RAMALLAH, July 13 (JMCC) - Opponents of Israel's new law penalizing advocates of boycott against Israel should not take the legislation to court, argues Yossi Gurvitz.
For starters, these petitions play into the hands of the right wing. It allows right-wingers to point out, time and time again, that laws which they pass, in accordance with every formal rule of the game and with wide public support – the boycott law being no exception – are stricken down by an unelected elite. One could, of course, counter by saying that this is precisely the role of a supreme court in a democracy, but this argument requires a public familiar with more sides of democracy than majority rule, and we seem to lack that.
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The second consideration against petitioning the HCJ is “what will the gentiles say?” A large segment of the public sees no problem with the loyalty laws per se, but is worried of the damage to the image of Israel. The HCJ, which is one of the architects of the occupation, without which it would impossible to maintain, is a classic part of this hoodwinking of the gentiles. It is the last fig leaf of the Zionist regime (and, to those who bristle at the usage of this term; ask yourself: Isn’t that how Israel describes itself?). A classic example is the HCJ ruling regarding the separation barrier: The Sharon government was bitterly hostile to it and did everything it could to avoid enforcing it – but when the International Court of Justice started debating the barrier, the government hastily waved the HCJ ruling as a way of proving it had another, better, ruling.
