❶ Israel accuses Ma’an news of incitement, bans TV channel from prisons

Background from Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Jewish Studies

❷ Armed Israeli settlers raid Nablus-area village
❸ Opinion/Analysis:  When Israel’s leaders incite, one soldier pays the price
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❶ ISRAEL  ACCUSES  MA’AN  NEWS  OF  INCITEMENT,  BANS  TV  CHANNEL  FROM  PRISONS
Ma’an News Agency
July 29, 2016
The Ma’an TV channel was banned inside Israel’s prisons on Friday, as Israeli Prison Services (IPS) claimed the channel was inciting Palestinian prisoners against Israel, according to the head of the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs.
___Issa Qaraqe told Ma’an that the news of the ban came from Palestinians inside Israeli prisons who said IPS officials decided to ban the channel after accusing the Palestinian news channel of “inciting and harming the security of Israel.”
___According to Qaraqe, the Palestinian prisoners said they were dependent on the Ma’an TV channel for their main source of news on Palestine and deeply resented the IPS officials’ decision.    MORE . . .

From Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Jewish Studies
In a recent survey, only 44 percent said that if Jewish law and democratic values clashed, the latter should always be preferred, while 20 percent said Jewish law should always be preferred and 36 percent said “sometimes one and sometimes the other.”12 In other words, the decline in attachment to democratic values continues, and less than half of Israeli Jews think that, in a clash between Jewish law and democracy, democratic values should always prevail.
[. . . .]
___Many rabbis in Israel involve themselves in politics, often in protests against attempts to give away what they perceive as “holy territories” of Eretz Israel. These rabbis say that they represent their respective communities; in many cases they are public officials who are paid by the government. They abuse the position conferred on them by the State to attack Israel and to undermine its policies. Some of those rabbis do not shy away from preaching hatred and violence against Arabs.
___A recent study of complaints against rabbinic incitement between 2002 and 2011 showed that of 48 complaints, police investigations were opened in only 18 cases (37.5 percent of the total). . . . Only in 5 cases (27.77 percent) were individuals brought to criminal trial. Of these, 4 cases were settled when the rabbis apologized for their rabbinic incitement.
___In one case, two rabbis admitted publicly saying that the Arabs were a “donkey nation,” a menace, a bad Satan, an inferior nation. The two rabbis, Yitzhak and David Bazri, rhetorically asked their audience: why didn’t God created Arabs on four, like donkeys? “Because they need to build and clean. But they must understand that they are donkeys” and inferior. They are wicked and brutal. They have snake filth. They are defiled. The two rabbis received lenient sentences: Yitzhak Bazri’s punishment was 140 hours of community service and his pledge not to incite racism. David Bazri was asked to make the same commitment and to issue a public statement that he objected to racism, that he did not mean to offend anyone . . .

• Cohen-Almagor, Raphael. “Religious, Hateful, And Racist Speech In Israel.” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Jewish Studies 31.2 (2013): 95-117. FULL ARTICLE

❷ ARMED  ISRAELI  SETTLERS  RAID  NABLUS-AREA  VILLAGE
Ma’an News Agency
July 29, 2016
Armed Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli forces, raided the village of al-Badhan in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank district of Nablus Friday morning, locals told Ma’an.
___Witnesses said that more than 15 Israeli settler vehicles raided the village where some 3,000 Palestinians reside as Israeli forces were reportedly deployed on the main road leading to the al-Tawahin area.
___Locals told Ma’an that armed Israeli settlers have raided the area every Friday in order to carry out religious rituals in the area.     MORE . . . 

❸ Opinion/Analysis:  WHEN  ISRAEL’S  LEADERS  INCITE,  ONE  SOLDIER  PAYS  THE  PRICE
+972 Blog
Noam Rotem
July 29, 2016
Sgt. Elor Azaria stood on the witness stand during his trial this past week and described what led him to fire a bullet into Abdel Fatteh al-Sharif’s head on March 24 in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood. . .  Azaria fired his weapon directly at al-Sharif’s head as the latter laid sprawled out on the ground.
[. . . .]
___Since September 22, 2015, over 220 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or police officers. Many of them allegedly took part in attacks on soldiers, policemen, and civilians. Aside from Azaria, no other soldiers or policemen were ever put on trial.
___There is no arguing over the fact that Azaria was indeed the one who shot and killed al-Sharif.
[. . . .]
But let us not forget the long line of inciting comments by top Israeli leaders that made it possible. Azaria is only the messenger. He is the weapon in the hands of those same ministers and members of Knesset who called on him and others carry out the act. He to blame, of course, for the killing itself. He is the one who pulled the trigger, but each and every one of those “leaders” are equally, if not more, to blame.      MORE . . .