Today on One Land Many Voices we feature two programs from the Pacifica network that focus on the criminalization of free speech in relation to Israel. A bill recently introduced in the US Congress, co-sponsored by Oregon's Ron Wyden, makes it a crime to participate in the international Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement. The movement is trying to pressure Israel economically to comply with its obligations under international law.
The first half of the program is hosted by Jeff Blankefort. In a dynamic interview, Grant Smith, referencing current Senate hearings on alleged Russian interference in US elections, says that whatever Russia did can't begin to be compared with Israel's history of meddling in US elections and its politics overall; that everything Russia has been accused of doing, including providing illegal funding, Israel has done, citing “stealth” PACS, called that because Israel is never in their name, that raise money and contribute to candidates solely on the basis of their support for Israel that is coordinated, in violation of the law by AIPAC, Israel's unregistered foreign agent in the US.
Smith provides other key examples of illegal operations designed to benefit Israel, from providing funding to a handpicked candidate to siphon votes from serious opponent to a pro-Israel senator (Alan Cranston), to stealing trade secrets from US corporations that opposed the Israel-US Free Trade Agreement.
He describes the last time the Senate held hearings involving the Foreign Agents Registration Act, 1963, in which the American Zionist Council was found to be using money from the Jewish Agency in Israel to publish pro-Israel propaganda in the US. The AZC had been told to register with FARA in 1962 but had not responded. Following the hearings, Pres. Kennedy ordered the Justice Dept. to have the AZC register as a foreign agent which its lawyers were able to counter until JFK's assassination. It did cause the AZC, however, to take the name of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an existing but unincorporated subgroup.
The second half of the program is Building Bridges, with their program on: Deadly Exchanges: Policing Resistance Movements, and US and Israeli Collaboration with Eran Efrati, executive director of RAIA (Researching the American-Israeli Alliance), an investigative researcher into the Israeli military. He formerly served as the chief researcher of Breaking the Silence, where he collected testimonies from hundreds of IDF soldiers about their activities. He has worked with the ICC and participated in both independent and UN investigations into Israeli military operations. Currently, his research is focused on international military and
police partnerships between the United States and Israel.
Eran Efrati discusses the international relationships between the Israeli Military and the policing/security agencies throughout the United States. We will outline shared tactics, weapons and policies that are enacted in a war against indigenous and oppressed people in Palestine, several countries in Africa and across the United States.
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Boycott Israel, Go to Jail?
with
Aaron Matte, The Real News
A bipartisan Senate bill would make boycotting Israel punishable by up to
20 years in prison. But a new pushback from groups including the ACLU could help stop the draconian measure, says Josh Ruebner of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
- KBOO