{Natan} Sharansky argues that if a citizen can walk into the middle of tthe town square and express his views without fear that the police will arrest or assault him, he lives in a free society.
Ian Bremmer, The J Curve.
Gee, thanks Tone.
The Town Square Test
In
5 responses
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Doesn’t Sharansky’s party support “transfer” – i.e. driving all the people out of the West Bank and annexing it? I wonder if his test applies to, say, a resident of Nablus who walks into the town square and disagrees with him.
Tim adds: Israeli Arabs, I’d think so, yes.There are several in Parliament, after all.
But to be honest I don’t know much about Scharansky now. Really only remember him from his dissident days in the Soviet U (no, not that I knew him then, but that’s how I know about him.) -
I remember as a kid in the 1970s, watching an episode of children’s favourite Blue Peter. It featured Speakers Corner, where anything and everything could be said, and was — it was a great symbol of the free speech that existed everywhere in the UK. It featured an Indian (?) chap who said one of the main reasons he had come to Britain was the freedom it offered. Unfortunately, it was also in the 1970s that the first restrictions on speech came into law with the various rules on “incitement”. And of course, once the principle has been established, governments have been unable to resist expanding their scope ever wider. Whoever thought you would end up in a police cell for calling a horse gay, or 10-year-olds up in front of a judge for a few playground taunts.
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There are actually laws against incitement in Israel. I don’t know the details. I do know that Kach, the late (and thoroughly unlamented, around my house) Meir Kahane’s party in Israel, is banned. Stuff like that.
Lots of places have laws against specific threats directed at individuals, but banning advocacy of violence against groups goes a bit further, I think.
In Israel’s situation, it may be that muzzling people like Kach and Hamas is the lesser evil. Or not; I dunno. It also seems to me that laws against advocating violence against other citizens aren’t quite the same as laws against disagreeing with the government. But the fact remains that speech is being restricted, and it’s a bad precedent.
That having been said, Israel isn’t a place where people are afraid to disagree with the government, or with anybody else. -
You are not allowed to say anything in public against Islam since that would be racist and stirring up trouble; nor can you say anything against homosexuality since that would be discriminatory and a hate crime (as indeed would anything against Islam). If anyone has put this to the test in the last year or so and proved me wrong then please advise.
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Never had been the case in Britain – i noticed a report in the Times of Winston Churchill’s last few days and it said someone was arrested for calling him a traitor (for letting in “coloured immigration” if you want to know) outside his house.
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