re: #3 electrotek

I wish Netanyahu was removed from power, along with Avigdor Lieberman.

Speaking of Netanyahu, does anyone find it ironic that he of all people would express solidarity with France, given the chance that he himself supported the prison sentence of a Russian Jewish woman who drew Mohammed as a pig in Hebron around 1997?

This sentence implies that she was imprisoned merely for the act of drawing. Not true.

Tatyana Soskina was stopped with some spray paint and the leaflets, which she, acc. to her own admission, planned to glue to buildings in Hebron (an Arab city). She was also wearing a t-shirt with the symbol of Kach, which is banned in Israel as a terrorist org. She was let out on bail, but arrested again the next day for throwing a rock at a Palestinian car.

So she was imprisoned for the following:
Penal code sec. 144: incitement to racism
Penal code sec. 173: injury to religious sentiment
Penal code sec. 196: defacing real estate
Penal code sec. 332: maliciously endangering people on a traffic route
Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance 1948, sec. 4: supporting a terrorist organization.

Yes, it’s bad that section 173 was used against her (although its interpretation in the verdict is pretty nuanced and contextual) and it’s shameful that Israel still has such a barbaric law on the books.

But it’s also clear that she wasn’t convicted just because she drew a cartoon. She was more akin to a provocateur yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater, and her throwing of rocks by itself was a good enough reason to put her away. So a support for her sentencing doesn’t necessarily amount to a support for this particular penal code article.