Israeli Knesset Legalizes Murder

While the international media has been sure to cover the story of a Druze Shin Bet officer killing himself at Ben Gurion airport while Sarkozy was busy saying his good-byes, they haven't bothered to mention (why would they?) a new piece of legislation just passed by the Israeli Knesset that allows people to kill intruders on their property. Here's a synopsis of the exchange which took place on the Knesset floor, aptly illustrating the insanity of political debate in the country's public arena.

MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) slammed Labor ministers for voting in favor of the law and said they made a lot of "foolish mistakes." Meretz whip Zahava Gal-On said at the committee meeting a fortnight ago that the bill "gives permission to kill people," and suggested sarcastically: "Just spray the intruders and be done with it. Hand out machine guns to every moshavnik." MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beitenu) told Gal-On "then don't come by my home," to which Gal-On replied "I can't believe this is real, the Knesset is crazy." "The Knesset is crazy for having people like you in it," Rotem retorted.

This is the kind of dialogue that makes us laugh when we see it in a Gene Wilder film.... Of course, the Knesset has people like this in it because citizens vote to put them there. It's yet another level of the total lack of accountability for murder that has permeated the society through all these decades of occupying Palestinian lands. In fact, settlers in the West Bank have had this kind of unretricted power for years - beating, killing and forcing Palestinian families out of their homes at gunpoint. Kill a kid, and if someone does manage to press charges that eventually make it into a courtroom, the worst that will happen is a few months of community service, with time off for R&R on the jewish sabbath. Hard to say whether Palestinians on either side of the Israeli border will take a little solace or not from hearing a Knesset member say something they say to themselves every day: I can't believe this is real.