Haters of Israel can take solace in this week's unprecedented accomplishment. The Israeli parliament in Jerusalem hosted an official conference titled, "After 54 years: Between occupation and apartheid." The conference, co-sponsored by MK Mossi Raz of the Meretz party and Joint Arab List MK Aida Touma-Suleiman, crossed coalitional lines.
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An outsider, lacking an understanding of the complexities of Israeli politics, sees the following: The coalition and opposition in Israel held a joint conference defining Israel as an apartheid state, with the Knesset's official seal of approval. And who rose up to denounce this? Three MKs. The righteous of Chelm. MKs Abir Kara and Amichai Chikli of the Yamina party, and MK Itamar Ben-Gvir of the Otzma Yehudit party. Had such a conference been held in the German Bundestag or British House of Lords we would be crying antisemitism, and rightfully so.
The guest of honor at the conference was the anti-Israel boycott activist Omar Shakir. Shakir is a veteran BDS activist involved in malicious anti-Israel initiatives abroad, such as the black list of Israeli companies published by the United Nations, the boycott campaign against Airbnb, and more. He is a senior member of the NGO Human Rights Watch and perpetrates his aggressive activities under the guise of human rights. Some two years ago, Israel decided not to renew his work visa and he was forced to leave the country after the High Court of Justice also ruled he was a BDS activist. Today he is a guest of honor at an official conference in the Knesset, no less.
MK Suleiman took a North Korean-style approach to moderating the conference. She barred the entrance of journalist Yoseph Hadad, who was invited to the event, simply because she doesn't like his views, and she received unprecedented approval from the Knesset Secretary to expel other MKs from the auditorium. She silenced voices and no one uttered a word; neither the media nor elected officials. The Right was almost completely absent as well. Where were MKs Yoaz Hendel and Tzvika Hauser? Where were MKs May Golan and Yisrael Katz?
The goal of the conference was not you or me, rather the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The organizations that partook in this conference – Breaking the Silence, Gisha, B'Tselem, Yesh Din, HRW and others – have been spearheading an aggressive international campaign for many months now. This campaign is funded by European governments and falls on the eager ears of antisemites across the globe. According to figures provided by Israeli watchdog group NGO Monitor, the organizations that took part in the conference have received some 70 million shekels from European governments over the past three years. They have used this money to fund campaigns against IDF soldiers, against Jewish settlers and against senior Israeli government officials, with the aim of bringing them to trial at the ICC.
They want to reinvent the term apartheid so the ICC recognizes their new and distorted definition and tries Israelis based on their standards.
This was the conference that took place at our Knesset this week. Maybe you didn't hear about it, but it's corroding you from the inside. Both the opposition and coalition, a coalition of shame, have their hand in it. This is a conference that almost no one from the coalition bothered to protest, attend or even tweet about. This is Israeli government apathy and it will mean devastation on the international stage.
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