GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/
Press release, Tel-Aviv June 21 
In today's Ma'ariv, Uri Avnery targeted by rightwing campaign  
 

In his article "An Interim Balance Sheet: Who won?" Uri Avnery of the Gush Shalom movement analyses the supposed aims of the two sides in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian war of attrition. The article was spread a few days ago through the internet. One of the papers who published it (in translation) was the Palestinian daily Hayat Al-Jadida.

In today's Ma'ariv, a right-wing institute calling itself "Palestinian Media Watch" - which specializes in collecting tendentious quotes - launched an attack on Uri Avnery, for "inciting the Palestinians to continue the Intifada."

The settler pirate radio station Arutz-7 elaborated on the theme and reported that a complaint to the police was lodged against Avnery for "incitement to murder" (sic!).

Avnery calls upon the public to view the text in question. It is available in Hebrew, and in English translation at

http://www.avnery-news.co.il/index.html and it could be easily seen that what he wrote is a sober analysis of the terrible situation in which we all are. The accusations are an effort to deprive opponents of the occupation of their right to free expression - part of the deligitimation campaign whose main targets so far were the Arab Knesset Members. The bill now pending in the Knesset which would specifically legalize "a call for killing a member of a terrorist organization" is another example of the rapid deterioration of democratic norms in Israel. So is the Knesset ethics committee's proposal to include the term "an army of occupation" among terms which would be forbidden for Knesset Members to use from the floor.