Israel Matzav

Free speech? MK to be held in contempt for 'defamatory posters'?

An adviser to the courts administration has urged Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to find MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) in contempt for distributing posters like the one above. The posters depict Supreme Court justices dressed in Kafiyah's.

In a letter obtained by Ynet, Attorney Barak Lazer claimed that the posters, which were hung across Jerusalem, depicted High Court justices wearing keffiyehs and featured the slogan "If there is no loyalty, there is no justice."

Lazer wrote that the posters appear to incite mutiny, and could warrant a contempt of court charge.

"The leveling of such defamatory statements and incitement against the Supreme Court – the institution and the judges – is outrageous and intolerable," he wrote. "(…) An attempt to delegitimize the courts system and its judges, and to ascribe inappropriate intentions while slandering judges due to a decision that was made at their professional discretion, must be viewed gravely – all the more so when it is done by a public official."

And Ben Ari's response?

"I don’t understand what's wrong with putting a Keffiyeh on a judge," he said. " The thought that a keffiyeh is some kind of an insult indicates that the spirit of racism has reached the courts administration.

Touche.

Labels: Michael Ben Ari, Supreme Court

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:54 AM