Israel Nazi Comparisons Bill Proposed

JERUSALEM -- A proposed bill would make it a crime in Israel to criticize people by comparing them to Nazis.

The draft legislation would impose penalties of up to six months in jail and a $25,000 fine for using the word "Nazi" or Holocaust symbols for purposes other than teaching, documentation or research.

The draft legislation passed its first hurdle Monday when Cabinet ministers approved it. It now goes to the full parliament for a vote.

The bill was proposed after ultra-Orthodox demonstrators set off a furor by dressing young boys as Nazi concentration camp inmates during a protest against what they said was incitement against their community. Protesters have also called police "Nazis."

The bill has been criticized by civil rights groups that see it as infringing on freedom of expression.

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Comments

[stumpedI]

10:21 AM on 01/28/2012

Ok so if we cant call a nazi a nazi anymore.. what word do we create to == nazi .. so we can call them out for what they are? Like people who kill their own country people to wage a war.. or people who use misinformation to lie to their people to have them give up their freedoms .. people who lie to wage agressive war.. people who steal the national wealth for their own purposes.. at what point do we call them out? or do all future nazi's get a pass..

[Parade Keegan]

07:53 AM on 01/12/2012

This is shortsighted and reactionary.

[JacksonJones]

05:13 PM on 01/12/2012

I agree.

[With Your Consent]

10:16 PM on 01/11/2012

More criminalization of speech from the Israelis_. Just as the the Israelization of western Europe was being undone, it caught on in America.

Indefinite_Detention will soon bring criminalized speech unless Americans unify.

[JacksonJones]

01:11 PM on 01/12/2012

Speech can be criminal everywhere in the world. It's more free in Israel than in most places by far. So, one presumes that you are equally or more honked off about that in other places, right?

If not, how do you justify your double standards? If so, how did you manage to exclude all meaningful context from your comment?

[With Your Consent]

08:09 PM on 01/12/2012

"JERUSALEM -- Israel has ordered the shutdown of a dovish Israeli radio station, officials and the station's operators said on Sunday.The station and other critics said the move was politically motivated, and part of a broader assault on democracy by conservative forces in the government.

Some members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition have pushed forward a series of measures recently that critics say are aimed at stifling opponents."

[cliffhammond]

10:09 PM on 01/11/2012

Ironic, no?

[JacksonJones]

01:09 PM on 01/12/2012

How so, Cliff? It's illegal in Europe to use Nazi symbols and to deny the Holocaust. How is this different?

[beauwulff]

09:29 PM on 01/11/2012

As the Israeli government burrows its head deeper in the sand.

[karim banned]

08:50 PM on 01/11/2012

,then act more like Nazis

[JacksonJones]

06:31 PM on 01/11/2012

Since this is pretty much the same sort of thing that they have in Europe, where it is actually a law and not merely a proposed piece of legislation, that makes denying the Holocaust is a crime (in modern Germany, you can't use Nazi symbols either), one supposes that the commentators making such strident remarks about Israel are equally honked off about that?

If so, guess what, there are a lot more restrictions like that in a lot of other countries that go still further, including in Muslim countries where it is illegal to depict Mohammed or insult Islam by you know, saying that it isn't the one true faith.

I assume you folks are even more honked off about that?

If not, how do you justify the double standards? If so, how did you manage not to put your comments into some sort of reasonable perspective?

[cliffhammond]

10:11 PM on 01/11/2012

This article is not about Muslim countries; it's about Israel.

[JacksonJones]

12:29 PM on 01/12/2012

That is very poor effort at a dodge, Cliff.

[ruolivert]

10:55 PM on 01/11/2012

They are all wrong

[Little Princess]

04:16 PM on 01/11/2012

Gosh!

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

04:00 PM on 01/11/2012

If this trend catches on, I have a prediction:

In 50 years, humans will be reduced to communicating by bland variations of "Have a nice day."

Anything else will be considered hate speech or its precursor.

[Calamity Jack]

05:23 PM on 01/12/2012

"Welcome to WalMart, I Love You."

[Fred Ricardo]

11:37 AM on 01/11/2012

THE SITUATION IN GAZA NO BETTER THEN NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN WORLD WAR II.

You can't make a people love you by putting a BOOT on their neck.

When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces lost control of the Gaza strip to the Islamist Hamas group, Bush told Israel he made a mistake and to give Fatah the money they have been holding up from the Palestinians and stop trying to starve them to death.

It is really screwed up now that Hamas is building strength and gaining world support just like what happened in the failed Lebanon invasion and Hezbollah win.

Israel turned Gaza into a five mile wide prison camp. Israel built walls, guard towers, and controls who comes and goes into the West Bank. They cut off food and only allow three hours of electricity and water a day. They use cluster bombs against woman and children.

Watch Israel and their right-wing lackeys to vilify Palestine and deflect their Human rights violation.

That is how they have successfully used propaganda for 60 years to deceive Americans.

[SaneUSA]

02:26 PM on 01/11/2012

Using capital letters doesn't make the statement any less false.

[IraqVet0607]

04:02 PM on 01/11/2012

This is another example of calling the badger a bishop. Bestowing virtue on the oppressed, when in fact, there not. The citizens of Gaza Strip did it themselves. When they shoot rockets in Israel, shoot at Israeli motorist off the highway, and attacks there military, Israel is the bad guy here setting up security measures?

[ruolivert]

10:52 PM on 01/11/2012

Security has almost always been the excuse for tyranny. As an Iraqi vet do you believe any country we have shoot rockets into or attacked their military is then "the good guy?"

[reedunculous]

11:15 AM on 01/11/2012

What about fascism....authoritarianism...unenlightened self interest?
How about piggish....repressive....unaccepting?
You know when you start banning words and concept structures it gets really hard to describe some behaviours.

[JacksonJones]

05:30 PM on 01/11/2012

It's pretty much the same law that they have in Europe in which denying the Holocaust is a crime. In German, modern Germany, you can't use Nazi symbols either.

I assume you are equally honked off about that?

If so, guess what, there are a lot more restrictions like that in a lot of other countries that go still further, including in Muslim countries where it is illegal to depict Mohammed or insult Islam by you know, saying that it isn't the one true faith.

I assume you are even more honked off about that?

If not, how do you justify the double standards? If so, how did you manage not to put your comment above into some sort of reasonable perspective?

[democratsaint]

11:04 AM on 01/11/2012

lets make nazi laws to combat being called nazi's

[erehwon2]

09:47 AM on 01/11/2012

If HP had a ban on using Nazi comparisons, this thread would be cut in half...at least.

[JacksonJones]

11:31 AM on 01/13/2012

....at least., indeed.

[crydespite]

09:27 AM on 01/11/2012

wrong versus wrong. nicely done, Israel.

[Fred Ricardo]

11:39 AM on 01/11/2012

Israel is not a true democracy, because citizenship is based on the principle of blood kinship. Israel is a colonizing regime, on the road to achieving pariah status reserved for apartheid states like South Africa. Israel has always refused to grant the largely innocent Palestinians a viable state of their own, and Israel’s conduct in Lebanon is not morally distinguishable from the actions of the Nazis.

[Rosin the Bow]

01:24 PM on 01/11/2012

"Israel is not a true democracy, because citizenshi­p is based on the principle of blood kinship. "

Completely false, just like the rest of the post.

[oceanwalker100]

09:25 AM on 01/11/2012

I can see making swastika and nazi symobols iliegal they are symobols of hate.But when someone acks as a nazi to be called one .mame calling as been around a long time ITS called free speech .Mame calling is hateful but people have bin doing it from the being of time.