[LOVEBoy]

Israel and Our(American) Media????

The U.S. media has reported on growing tensions between Israeli women and the ultra-orthodox Haredim over the latter’s demand for sexual segregation of schools, public transport, and public life. But while orthodox Jews spitting on eight-year old girls for being “immodestly dressed” has garnered the headlines, the most serious threats to democratic rights have gone largely unreported, including a host of proposed or enacted laws. Some of these include:

*A law that allows Jewish communities to bar Arab families from living among them. Arabs make up about 20 percent of the population.
*A law that makes it illegal to advocate an academic, cultural or economic boycott of Israel, including settler communities.
*A law that would limit the power of the Supreme Court.
*A law that bars any state institutions, including schools and theaters—from commemorating the “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” the term Palestinians use to describe the loss of their lands in the 1948 war that established Israel.
*A law that prohibits Palestinians from living with their Israeli spouses within Israel proper and denies them citizenship.
*A law that drops Arabic as an official language.
*A law that requires anyone obtaining a driver’s license to swear loyalty to the state.
*A law that would limit the number of petitions non-governmental organizations, including peace and human rights groups, could file before the Supreme Court.
*A law that forces human rights and peace groups to limit the money they can receive from abroad, and forces them to go through burdensome registration requirements.

Tzipi Livni, former foreign secretary and head of the Kadima Party, told the Knesset that Arab states were “trying to become a democracy, while we—with these bills—are headed toward dictatorship.