Thank you for publishing my letter (on March 29) about the necessity for and Constitutionality of the Town of North Hempstead’s bipartisan anti-BDS law, unanimously passed by every Democrat and every Republican on the town council.
I also explained that BDS (anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and sanctions) is a form of economic anti-Semitic discrimination against Jews, and is designed to destroy and demonize the Jewish state.
My letter also discussed the widespread harm that BDS does to American companies, American individuals including American Jewish and non-Jewish students, American universities, and Israeli Jews and Arabs who are simply trying to make an honest living.
I also mentioned the recent “Terrorists in Suits” report which details over 100 links between BDS groups and designated terrorist organizations, including HAMAS and the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).
I’ve always appreciated the fact that, in the best tradition of a free press, this newspaper publishes letters from people in our community whose views differ from the rather leftwing views of this newspaper’s editors.
It was disturbing, however, that your editors appended a note containing a factually false premise to the end of my March 29 letter.
Your note absurdly claimed that North Hempstead’s anti-BDS law “makes them [the Town of North Hempstead] responsible to respond if an Israeli political party labeled a terrorist group by the United States became a partner in a future Israeli government.”
In fact, the party to which your note referred, “Otzma Yehudit,” has never been labeled a terrorist organization by the United States. Otzma is not currently on, and has never be on the list of U.S. Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. (The list can be easily found on the U.S. State Department website.)
Moreover, according to the U.S. State Department’s 2013 countries human rights report, it would violate free press rights to prevent Otzma from running in Israel’s elections.
Thus, even in the unlikely event that an Otzma candidate was elected to Israel’s parliament and became part of Israel’s majority coalition, the Town of North Hempstead would have nothing to answer for.
Further, Israeli coalition politics has no relevance to the pressing need for anti-BDS laws. Anti-BDS laws are necessary to curb antisemitic discrimination and attempts to destroy Israel, and to prevent serious harm to Americans as well as to Israelis and Palestinian-Arabs.
In any event, this is all likely merely theoretical. This year, although Israel’s Central Elections Committee permitted Otzma and all its candidates to run in the upcoming election, Israel’s Supreme Court then removed one Otzma candidate, and allowed the party and its other candidates to run in the election.
Due to the placement of the remaining Otzma candidates on the joint list on which they are running, it is unlikely that any Otzma candidate will become a member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) or government.
The real problem in Israel’s elections this year is that Israel’s Supreme Court put the openly treasonous Arab Balad party and Communist party candidate Offer Cassif (who compares Israel to Nazis) back on the ballot, after the Central Elections Committee had disqualified them.
At the Balad convention two months ago, Balad party leaders stated that Balad is “an inseparable part of the Palestinian national movement.”
The party sang the Palestinian national anthem calling for revenge, crossing the borders, struggling for “Palestine, my country” with fire and guns, and swearing to live and die as revolutionaries until they are “back” in “Palestine.”
The Balad convention also received greetings from two treasonous Balad former Knesset members, namely Azmi Bishara, who spied for Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War, and Basel Ghattas, who was convicted for abusing his Knesset immunity to smuggle 15 cell phones, SIM cards and notes to jailed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who murdered Jews – to enable these PIJ terrorists to direct further terror operations from prison.
Balad Party leader, MK Haneen Zoabi participated in the Gaza flotilla operation against Israel, stated that Hamas’s murder of 3 Jewish teenagers was not terrorism, and admitted: “I don’t see myself as an Israeli Member of Knesset, but as a Palestinian. We are using the Knesset to advance the Palestinian struggle… [and] we are doing this from within ‘Occupied Palestine.’” Balad Chairman Jamal Zahalka called on PA dictator Mahmoud Abbas to lift sanctions on Hamas in Gaza, and to end security coordination with Israel.
Who will answer for the Arab Balad party’s treachery, if and when it is once again elected to Israel’s Knesset?
Elizabeth Berney
Great Neck
Ms. Berney is the national director of special projects for the Zionist Organization of America.
