Peace Now director barred from Knesset after Borat-style video
Leftist group targeted well-known rightists, including radio host who said Sharon was worse than Hitler.
By Haaretz Service Tags: Likud Israel news Peace NowKnesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin on Monday barred the director of Peace Now from entering the parliament, after activists from the left-wing group interviewed rightist MKs while posing as students.
Following the incident, Peace Now said it had wanted to make a "Borat-like" film to expose the lawmakers' embarrassing remarks, referring to comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's alter ego, a clueless Kazakh journalist.
The group subsequently condemned the ban imposed on Yariv Oppenheimer.
"Peace Now rejects this attempt to punish the movement in the actual place that is supposed to guard the freedom of movement for all of society - whether left- or right-wing," the organization said in a statement.
On Sunday, three Peace Now activists were arrested at the Knesset for asking to interview right-wing MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) while posing as students.
The interview - as seen in the footage below - was cut short.
The three were released from custody shortly after the arrest, but a complaint was filed against them for impersonation and for trying to deceive an MK.
Meanwhile, another target of the film-makers, singer and radio host Dudu Elharar, was reportedly unrepentant for saying that Ariel Sharon was worse than Hitler. Elharar told the Israeli media Monday that he stood by his comments, adding, "I was even kind and merciful."
Dudu Elharar's interview (with transcript below):
Interviewer: Arik [Ariel] Sharon. What goes through your mind when you hear that name?Elharar: A scoundrel and a swindler. Interviewer: He's dead.Elharar: What?Interviewer: He's dead.Elharar: He didn't die... No, he's lying there [in the hospital]. They're inflating him. But I would really want him to feel it. Let him suffer. He deserves the most severe punishment from God. A despicable man, just despicable. A fraud. And it looks as if he's also a thief. Interviewer: Was he the worst prime minister Israel has ever had?Elharar: He wasn't the worst prime minister Israel has ever had. This was a bitter enemy that Israel had. This was a horrible disaster. Simply put, he's a scoundrel. The first time that the word "hatred" arose in me, a burning hatred, was for Arik Sharon. He drives me to...Interviewer: Not Peres, not Rabin, nobody on the left...Elharar: There's nobody in this world, not even Hitler? With Hitler, I thought he was crazy, abnormal, someone who suffered delusions of grandeur, there's a thousand things you could say about him. [Sharon] is just a wickedness of the most sickening kind there is?Interviewer: Sinister...Elharar: Sinister and prostitution-like...Interviewer: What do you mean prostitution-like?Elharar: What?Interviewer: How so?Elharar: The way [Sharon] cheats people and defrauds them and scares them, and misleads them and leads them astray... Disgusting. He will never be forgiven. Him and those who follow in his path.Interviewer: Does his family also deserve to suffer?Elharar: Certainly. They were with him. [They should suffer] forever.Interviewer: Does anyone who voted for him also deserve to suffer?Elharar: Whoever voted for him will in any event absorb a blow. Those who voted for him were expelled from their homes. Their homes were destroyed. The rest are being threatened to have their homes destroyed. And those who think they're sitting comfortably and safely in their homes in Ramat Aviv Gimmel (a tony neighborhood in north Tel Aviv) will also get what is coming to them. The Arabs will get to everybody.
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
The grounds for barring the Peace Now activists from the Knesset are not clear. Were any specified?
The trouble with Peace Now, and other Leftists is that they refuse to discuss the facts on the ground. When the facts disagree with their ideology, they prefer to ignore them, and they find ways of fabricating events, or worse, create media events that "prove their point". Once upon a time there were Leftists who knew how to discuss issues with the Right. They came up with conclusions that surprised both of them and created a sensible public policy. Trouble is that Peace Now, and others like them aren't interested in Peace, but Power at any price--even if they have to lie, or fabricate the facts.
Someone needs to hold a mirror up to our leaders, the Israeli people and show them how we all act, how no one thinks anymore and we are only filled with partisan hatred and shallow goals. Good for them.
i am not some foaming-at-the-mouth left winger. rather, i see myself as a centrist, right-leaning, and it is for this reason that i read haaretz, poorly written and edited as it is, because at least it presents a balanced leftist view of things....and it's good to keep a balance. enough extremism in this country already. i want to hear the other side, but i want to hear it from reasonable folks, who still identify as zionists. i want to hear it from Peace Now, who, like haaretz (so badly done lately it doesn't deserve a capital h), still love israel, far as i can make out. arresting them is a violation of freedom of speech, so regardless of how they identify themselves, they must be free to continue, free to mock our system in a borat-fashion or however they choose, free to lobby the Knesset and to protest outside of its hallowed halls. ban b'tselem and the women in black and the alternative information center, if you must, but leave Peace Now alone. they're not hurting anyone.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. What was Peace Now investigating? Weren't they trying to show the e morality of on behalf of the Law makers? How moral were their tactics? Being a cheat and using deception is not the way to get to the truth. It isn't good journalism, it is trash and should not be excepted as an excuse.
hiowever, it disgugsts me. How much illicit eu hate funds did they get to demonize Israel loving jews? taking bribes from these foreign governments should be outlawd as it is the biggest danger to our democrcy and freedom of speech.
Using underhand means - posing as students - to collect dirt is not investigative journalism. It is an attempt to embarrass, degrade and mock those who do not agree with Peace Now. Their feeble attempts to promote their cause use whatever dirty means they can since they know that very few Israelis (basically the looney left today) still support them AND even fewer Arab/Palestinians. Get real -grow up and get a life at last
They were likely arrested for falsifying identity identity papers, lying to Government officials (which is why Martha Stewart went to jail in the US), and likely other crimes as well. Oppenheimer should also be arrested for his role. In the US, the charge would be conspiracy. It is disgusting that the left feels that the laws don't apply to them because they believe that they are right. More disturbing is that Haaretz would support this behavior just because they are in the same political camp.
One of the cornerstones of effective investigative journalism is working undercover. We all know that journalists have revealed corruption, illegalities, lying, etc, by these means, and they serve an important part of making the press an important element of our societies. Moreover, these people definitely did not use fake i.d. or anything (having done interviews with MKs in the Knesset, I know that you are given a thorough identity check and search before getting in). The real crime would be if the Israeli government were to criminalize an essential aspect of free speech and effective important journalistic practices.
Or rather, the rejection of it. The MKs should not be allowed to protect themselves for wallraffing. Investigative reporting such as this is key in accountability in a democratic country. There should be no refuge or safe haven for making offensive remarks "off the record".
From IsraelNN.com: "The ?students? aroused the suspicion of the legislator, who noticed that one of them was wearing a ?kippa? (skullcap) in an awkward way. During the interview, they showed other signs of being fakes, and one of the activists admitted that he was using a false name. "All three of them eventually confessed that their mission was under Oppenheimer?s orders and was to obtain material to be used against the Knesset Member." Peace Now once again demonstrates why it's earned support only from the Israeli "fringe".
That got them kicked out. Why did they not say they were planning to do a film and wanted to quote the MKs' views?
Guilty of getting folks to reveal their true beliefs and nature. That is unacceptable.
It's about time the left woke up to what's going on.
"Trying to deceive an MK" can't realistically be a crime, considering the meatheads in the Knesset, esepcially the fascist right-wingers. They'd consider counting from 1 to 5 in front of someone like Ben-Ari to be outrageous.