Bahar: Israel’s intent to expel human rights organizations exposes its democracy

Bahar: Israel’s intent to expel human rights organizations exposes its democracy

Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the first deputy speaker of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC), said Friday that tabling a new draft law in the Knesset calling for expelling many human rights organizations, which uncover facts about war crimes, further vindicated Israel’s lies about democracy and its disregard for human values and laws.

In a press release, Dr. Bahar stated that Israel is living a serious and escalating state of bullying over everything human and targeting all values and laws in order to spread tendencies of racial hatred and prejudice.

The deputy speaker affirmed that Israel’s actions against human rights and public freedoms stepped up lately in the 1948 occupied lands, adding that Israel is trying to legitimize its crimes and violations and make them sound in compliance with international law.

He warned that Israel’s defense of its violations and its intended measures against human rights organizations indicates that it has intentions to commit more serious war crimes against the Palestinian people without any legal obstacles or condemnation from any party, saying that these new Zionist tendencies emphasize the impossibility of coexistence with Israel.

More than 20 Knesset members, including members of opposition party Kadima, proposed a new bill which will make it possible to outlaw important human rights groups in Israel. Among the organizations mentioned in the proposed bill are doctors for human rights, the coalition of woman for peace, the public committee against torture in Israel, and Adalah: the legal center for Arab minority rights.

According to Maariv newspaper, the new bill will outlaw any organization “which is involved in activities intended to lead to the prosecution or arrest of Israeli military officers and government officials for war crimes”.

In another incident, Deputy Knesset Speaker Carmel Shama ordered guards to forcibly remove Arab KM Ahmed Al-Tibi, the head of the united Arab list, from the podium as the former was speaking about the recent visit made by an Israeli Arab delegation to Libya, meeting with Muammar Kaddafi.

Tibi and the participants in the delegation to Libya received a scathing attack from Zionist right-wingers in the Knesset who also asked for holding an urgent session to discuss the possibility of abolishing the rights of Arab lawmakers and lifting their diplomatic immunity.