Bill to penalize MKs' rhetoric passes preliminary reading

This sort of thinking has been an undercurrent in Israel for a very long time. Now it's finally in the open. Please, Israel, pass the law. Show the world that your critics have been right all along. Show us that Zionism is a racist, supremacist ideology that will tolerate no dissent. Show us that your so-called democracy embodies systematic institutionalized discrimination against your non-Jewish minorities. Show us that one day it will be a crime merely to be an Arab in Israel. Please Israel, show us. We are tired of your lies and hypocrisy and pretense.

This sort of thinking has been an undercurrent in Israel for a very long time. Now it's finally in the open. Please, Israel, pass the law. Show the world that your critics have been right all along. Show us that Zionism is a racist, supremacist ideology that will tolerate no dissent. Show us that your so-called democracy embodies systematic institutionalized discrimination against your non-Jewish minorities. Show us that one day it will be a crime merely to be an Arab in Israel. Please, Israel, show us. We are tired of your lies and hypocrisy and pretense.

The more Israel legislates the recognition of being supposedly Jewish and democratic, the less others around the world accept it as such.

It never ceases to sadden me when left-wing Jews are so quick to compare Jews to Nazis. There is no lesser person in the world than those who use the Holocaust to slander Israel and Jews. Nobody should be in our government that is devoted to our destruction, that supports terrorist enemies, and calls for the end of the "occupation" (which we all know means all the land to Arabs). Yes, if you can't pledge loyalty to the Jewish state of Israel, you have no business being a citizen let alone a MK. It's pure madness to believe otherwise.

This law is not comparable to the German Reich. Nowhere does it state that MK's have only Jewish blood as you say the Germans demanded of their gov't.It is only saying that they expect MKs who have sworn allegiance to Israel,to up hold that statement and not go running off to Syria/Iran/wherever with any information that they may have. In other words..no traitors..any more!

Just in case Tartman et al don't remember, they are not the first ones to propose racist laws. The Nuremberg Laws http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob14.html The Reich Citizenship Law, 1935 Article 1 Section 1 A German subject is one who is a member of the protective union of the German Reich and is bound to it by special obligations. . . . Section 2 1. A Reich citizen is that subject who is of German or related blood only and who through his behavior demonstrates that he is ready and able to serve faithfully the German people and Reich. 2. The right to citizenship of the Reich is acquired by the grant of citizenship papers. 3. A citizen of the Reich is the sole bearer of full political rights as provided by the law.

In the US go and tell the police you support Al Quaida. Meet with known Al Quaida memebers. Also chant Al Quaida's refrains in public. See if you will be arrested in the US or not. Try getting elected and meet with Al Quaida, see if you will not go to jail for treason. Dan do you know that you might just be a hypercrite?

How come in the US you cannot be an Al Quaida supporter and in Israel you can be a Hamas supporter? Good for you, Israel, you are joining the civilized world. Bravo.

Any government official serving as an elected representative of the people does extreme harm to the same, if vocalizing any words, which may be perceived as being directed against the state or the people of the state publicly or privately. The first and foremost duty of any elected official is the safety and security of those represented and to the state as established. To utter words against in anyway is sedition, treasonous, and detrimental at best. The far-reaching consequences of such denials can, and often does, echo through time as history shows, with reverberations and repercussions that future, and succeeding generations must contend with. A law against such utterances although ideally unnecessary is a welcome addition. By such a law being in place allows for the people to legally and peaceably exercise their ability to remove representatives who fail to meet the most fundamental and basic of responsibilities. The idea and concept of an impeachment process is not new and has been utilized before.

Unless I read this wrong,I agree with it.Every MK should be completely loyal to Israel. Get rid of people like Bishara(who still hasn't come back to face the music).If they are 5th column,then there should be legislation to remove them.

What a country...

I also was unaware..I thought she had faded away somewhere

The Tartman woman should be given an honorary M.A. for her contributions to Political Science

We were not aware that Ms. Tartman is still permitted to be an MK.......

I am not impressed with the 4 respondents to this question. DOES NOT ISRAEL face unusual problems of loyalty , almost non-existent anywhere ? I can only think of Sudetten Germans in Chechoslovakia circa 1938 ; can u supply examples of similar situations elsewhere in the world where more than 10% of the state's population seem to want the destruction of the the state , without restrictions on its full democratic rights ? Why this automatic a priori opposition to common sense?

No doubt this bill needed alot of refinement and should have NEVER been passed as is. (Of course the Yellow bellied cowards of the Knesset don't have the spines to do what is right - so there is no surprise here.) In principle, however, the idea of this TYPE of bill is long overdue. Demanding that the members of a democratically elected government do nothing to harm the democratic status of a nation - is fair and necessary. Demanding that law makers NOT call on enemy states to destroy the people they represent - is also fair and necessary. Unfortunately, we have a Knesset filled with undereducated fools vying for position rather than for democracy. THIS is what will make the application of the current bill a disgrace.

So much for freedom of speech....

She should be first to be removed for her racist remarks.

Who among the generals is going to play the Pinochet part?

I don t remember exactly what she said a couple of months ago that was pretty racist. According to her own bill she could be evicted for incitement to racism

You make me sick. What if one of your British Parlimentarians stood up and proclaimed he supported Al-Qaeda and that the 7/7 attacks were justified because Britain is to blame? Think he'd be a parlimentarian much longer? He'd be drummed right out of there. Supporting an enemy of the state, any state, is sedition, my friend.

Her bill is tantamount to the denial of the existence of the democratic State of Israel

When draconic provisions like this are use by Jews, they call it democracy. When they are used against Jews, they call it anti-semitism. Israel can wallow in whatever provisions that they like. What they cannot do anymore is fool the people of the world.

introduced until now. Which democracy allows its members of Parliament to incite against it and allows them to visit other countries during times of war? Lord Haw-Haw alias William Joyce was hung by the British simply for broadcasting pro-Nazi Germany. In any of the countries seeking to destroy Israel this people would be hung up immediately in the town square without waiting for a group of MPS to decide whether or not he should be expelled from the Knesset. Do you think that we are ignorant and don't know about other countries? Or perhaps you don't know? The assumption has to be that you are blinded by bias. Mike

With MKs like Tartman and Lieberman, who needs democracy? It goes to show that legislators are capable of getting enough support to pass any law they want. We've seen it in many other so-called civilized countries and the consequences are history. It is freedom of speech/religion to deny the existance of GOD, but to deny the existance of an earthly entity or a historical event is becoming a criminal act throughout the world! Please join me in welcoming the soon-to-arrive thought police!

This typical Tartman bill is not only a disgrace, as described by Michael Eitan, but also highly dangerous. It is dangerous for any individual who happens to be in the bad books of Tartman and her cohorts. Even folk who participate expressively in talk-backs could find the Jewish police knocking loudly on their doors, preferably at midnight. The question is how is this doubtful person is still permitted to be an MK, and noch to propose far-fetching laws?!

One more move like this and Israel can join Russia! Disgrace!

Quote 1:"The bill passed with 34 MKs voting in favor, and 22 against. Most of the coalition factions supported the bill." Quote 2:"Michael Eitan, whose Likud party opposed the bill, called the move 'a disgrace'." I'm not a traditional Likud voter but I agree with mr Eitan. This reeks of curtailing free speech, maybe ms Tartman and mr Lieberman are mentally still in Russia.