The State of Israel has just banned a political party.
In outlawing its
most strident Islamist group, Israel risks angering its largely
quiescent Arab citizens as it confronts a wave of Palestinian violence
powered by religious and political tensions.The
relative popularity of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement,
banned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet on
Tuesday, has troubled Israel as it tries to curb street attacks raging
for the past seven weeks.
Leaders
of the Israeli Arab minority declared a commercial strike for Thursday
in protest at the ban and accused Netanyahu of scapegoating their
community rather than addressing the Palestinians' grievances and
statehood demands.
"Netanyahu wants
to rebrand the conflict as a religious conflict," Ayman Odeh, head of
the Joint Arab List faction in the Israeli parliament, said in a speech.
"This is nothing more than anti-democratic, political persecution." (Reuters.)
Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet, said it was a bad idea.
Over the past few months, since the start of the terror wave, at least five cabinet meetings have been held over the possibility of outlawing the northern branch of the Islamic Movement. The senior official said that during the discussions, the police supported the move and the Shin Bet objected to it. The police said that outlawing the movement’s northern branch would allow the authorities to take the fullest extent of action against it, whereas the Shin Bet said that action against the northern branch and its leaders should be on the basis of evidence. “Shin Bet Chief Yoram Cohen explained during the cabinet meetings that the movement is very careful and walks a fine line to make it legally harder to catch them involved in terror,” the senior official said.
One reason for the disagreement between the two agencies’ intelligence assessments was the effect of outlawing the northern branch on the Arab community. The Shin Bet said the move could lead to unrest, strengthen the status of the northern branch and even cause it to work underground instead of openly and publicly. However, the police claimed that even if such a decision was protested, it would not lead to riots. Ahead of some of the cabinet meetings, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan toured northern and southern police districts, where district commanders also said that outlawing the movement would not lead to unrest. (Haaretz.)
The authorities banned it anyway.
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