like every harsh, unjust government in history bears the blame for the deaths of its own people at the hands of rebels, so Israel, which rules the Palestinians harshly and unjustly, is to blame for those eight Israeli deaths – as well as for every other Israeli death that occurred when this country was offering the Palestinians no other way to freedom.
What do you think?Is the journalist sane? Is he simply exploiting the limits of free expression?Is he criminal?Is he an extremist?A political activist masquerading as a journalist?
Is he encouraging the murder of civilians for a political cause, for that is what the Arabs will understand.
… to say Palestinian terrorism against Israelis is “justified”… has exposed the fundamental flaw in the left’s position on terror…the significant aspect of this piece is it shows how pious liberals who believe the blame for the conflict falls upon the Jews are inevitably led to the justification of murder…he and those who think like him have never been really been interested in the Palestinians or what they do or want. His focus is hatred of the Israeli right and the settlement movement, and to discuss anything else, even if that means ignoring the truth about Palestinian nationalism and its implacable desire to destroy Israel no matter where its borders are drawn, is a distraction.
Has this private blog post crossed the line in justifying the killing of Israelis that his viewpoint is no longer private and within Israel broad ideological spectrum or is it incitement?
Here’s the law
144D2.
(a) If a person publishes a call to commit an act of violence or terror,or praise, words of approval, encouragement, support or identification with an act of violence or terror (in this section: inciting publication) and if – because of the inciting publication''s contents and the circumstances under which it was made public there is a real possibility that it will result in acts of violence or terror, then he is liable to five years imprisonment.
(b) In this section, "act of violence or terror" – an offense that causes a person bodily injury or places a person in danger of death or of severe injury.
If you were the Attorney-General, would you proceed with an investigation and a possible indictment, or would you hesitate?Let''s give the journalist the last horrific word before we make up our own minds:I think a lot of people who realize that the occupation is wrong also realize that the Palestinians have the right to resist it – to use violence against Israelis, even to kill Israelis, especially when Israel is showing zero willingness to end the occupation, which has been the case since the Netanyahu government took over (among other times in the past). But people don’t want to say thisWhat decision will be made?UPDATEWell, his decision was to "apologize" and remove the post. But see my comment below where I quote his repeated justification of terror - not for the right of return but for a state: "Terror is only justified in the name of freeing Palestinians from Israeli rule, because Palestinians do have that right." - and know that for employment and livelihood, I am presuming, he reversed his principles. And maybe because he was afraid of the police and worse. Anyone who followed the original post and his exhuberant responses to those who praised terror knows how hollow his apology is.^