Knesset Rejects Bill to Outlaw Islamic Movement

Gil Ronen
(IsraelNN.com) The Knesset plenum rejected Wednesday a bill to outlaw the Islamic Movement which operates inside Israel. The bill was proposed by MKs Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari of the National Union, who said that the Islamic Movement works openly for the destruction of Israel.
"It is no coincidence that the bill comes up on International Holocaust Day,” MK Ben-Ari said in presenting the bill. “As part of the process of drawing lessons from the Holocaust, we have realized that it is imperative that we stop the Holocaust in its initial stages – at the stage of incitement and anti-Semitic ideology which is the foundation upon which the industry of death is built.”

Ben-Ari quoted incendiary statements made by leaders of the Islamic Movement and told the Knesset that they called Jews “bugs, lice, parasites and used other imagery that reminds one of Goebbels' propaganda.”

Ben Ari reminded the MKs of Israel Our Home and the Likud that they promised, before the elections, to outlaw the Islamic Movement.

Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman opposed the bill, however, saying that it was too far-reaching. Coalition MKs, including some from Israel Our Home, opposed the bill and it was voted down.