In 1999, just before Binyamin Netanyahu's government left office, the Knesset passed a bill legalizing Arutz Sheva by creating a technicality that grandfathered illegal stations operating for more than ten years. The bill was immediately appealed to the Supreme Court which, in one of the more astounding cases of judicial legislation, ruled the bill illegal and forced Arutz Sheva to continue operating without a license.
Now, a lower court has gone one step further, ruling that the same absence of a license, one forced on Arutz Sheva by the Supreme Court ruling, made it illegal for the station to continue broadcasting. Effectively, two court rulings stated that there is no legitimacy to a significant segment of Israel's population having a voice in the mass electronic media in this country.
Contrary to conventional wisdom among the ruling elites in Israel, Arutz Sheva did not represent a threat to any supporter of Israel. It alone among all the electronic media outlets in this country represents a sane voice with firm roots in the Jewish right to live in the entire land of Israel. Insofar as other significant elements of the population prefer to abdicate those rights in the face of terrorism and foreign political pressure, Arutz Sheva does represent somewhat of a threat. But that threat can be compared to the one the assimilationists felt when confronted with Jewish pride and Zionism. In fact, it is exactly the same thing.
The other ruling came this week from the Supreme Court itself, which ruled yesterday in a unanimous vote that the movie "Jenin, Jenin" was protected under Freedom of Expression. This movie was written and directed by an Israeli Arab intent on promulgating the myth of an Israeli massacre of Palestinians in Jenin in April 2002. Israeli forces entered the city at the beginning of the month in an effort to clear out the nest of terrorists the city had become. This was in response to the deaths of 125 Israelis the previous month in terrorist attacks that occurred multiple times each day. March 2002 is still the bloodiest month in Israeli history when it comes to terrorism.
In one instance during the IDF campaign in Jenin, troops were ambushed while hunting house to house for terrorists. Their method of fighting was employed in order to prevent unnecessary civilian casualties among the city's population, but it cost 13 Israeli lives that day, and a similar number during the rest of the 5-week campaign. In total, 50-odd terrorists were killed during the same time.
Immediately after the Jenin campaign, there were numerous claims in the world media of a massacre of Palestinians in the city. The UN and European Union each sent a delegation to investigate the matter, and both teams reported no evidence of such a massacre, but rather than many deaths had been faked and many graves were found to be empty.
But that didn't stop the production of the film -- one which the Israeli Film Board decided, in light of the findings of the two investigative teams, to ban for its blatant incitement and barely concealed treason aimed at Israel.
The only segments of Israeli society that did not applaud the ban were to be found on the extreme left fringe, populated generally by people for whom such incitement and treason is their daily fare. Until this week.
Now the Supreme Court has stepped in and ruled that the Film Board's decision contravenes the right to Freedom of Expression even though that expression is demonstrably destructive to the interests of the state, and to human life.
What bothers me more than just the ignorant nature of the Supreme Court's ruling is that it is not really that ignorant. I believe the ruling is a purposeful barb aimed at further eroding the free Jewish society in the State of Israel. Taken together with the earlier rulings regarding Arutz Sheva, it is becoming increasingly obvious that justice in Israel does not include protection of the state's interests or of the ideology upon which the foundations of this state rest.
The cumulative message of these rulings is that the Zionist element in the State of Israel, those citizens who are proud of their Jewishness, their Israeliness, and their readiness to defend both, have no right to express their opinions or their opposition to various issues, while those whose aim is the destruction of all moral values Israel stands for, through malice, libel, and hate, are protected and allowed to go on spewing their venom.
The role of the judicial branch of government is to protect the values and freedoms upon which society is based. When that role is properly fulfilled, society is healthy and progressive, and citizens are proud to be a part of it. When that role is shamelessly abused, as it has been with these rulings, society is critically ill, on the path to annihilation. And its citizens should be very afraid.
Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
