It's Yasser Arafat's yahrtzeit. I don't know the exact date it is celebrated, as he died November 11, 2004 but I think the Arabic date fluctuates, and the rallies in his honor are taking place today.
MK Ahmed Tibi is one of the scheduled speakers at the main rally in Ramallah later today.
By law it is illegal for Israelis to enter into Palestinian Authority controlled territory deemed as Area A, which Ramallah is. Some members of Knesset, upset at Tibi going to speak at Arafat's yahrtzeit rally where he will spew anti-Israel hatred and accuse Israel of apartheid policies, have appealed to the Defense Minister to not approve Tibi's trip to Ramallah. Complaints have also been filed with the Knesset ethics committee.
MK Danny Danon, as he has said before, said that the appropriate place for Tibi is in the parliament of Ramallah, rather than in the parliament of Israel.
We shoot ourselves in the foot time and again, allowing our enemies, those looking to destroy us, to have opportunities in the name of democracy to do so from within.
Minor point: Since Arafat died in November seven years ago, his yahrtzeit on the Muslim calendar was a few months ago, since the Muslims do not correct for the shortfall of 12 lunar cycles (sometimes inexplicably called a "lunar year") compared to one solar year.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to point out the inherent dangers in silencing voices in a free society, even ones which we find to be distasteful or worse. I'm certainly not going to mention that going down that road can be a slippery slope which often as not has unintended consequences which could make the originally banned speech look like a day at the beach. So don't give it a second thought.