Ranjan pleads not guilty

Picture by Wasitha Patabendige

Lakmal Sooriyagoda-Thursday, August 9, 2018

Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake yesterday told the Supreme Court that he is not pleading guilty to the charge sheet filed against him over Contempt of Court allegations.

When the matter came up before the three-judge-bench headed by Chief Justice Priyasath Dep, a charge sheet comprising several counts were read out to the Deputy Minister by the Supreme Court Registrar.

The charge sheet was filed requesting Ranjan Ramanayake to show cause as to why he should not be dealt with Contempt of Court charges.

President’s Counsel M.A.Sumanthiran appearing for the Deputy Minister informed Court that the defence expects to raise objections against the charge sheet.

The matter will be taken up again on September 5. At a previous occasion, all judges of the Supreme Court had determined to proceed with Contempt of Court charges against the Deputy Minister after perusing the transcript of the video footage pertaining to the alleged derogatory statement.

Ven.Magalkande Sudaththa Thera and R.Sunil Perera, a retired Air Force Officer had made complaints to the Supreme Court seeking a contempt of court action against Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake for allegedly making insulting remarks on the reputation of the judiciary and lawyers, on August 21 last year. Counsel Rasika Dissanayake with Sandun Senadhipathi under the instructions of Sanath Wijewardena appeared for the complainants. President’s Counsel M.A.Sumanthiran appeared for Ramanayake. Additional Solicitor General Priyantha Nawana with Senior State Counsel Suharshi Herath Jayaweera appeared for the Attorney General.

Politicised Underworld and Future of Sri Lanka

Political theories such as democracy and sovereignty of the people are only made use of to license the irregularities and continue to be a façade

by Afreeha Jawad

( August 8, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Until and unless political parties stop patronizing both the underworld and powerful economic elite in sponsoring elections, law enforcement is only wishful thinking. This whole process consequently makes Legislative power ineffective in the country’s governance.

The legislative membership becomes subservient to these two corrupt institutional agencies for propping them up in high office and in turn politicians remain eternally obliged to them to the extent to which, should those in these two corrupt mechanisms violate the law, legislative power becomes non-operational not only to end up a lame duck but also a dead one as well where people’s sovereignty is undermined. This is nothing new to this country alone but has become an international malaise.

That the massive American cartels propel US governments into hot seats is not only public knowledge but infants as well. One look at what’s happening in the US tells it all. The moral leadership in the US as elsewhere is no more. History repeats they say, but the repetition of moral governance in the like of Woodrow Wilson, Eisenhower, Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln is unlikely – none of whom Sri Lanka has ever produced nor ever will. If ever there was such a single Sinhala Buddhist only Dr. E.W. Adikaram could lay claim to such but unfortunately he ‘hiccupped’ at the thought of making headway in Sri Lanka’s political scene. It was not his favourite past-time to keep embracing the ‘jatiya aagama’ cry for in such reference Dr. Adikaram saw the wrenching of his soul as he detested tunnel vision having connected himself with a nobler objective. The parallel of him we see in Speaker Karu Jayasuriya but the Malaysian populace still endorse Mahathir Mohammed at 92 and do not distance age and integrity. It was not to be that Speaker Jayasuriya be amidst an enlightened citizenry as the Malaysians where integrity over age is much sought after. Perhaps we lack the third eye that is Malaysia’s irresistible fortune.

Today’s urgency, therefore, warrants the need to identify moral leadership over chronological years and the total alienation of corrupt politicians. That it took a biracial Black African girl carrying slavery in her genes like Meghan Markle to ostracize this set of international political hooligans at her nuptials needs to be reiterated and the symbolic message it carries internationally but this writer sees no endeavour by even world-renowned journalists to highlight this much overlooked but unceasingly significant point.

England’s constitutional monarchy

Even the much respected British journalist Piers Morgan looks the other way when he could even deliver reason this subject. Maintaining political goodwill apparently has come to stay and what’s intolerable is when the media resorts to such.

What better way to isolate corruption and moral meandering than this, the moral shot that came off the latest addition to the Windsor membership? Meghan not only set many corrupt international power elite thinking, but she also led the British monarch into remaking the moral wrong of that infamous nod that the queen would give acknowledging their presence at the many celebrations in Buckingham Palace let alone inviting them there. Meghan’s decision to even throw overboard the wishes and aspirations of England’s constitutional monarchy is a display of her moral spunk against worldwide political debauchery.

Democratic theories of government remain so and practice in limbo state as the underworld progressively gains control of the world – Sri Lanka no exception. This is no recent development. For decades, the citizenry has gone through moral decadence but never so intense as in recent times. Political theories such as democracy and sovereignty of the people are only made use of to license the irregularities and continue to be a façade.

Likewise, immorality reigns under the cover of law. For instance, COPE that was appointed to investigate corruption comprised some members who were themselves corrupt. Former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was presented before a committee of Rajapaksa henchmen. Resonant is the Sinhala expression: “naduth hamuduruwange baduth hamuduruwange”. If at all honest men like STF commandant Latiff are appointed, it will be with the curtailment of power. He has to hand over the miscreant to the police and thereafter the political thug bribes the relevant police officer. Latiff’s ‘integrity’ ends there! This is moral licensing of the underworld.

The legislative power is viewed as a money-spinning reservoir. The “rata jatiya” cry has become the canard to achieving a political clout. Even the judiciary is not spared of political influence to cover up political expedience. Sarath Silva, the former judicial head, is on record for proclaiming publicly his judgmental delivery in favour of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Thavarapperuma ‘conducts lessons’ to STF officers on the need to come in uniform when on a raid and that the confiscation of phones was an intrusion of privacy choosing to ignore STF’s rights to do so. The underworld attempts to even make new laws in addition to using existing ones to suit them! Debunking the independence of the three arms of government and the politicization that followed in 1972 by the constitutional architect, Dr. Colvin R de Silva undermined the people’s sovereignty, an essential component of democratic government.

Key factors contributed to making Democracy and people’s sovereignty redundant elements worldwide and particularly so in Sri Lanka. The progressive rise of the underworld and powerful economic elite backing political power and the politicized 1972 Constitution did not favour a moral government. The noble ideals embedded in a democratic government has lost colour. Elections only change governments and have become a swap into corruption as one bunch of deceitful self-serving individuals are replaced by another. A mismatch between the people’s wants and what a corrupt legislature has to offer exists. Yet the danger element is in the steady increase in the social acceptance of fraud.

Army and judiciary in Pakistan

Contrastingly, in Pakistan, the army and judiciary intervene to take care of democracy. Elected leaders, when corrupt, have been removed by the judiciary and the army gains control, establishes democracy, upholds the people’s sovereignty and reverts to its earlier position. The press, they say, are the nation’s watchdogs. This ought to be the reverse in Pakistan where both army and judiciary have taken on that role. Running to perfection in Pakistan is the theory of checks and balances. Its Chief Justice Nizar is believed to be like a king rendering such stately judgements. His inspection tours of hospitals are noteworthy and a fillip to this theory when judicial concern is more weighted in the people’s interests with a hawk’s eye on the executive’s functioning.

The only way out to fight corrupt politicians is a strong judiciary, a vibrant press and an effective civil society. It could be argued that the army overthrow of governments is illegitimate -the frequent occurrence of which we see in Pakistan. However, as defamation is permitted in public interest Pakistan’s military leadership intervenes by way of moral coups to fight corrupt political leadership in the absence of a third force, upholds democracy and people’s sovereignty and retreats no sooner elections are held.

Constitutional enactments that violate people’s sovereignty are often pronounced. Isn’t corruption a stab in the back of the very people that elect governments into power whereby the people’s sovereignty is undermined? Diametrically opposed to corruption are the attempts made by some who fervently walk the moral path to reconciliation. Yet very little is heard of such. For example, Sri Lanka Army’s star-studded Colonel Priyath Bandu’s reach out to the Tamil people in the north is a shining example. The reservoir of goodwill he invited from the Tamil people would suffice to teach the politicians what it means to be sincere when all what they know is to use the underworld and the potbellied rich business fraternity to work towards consolidating the future of even unborn generations! Regretfully, no scribe’s fist was sufficiently focused into colonel Bandu’s unique endeavour.

Rajapaksa Apologists & The Impending Implosion Of The Cabal

By Vishwamithra –AUGUST 8, 2018

“When a political organization loses contact with its origin, it declines and risks implosion.” ~Robert Esposito

Some writers whose political insensitivities and bare naiveté have been mistaken for objective analysis are still defending the indefensible atrocities of the Rajapaksa era. Their insensitivities have taken them from being mere Rajapaksa supporters to the fringe politics of post-Independent Sri Lanka. Ceylon, as it was called then, has undergone unrecognizable changes; she has embraced nihilist aspects of political evolution; ethnic violence has erupted multiple times and led to a thirty-year old war that ended in the decimation of a terrorist army that was never seen in Ceylon in the last half of the millennium. That war has enlarged the gulf between the two peoples. Tamils are being perceived as the ‘enemy’ of the glorious past of Sinhalese Buddhists, as enunciated in the Great Chronicle (Mahawansa).

The peak of this evolutionary thought, as promulgated by the modern day patriots of the land, the race and the faith, spearheaded by an insane but utterly focused movement led by saffron-garbed political gangsters, was in the Rajapaksa era: from 2005 to 2104. During this maddeningly chaotic period, these pundits and Chinthanaya demagogues would most conveniently forget to write about or even make a cursory mention on the alleged exchange of huge amounts of cash between the candidate Rajapaksa and Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). Prabhakaran got the cash and Mahinda Rajapaksa got the Tamils in the North to stay at their homes on the D-day, Presidential Election day, thereby preventing an assured bloc of votes for Ranil Wickremesinghe, the UNP candidate that would have been sufficient to overwhelm the votes received by Mahinda in 2005.

Yet those who bartered the country’s conscience for cash then clothed themselves with a glorious-looking attire of patriotism, while those soldiers of the ilk of General Sarath Fonseka were disgraced as traitors. This grave injustice caused to the sublime emotions of a nation struggling to rise from the ashes of a terrorist war is unpardonable. Desecration of man’s strongly held belief in himself and his family was accepted by the henchmen and women of the ruling cabal as a patriotic act for the wild emotions raised and inflamed by empty rhetoric and resounding slogans overtook the wiser senses of man. The decay that followed in our cultural values and social measures began showing their external manifestations, not gradually but rather rapidly and uncontrollably.

At the base of all these processes of rotting away and social oozing was a politician. Politician controlled not only the country’s coffers; he controlled the hearts and minds of the general population; thereby they controlled the mindset of a great number of people, in fact a majority of Sinhalese Buddhists. The so-called pundits and pseudo intellectuals of the Chinthanaya-trash were at the very core of this repugnant movement. Construction of beautiful slogans that would easily mesmerize the gullible and plainly vacant minds of a majority which has already been hoodwinked by wickedly attired thugs misrepresenting the Order of Maha Sanga, the clergy of Buddhist preaching, gave way for insightful thinking and wise decision making.

Sharpening the television portraits to misrepresent the vile and inscrutably dangerous political philosophy, which was already bordering on Nazism and Stalinism, became a priority of highest order for those who occupied the uppermost seats of power. The resultant mindset of the Rajapaksa cabal that became more and more hallucinated and intoxicated with power produced the most undemocratic constitutional amendment thus far. The Eighteenth Amendment to our already sullied Constitution not only assured the Rajapaksas a mirage of ‘permanent power’, it also carried a latent message to the hereunto placid population and civil organizations a weapon to use and use repeatedly to prove that the path the Rajapaksas have chosen is not good for the country. In other words, the Eighteenth Amendment carried within itself a double edged knife, one edge for the Rajapaksas to continue their supremacy forever and the other as an eye-opener for the docile public that the intentions of the cabal are not so voter-friendly.

In order to bury the ugly Sri Lankan that dwelled within the Rajapaksa ruling cabal and their numerous castrations of human rights, decent life and honest livelihoods of the average man and woman, holding on to power was a prerequisite. This same argument was made in 1988 when J R Jayewardene, the very creator of the Presidential constitution and then its government, was getting ready to hand over the reins of power to the next one who would be elected. At that time J R Jayewardene had a two thirds majority in the House of Parliament. The passage of an amendment on lines of the Eighteenth Amendment would have been reasonably easy. Yet J R decided otherwise. Wiser minds prevailed.

When the siblings started tasting the sweetness of power, when they began reaping the harvests of hard working men and women in Sri Lanka, the alluring enigma of power took control of these siblings. They let themselves go. And the subject people suffered. Resulting daylight murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge, assault on other journalists, killing of Tamil journalists in Jaffna, intimidation and abduction of Prageeth Ekneligoda, Rathupaswela shooting and obliteration of those who took part in the infamous prison riots were all a direct and unmistakable results of the mindset that controlled the country after the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment.

The Presidential Elections held in 2015 changed all that, hopefully forever. Revocation of the Eighteenth Amendment and replacing it with the Nineteenth Amendment, in combination with many a legal and judicial investigation into the many misdeeds of the former first family gave them jitters. The provision of proportional representation (PR system) has ensured that it is practically impossible for any single party to gain a two thirds majority in Parliament. One party might be able to command a two thirds majority after ensuring the support of some other fringe parties to form a temporary two thirds for a specific purpose, but such temporary collusions are hardly worthy of mention in the context of a bitterly fought out election campaign which would result in a hung-parliament. Consequently, seeing Mahinda Rajapaksa again on the throne of Presidency is a non-event.

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Roads blocked as commuters protest against Railway strike

By Charunya Rajakaruna-August 8, 2018

Both lanes of Olcott Mawatha opposite the Fort Railway Station is currently closed off due to a tense situation caused by a protest of commuters against the strike action by the Railway trade unions.

Several Trade Unions including drivers and guards had launched a sudden strike at 3 pm today (08).
Maradana Railway station also reported a tense situation as there were no office trains.

Some of the commuters at the scene stated to Ada Derana that the railway services should be privatized.

According to them, these trade unions are not needed for the country as it continuously burdens the public; therefore, railway department should be privatized to ease the suffering of the public.

Meanwhile Railway season ticket users have been severely inconvenienced.

Some commuters were seen being emotional over the incident and minor damages have been caused to property of Fort railway station due to enraged behavior of commuters.

Yes sir, no sir, three bags full of **it

Thursday, 9 August 2018

I heard that a politico wants the people who call on him to address him as ‘sir’. He had put up a notice to that effect outside his office. It made me mad. It made me sad. It made me bad to know. There is only so much that we law-abiding citizens will put up with. Thus this rant!

A chance to plant an idea in other worshipful worthies’ heads. To begin in a small way to try and genuinely change our political culture. A small step towards cleaning out the mouldy Petri dish full of the old, leftover, colonial, perennial ‘culture’ of viruses, bacteria, and other political protozoa whom yeast or fungi would look down on with well-earned disdain.

It was not the president who said it. I would call him sir. Because he is, after all, our duly elected and stalwart head of state. Even though he has lost it a bit of late. His head, I mean. Not the state. Not yet, at least.

It was not the prime minister. I should call him sir. For no other reason than his once blossoming buttonhole as a premier statesman to make a small island-nation proud. Even though full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air. And even he has to nip a tad more than a bit of rot in the bud before he can aspire to sterling greatness again. Plus he would probably call me ‘mister’ back.

It was not some stellar state or deputy minister with an escutcheon not yet blotched by bull. Not even a yeoman backbencher whom I’d gladly call sir. Because once upon a time he took the plebeian bus from Bingiriya or Bintenne to represent his electorate diligently. And served his constituents solidly. As much as his conscience soundly. With all due nods to stern duty.

It was a two-bit politico. Some backwater frog in a well. Masquerading as a not-yet, never-will-be kissed prince. Who deserves a smack. Not on the lips. But much lower. Even to address that worthy as ‘your worship’ – the customary form of address for a mayor, even though he is less than one, being merely a mayoral chairman of a town council – would be to misunderstand that ‘worship’ is derived from the old English sense of ‘worth-ship’. Of which he has little – if some other toady put up the sign outside his office demanding the public’s obeisance: ‘call me sir’ to curry favour. Or none, if he ordered it done himself.

Not done

I’m not done myself.

I’m not done till I tell you that titles may be designated, but respect is earned. But not only you need to hear it. Since much bigger and better public officials seem to suffer from the same malaise these days.

We’re not done till we tell you that power tends to corrupt, and infinitesimal power such as you have corrupts infinitesimally. While great men are almost always bad men, petty politicos like you are often merely mediocre. Maybe there is no greater heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. However it is also equally true that minor offices tend to make small-minded people seem punier than they are.

You’re not done until you hear from us that we have had enough of you and your ilk. Smaller, more microscopic and myopic minions have the same malaise. Like the petty bureaucrat or miserable functionary in a government office who plays God with the people on a daily basis because that’s his or her only bread and butter. Bigger, but not necessarily better people than you have been bugged by it. No one among us who has been subjected to it is likely to forget the Caesars of yore strutting about like tyrants while their whelps of a Nero or Caligula ham it up from Hambantota port to Hingurakgoda airport.


Not quite done

Without coming all undone let me tell you whom I’d call sir. In my salad days, when I was in the field rather than flying a desk, I interviewed among others a finance minister. At his office, on his arrival, a ministry flunkey insisted that I stand up. I stood my ground and remained seated. “Stand up, he is your minister,” the monkey gibbered. “Sit down and shut up, he is my servant,” I jeered. Perhaps sensing a kerfuffle, that worthy put his head round the door. “Are you ready for me, Mr. Chickera?” he asked, dropping the ‘De’. “Yes, Mr. Choksy,” quoth I. I regret to say I dropped a brick about the bureaucrat’s bumptiousness. “Never mind,” said his worship. “We mustn’t let small-minded people distract us from the bigger picture.” I could only say, “Yes. Sir.”


Done

Now I’m done. Non serviam. We shall not serve. You, sir (yes, you heard me right), are our servants. That sign could be outside our homes and places of work, and you’d be the one invited to bow and scrape. That sign should be outside our offices for it is we who invited you to serve us. As for invites, don’t expect one from me or likeminded members of my tribe. We are done inviting the likes of you to ‘grace’ our functions. In the event, at the event, all you ever do is preen yourself and spout hot air. And then you go and disgrace yourself in the House or at your place of work. Work which passes for public service. Paid for by the taxpayer who has insult added to injury by your pious platitudes at election time. To say nothing of promises never kept. Non serviam. We shall not serve you or your bloated ego. No, sir! Let that be a small prick (no, not you, sir) in your conscience. The sign is up.
The writing is on the wall. It is in triplicate. No. No. No. We shall not serve. Non serviam.
(Journalist | Editor-at-large of LMD | Writer #SpeakingTruthToPower)

Gnanassara guilty of all 4 charges ! Sentenced to 18 years RI – lesson to other monks too who disgrace the robe !

(Lanka e News – 08.Aug.2018, 10.25PM) The robed rowdy rascally monk Galagodaathe Gnanassara who was indicted on four charges including committing contempt of court was found guilty of all four charges by the appeal court today (08) , and sentenced to 18 years rigorous imprisonment .

He was delivered a sentence of four years in respect of each of two charges –that is 8 years in jail for two charges , and a sentence of five years in respect of each of the two other charges –that is ten years in jail for the two other charges . The appeal court declared the sentences can run concurrently , and completed in six years.

Gnanassara who is always up to tricks and mischief despite wearing the sacred saffron robe even on this occasion evaded courts by hospitalizing himself. However the court ordered the prison officers to immediately arrest him and put him in prison.

The judgment was delivered by judges , the appeal court president Preethi Padman Surasena and Shiran Gunaratne .

It is well to recall Gnanassara the monk has all along disgraced the sacred robe and pristine Buddhism on an unprecedented scale . His conduct was so evil and abominable that he is dubbed ‘the monk from the junk’ .

Earlier on he was fined by the courts for driving a vehicle under the influence of liquor. On another occasion he scolded and insulted a lawyer within court by addressing him ‘dog’ . On that occasion he was warned and discharged by courts . In another instance this hooligan monk was sentenced for intimidating and insulting Sandya Ekneliyagoda , a lady within courts.

The robed rowdy Gnanassara was engaged in processing cinnamon before he became a monk .Despite wearing the sacred saffron robe he was the very antithesis of a true monk following true Lord Buddha’s teachings. He once pleaded guilty before court when he was charged because of his dipsomaniac habits. He also shamelessly demonstrated he is a monk from the junk who has a mistress in France, and a child by her from his illicit affair. So needless to say , Gnanassara is a good for nothing devil incarnate who is wearing the sacred yellow robe to shamelessly live on the free food supplied by the people who are toiling and sweating to eke out a living ..

The Ven. Mahanayakes are in one voice demanding that an amendment be brought to empower the sangha sabha to chase out rascally robed monks like Gnanassara who are scoundrels by birth , with a view to cleanse the Buddha sasana

This sentence is a good warning to the other rascally monks too from the junk eating free food , bloating their bellies and who trail behind Gnanassara .

Full details of the court verdict shall be revealed in a subsequent report.

---------------------------
by     (2018-08-08 16:55:17)

CONTEMPT OF COURT:-NOTICE ISSUED ON WIGGIE

Lakmal Sooriyagoda-Thursday, August 9, 2018

The Court of Appeal yesterday issued summons on Northern Province Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran and three others to appear in Court on September 7.

This is over a complaint that they have intentionally acted in contempt of the Court of Appeal order.
The Court of Appeal made this order following a complaint made by B.Denishwaran alleging that Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran and three others have willfully acted in Contempt of the Court of Appeal order since they had prevented him from acting as a Minister of the Northern Provincial Council.

The Court of Appeal had earlier issued an Interim Order, preventing the decision of Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran to remove B. Denishwaran from functioning as the Minister of Fisheries and Transport in the province.

Denishwaran stated that the first Respondent, Wigneswaran has, by his conduct and statements, acted in contumacious and willful disobedience of the order of the Court of Appeal and thus committed an act of contempt against the authority and dignity of the Court of Appeal.

The petitioner cited Chief Minister Wigneswaran, K.Sarveswaran and K.Sivanesan as respondents.
The Court of Appeal on June 29 issued an Interim Order preventing the decision of Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran to expel B.Denishwaran from functioning as the Fisheries and Transport Minister in the province.

Denishwaran had challenged Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran in the Court of Appeal, complaining that the Chief Minister had no power to appoint or remove any Provincial Council minister. Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran had also filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the Court of Appeal’s Interim Order to prevent Wigneswaran’s decision to remove B.Denishwaran from functioning as the Minister of Fisheries and Transport in the province.

Resigned Knesset member: Jewish nation-state law is 'ethnic cleansing'

In an interview with MEE, Zouheir Bahloul says that there is a limit to what Arab citizens of Israel can take

Zouheir Bahloul speaking at a press conference in the town of Shefa-'Amr in February 2015 (AFP)

Mustafa Abu Sneineh

Wednesday 8 August 2018

A Knesset member who resigned in protest over the Jewish nation-state law says the legislation "normalises and enshrines in law" the superiority of Israeli Jews over their Arab peers, and warned of a limit to what the Arab community in Israel will tolerate.

Zouheir Bahloul, 67, a popular sports commentator turned politician who represented the Zionist Union, quit the Knesset on 28 July following the passage of the law last month, which declared Israel to be the nation-state of the Jewish people.

In an interview with Middle East Eye, Bahloul said that after three years in parliament, he was moved to quit over a law he says institutionalises the “inferior status” long experienced by Arab citizens of Israel.

'My resignation is an outcry that we will not accept laws that chase the Arab presence in this country'

- Zouheir Bahloul

"My resignation is an outcry that we will not accept laws that chase the Arab presence from this country,” he said.

“Our legal status after this law is inferior because the law normalises and enshrines Arab inferiority and Jewish superiority through a basic law that has the authority of a constitution [to] which the High Court can hardly object.” 

The nation-state law also describes Jewish settlement building as being in the Israeli national interest and declares Hebrew as the national language, with Arabic granted only a special status.

It makes no mention of equality nor democracy, implying that the country's Jewish character takes precedent over Palestinians, Druze and Circassians in Israel.

Critically, the law is part of the country’s so-called Basic Laws, which act as a de facto Israeli constitution and would require Israel’s High Court of Justice to be overturned.

Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint (AFP)

Bahloul, who was born in Israel into a Muslim Arab family, described the law as "unprecedented" and said it has crossed many red lines for Arab citizens of Israel. 

He is particularly critical about the absence of the word equality from the law, which he sees as one more attempt in a long history of legislation aimed at expelling Arabs from the country.

"In the past, chasing the Arab minority in Israel was in the form of policies, heated statements and shortages in financial budgets for Arab towns, but it was not a basic law that has a constitutional power,” Bahloul said.

He added: "There is ethnic cleansing in this law that allows building Jewish-only towns without any Arabs. This is more than what the Arabs could absorb. All of that comes over human rights".

'The ability of the Arab minority [in Israel] to be silent, patient and endure these laws is a limited ability'

- Zouheir Bahloul

Bahloul’s comments come as Palestinian Israeli leaders petitioned the High Court this week to overturn the law. A mass march on the Knesset headquarters in West Jerusalem is expected on Wednesday.

Despite holding Israeli citizenship, Palestinians in Israel lived under a military administration between 1948 and 1966 and faced curfews, severe restrictions on free speech and political rights, and persecution in front of military courts. Rather than being referred to as Palestinian citizens of Israel, they are often called "Arabs" or "Arab Israelis". 

There are around 1.6 million Palestinian citizens of Israel today, making up 20 percent of the country's population. Many have been left unsurprised by the new law, which they see as simply making official what they have felt for decades: that they are second-class citizens compared to their Israeli peers. 

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What are we Palestinians still doing in the Knesset?

Still, warned Bahloul, there is only so much that can be tolerated. "The ability of the Arab minority [in Israel] to be silent, patient and endure these laws is limited... I am not trying to scare anyone here, but if this violent campaign against Arabs in the form of laws continues, I think there will be a possibility for the creation of new facts,” he said, without elaborating.

'Accept the bits and pieces'

In December 2014, Bahloul made the unusual and controversial step of joining an Israeli political party – Labor - rather than joining one of the Arab parties that forms the Joint List, a coalition in the Knesset that represents the voices of Palestinians inside Israel.

That same month, the Israeli Labor Party, led by Isaac Herzog, and Hatnuah, the liberal party headed by Tzipi Livni, formed the centre-left Zionist Union.

'When a Knesset member rebels in such a way, they get angry and they start to tell us 'accept the bits and pieces of democracy that we offer you''

- Zouheir Bahloul

Bahloul told Haaretz earlier this month that he was “disgusted” by the coalition’s new name, but had to accept it because it was a “done deal”. In January 2015, he secured a parliamentary seat.

By the time Bahloul joined the Knesset, the nation-state law had already been languishing for three years after it was first proposed in August 2011. Only seven years later has the political landscape become ripe for its passage – and also for the pushback against it.

In February, MKs Dov Khenin and Yousef Jabareen of the Joint List sponsored a bill titled "Basic Law: Democratic, Multicultural and Egalitarian State" in the Knesset. The bill aimed to oppose the nation-state law. Israel, it suggested, should be a state for all citizens, and should modify its flag and national anthem to reflect the culture of its Arab citizens.

Leaders from the Druze minority together with others take part in a rally to protest against Jewish nation-state law in Rabin square in Tel Aviv, 4 August (Reuters)

Bahloul threw his support behind the "Multicultural Israel" bill, which passed a preliminary reading but was eventually removed from the Knesset agenda and dubbed the "Palestinian-nation law bill" by a Likud party member.

Bahloul’s critics have said that, regardless of the new law, his resignation was expected because he was isolated in the Zionist Union and had a tense relationship with its leader, Avi Gabbay. But Bahloul rejects their criticism as mere defensiveness.

"I had people who were supportive of my resignation within the Israelis, and vice versa,” he said.

“The minister of education [Naftali Bennett] said that 'the Knesset won't cry over Zouheir Bahloul'. When a Knesset member rebels in such a way, they get angry and they start to tell us 'accept the bits and pieces of democracy that we offer you'."

Palestinian-Druze alliance?

Bahloul’s resignation was one of the most high-profile reactions against the law, along with three Druze soldiers who made headlines when they announced on social media that they would stop serving in Israel’s army in protest.

Over the past few weeks, Bahloul has been outspoken about the need for Arab and Druze citizens of Israel to work together against the law. 

The Druze, a religious sect within Islam that has had a presence in the Levant since the 11thcentury, number about 110,000 in northern Israel, with another 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel's Druze community has strongly criticised the legislation as they have been subject to compulsory service in the military or police since 1956. Druze in the Golan Heights do not serve in the army and many have refused Israeli identity cards since the beginning of the occupation during the 1967 war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu summoned the Druze leadership to Tel Aviv on 2 August to offer a new benefits package and a law highlighting their unique status in the country.

The meeting failed after Netanyahu walked out angrily, according to the Times of Israel. A Druze general and brigadier in the Israeli army, Amal Asad, had allegedly irritated Netanyahu when he told him that Israel is on the path to turning into an "apartheid state". 

Asad later denied that he made such a comment, but affirmed that he wrote similar sentiments on his Facebook page a while ago.

'Netanyahu made a crack within the Druze and the gap between the rebelled Druze youth and their classical leadership headed by Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif is widening'

- Zouheir Bahloul

On 4 August, tens of thousands of Druze in Israel and their supporters gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to protest against the new law.

"There are Druze who think that the complete solution for the nation-state law is not money and budgets or a law that gives them a special legal status, but the solution is dignity and equality without begging for it," Bahloul said.

He described the youth within the Druze community who have rebelled and refused to serve in the Israeli army as "radical", and said the "blood alliance" between the Jews and Druze has failed.

"Netanyahu made a crack within the Druze and the gap between the rebellious Druze youth and their classical leadership, headed by Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, is widening," he said.

Druze citizens make up 6 percent of Israel's population. They have three members in the Knesset and a minister of communications, Ayoob Kara, serving in the government. Palestinian citizens of Israel have 15 Knesset members but do not hold any ministries.

"There is a sympathy among Israelis with the Druze because they serve in the army. But the recent rebellion of the Druze soldiers shook the country because what links Jews and Druze in Israel is the army," Bahloul said.

He added that it is too early to judge what the near future holds.

"The nation-state law harms both the Arab and Druze inside Israel,” he said. “The Druze for years split from the struggle as if their issue is separated from the Arab issue inside Israel. Now, they are starting to realise that they made a mistake."

Tunisia will block ship if it is carrying Israeli cargo

Ali Abunimah-8 August 2018

Tracking data from the website Vessel Finder shows that the Cornelius A last reported its position when it was about 40 miles north of the Algerian port of Jijel.

The Israel-linked cargo ship Cornelius A appears to have gone into hiding while en route to Radès.

But a government spokesperson has confirmed that the ship is still expected in the Tunisian port.

The spokesperson stated that the ship would undergo a special inspection to ensure that it is complying with Tunisia’s official boycott of Israel.

According to the tracking website Vessel Finder, Cornelius A last reported its position at around 0100 UTC early Wednesday, when it was about 40 nautical miles north of the Algerian port of Jijel.

Activists and trade union leaders in Tunisia believe that the vessel’s transponder – the device that transmits its position – was turned off to allow it to enter Tunisian waters undetected despite calls for it to be barred from entry because it was chartered by the Israeli shipping company Zim.

“Cornelius A is no longer being tracked by maritime sites and was ordered not to transmit its heading after leaving a Spanish port,” UGTT, Tunisia’s main trade union federation, alleged on Wednesday.

This is a decision that “cannot be taken by the ship alone without collusion,” UGTT said, without stating who it believes is responsible.

Adding that such actions were in the “tradition of international piracy,” UGTT stated that the Cornelius A “no doubt wants to enter Tunisian ports without being noticed.”

On Monday, UGTT called on its member unions and port workers to refuse to handle the ship if it lands at Ràdes.

This followed a call by Palestinian trade union federations on their Tunisian counterparts to mobilize all efforts to stop the Cornelius A being unloaded in Radès and to prevent normalization of ties with Israel more generally.

Boycott warnings

Cornelius A is owned by the Turkish company Arkas, but operates services to Tunisia on behalf of Israel’s Zim, via Spanish ports. Amid an outcry from activists in Tunisia, Zim removed all references to the ship from its website in recent days.

UGTT has demanded a parliamentary inquiry and other measures to combat covert normalization with Israel, which is strongly opposed in Tunisian society.

This week TACBI, a Tunisian group supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, wrote to the Tunisian branch of Arkas to demand that the shipping firm cease trading with Israel and with Zim, citing Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonization and other violations of Palestinian rights.

“We hope that you will take account of our letter and put your business in conformity with Tunisian and international law, and that we will not be obliged to add your company to the list of firms that support or profit from [Israeli] colonization and which are therefore boycottable by the international BDS movement,” TACBI stated.

On Wednesday, the campaign group BDS Egypt sent a similar letter to Arkas’ affiliate in Egypt, as well as to the parent company in Turkey, a copy of which was seen by The Electronic Intifada.

Special inspection

As the Cornelius A neared Radès, Tunisian authorities made their first public response to the calls to block its entry.

Sahbi Azzouz, a spokesperson for OMMP, the Tunisian port authority, told the newspaper La Presse on Wednesday that as far as Tunisian authorities are concerned the Cornelius A is a Turkish ship and nothing can prevent it from landing at Ràdes.

“On the website of the International Maritime Organization, our reference for identifying ships, this vessel is Turkish and that’s all we can see,” Azzouz stated.

Azzouz also said that contrary to claims he attributed to activists, Cornelius A has not directly served Haifa, a port in present-day Israel, since September 2017.

Nonetheless, the port official told La Presse that Tunisian authorities reserved the right to prevent the landing of any ship if the cargo manifest shows that it is carrying goods from Israel destined for Tunisia.

Before the ship lands, Azzouz said that a Tunisian port authority team will carry out an exceptional “port state control” inspection of the Cornelius A to verify its cargo and documents.

“We are of course committed to respecting the Arab League boycott if it turns out that the Cornelius A is transporting Israeli goods,” Azzouz said. “Clearly, there are no economic relations between Tunisia and Israel, and there must be no import or export operations.”

This is not likely to satisfy activists, who believe there are covert trade relations between Israel and Tunisia they suspect have been going on for years.

“We don’t have enough information about this ship and what it has been carrying for three years,” TACBI’s Ahmed Abbes told La Presse. “Only a parliamentary inquiry can cast light on this affair and that is what we are demanding.”

La Presse also uncovered another mystery about the Cornelius A. According to the website Marine Traffic the port agent for the vessel is a company called Medship Tunisia.

But Medship Tunisia’s director Ali Farhat told La Presse that his company has nothing to do with the ship.

Farhat also said that he suspected that for decades Israel has used a covert strategy to trade with Arab ports from which Israeli ships, or third-country ships sailing directly from Israel, are banned.

“The Israeli shipping lines know very well that they are boycotted in Arab ports, so they have signed agreements with the Turks to help them reach Arab ports,” Farhat said.

DW journalist Paulyuk Bykowski arrested in Belarus

EUROPE-Wednesday 8 August 2018

It is not yet clear why Paulyuk Bykowski, who works for Deutsche Welle's Russian service, was taken into custody. DW has lodged a protest with the Belarusian ambassador in Berlin.

Authorities on Wednesday arrested Deutsche Welle journalist Paulyuk Bykowski in the Belarusian capital Minsk.

The reason behind the arrest was not immediately known.

"The investigating committee came to me," Bykowski, who works for DW's Russian service, wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday morning.

His wife, Volha Bykovskaya, later confirmed to DW that a search team took away computer, tablets, phones, pen drives, discs and bank cards from their apartment. "The search took about two hours," she said.

DW lodged a protest with the Belarusian ambassador in Berlin and demanded his immediate release. It stressed that the rule of law must apply to accredited journalists.

President Alexander Lukashenko's government has been cracking down on independent journalists

Crackdown on journalists

The arrest follows detention of at least four journalists from two popular news sites on Tuesday. The journalists are accused of unlawfully accessing news from state news agency BeITA.

Bykowski has denied reading the agency's reports in a long time.

His wife said she suspected the charges were a facade to crackdown on independent journalists in Belarus.

Germany's foreign ministry called on Minsk to respect press freedom and refrain from disproportionate actions against journalists.

"The German government advocates for protection of the basic principles of freedom of the media and opinion," a ministry spokesman said in a statement.

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the detention of journalists in Belarus.

"The highly disproportionate measures taken by law enforcement against two independent news agencies raises serious concern about the respect for the independent media in Belarus," Desir said in a statement.

Intimidation of the media

The ex-Soviet country led by strongman Alexander Lukashenko has escalated its crackdown on journalists since major anti-government protests last year.

More than 100 journalists were arrested in 2017, usually while covering opposition protests, Reporters Without Borders said.

"These raids, which compromise the confidentiality of journalistic sources, are out of all proportion to the charges," said Johann Bihr, the head of Reporter Without Border's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.

"It is hard to see them as anything other that attempts to intimidate leading independent media outlets at a time of growing harassment of critical journalists."