The proposed bill which passed today with the support of eight ministers should really be called the ‘Law to Eliminate Freedom of Opinion and Expression in Israel’. It amounts to serious damage to Israeli democracy. Therefore, those for whom Israel is important need to come out against this bill, in exactly the same way that the Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has announced that he will not defend this unacceptable law before the Supreme Court.

The most senior legal and professional bodies which are faithful to the rule of law and defending democracy – including the Justice Minister and the government’s legal advisor – have today come out decisively against the law. Justice Minister Livni said that “Israeli patriotism isn’t harming Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. It isn’t harming Israel’s international standing and isolating it or to make laws which are intended to harm its democracy…this dangerous bill is only pretending to be patriotic.”

We call on the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers to defend freedom of expression and criticism in Israeli democracy and to reject the adoption of this law, which blacklists and tracks people’s expression and fines people for their views. This law will only achieve the opposite result and will lead to Israel’s greater isolation in the world. More than this, it will alienate lovers of Israel around the world and all who are proud to be part of Israeli democracy.