Israel Fighting De-legitimization Campaign

Source: Al Jazeera
By: Clayton Swisher
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/02/12/israel-fighting-delegitimisation-campaign



Harvard University's well-known law school, or HLS, was the intellectual training ground for US President Barack Obama (HLS 91'), who through his high marks became editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Obama might find it interesting to know the miles some HLS students have to travel to become expert in their field - only to be turned back.

Consider the case of 3rd year law student Hebah Ismail, who is putting the finishing touches on her studies with Harvard's International Human Rights Clinic.

Like Obama, Hebah entered Harvard law already a world traveller. The US citizen of Egyptian extraction landed at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion recently to study land disputes facing the Arab Bedouin community.

But airport security officials weren't having it.

According to the Harvard paper, Hebah's laptop and cell phone were seized and searched. But that wasn't satisfying enough, so an ultimatum was delivered: log us into your email accounts, or you will be deported and banned from ever entering Israel.

Hebah refused and faced the consequences. She was put on a plane back to the States, unable to conduct her research.

Al Jazeera has reported about how Israeli authorities have been denying NGO workers access into Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Yesterday I wrote that Israel might not be prepared to counter the growing American campus outrage over its policies towards the Palestinians.

But connecting the dots, it is clear this is how they intend to fight back.

A new study flagged in this Israeli newspaper warns that Israel is facing a global delegitimisation campaign.

The prestigious Reut Institute, which issued the report, is headed by an erudite mover-and-shaker named Gidi Grinstein, a lawyer who also attended Harvard.

The Reut Study is comprehensive, and deserves reading in full. But I seriously doubt Grinstein (whom I've known for nearly a decade) would advocate deportation of visiting scholars and field researchers who refuse to let Israeli cybersleuths sign into their Harvard/Gmail acccounts.

On the positive side, at least US immigration officials welcomed Hebah home without incident.

Good thing she wasn't carrying Arabic flash cards.

UK photographers protest against anti-terror law

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116923§ionid=351020601


Around 2,000 British photographers have staged a rally in London, protesting the UK's new controversial terrorism laws that warrant stop and search by police.

The photographers gathered in London's Trafalgar Square on Saturday to express their discontent over the country's Terrorism Act 2000, which grants the police further authority to impinge on photographers' privacy.

The demonstrators said Terrorism Act 2000 is not being “sensibly” implemented by law enforcement officers, according to BBC.

They waved placards reading, "I am a photographer, not a terrorist" and flashed their cameras in a symbolic gesture.

"We're coming together to show solidarity and to show that we won't be intimidated" by the implementation of Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, CNN quoted Jonathan Warren, a self-employed photographer and a founder of Saturday's campaign, as saying.

Last week, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against the "coercive powers" of the counter-terrorism law and identified the Act as a breach of human rights.

Participants at the rally reported repeated police intrusion of their activities on grounds of fighting 'terrorism.'

British media say under the new legislation, police stopped and searched around 36,000 people between April and June last year alone.