This reminds me of the alien and sedition acts - at least the purpose for a specific ends. Irony though: is Ilon Gilon's quoted response borderline seditious? What about Hagai El-Ad's rhetoric? If ideas of boycott are developing within the government, perhaps they should host more discussions concerning said reasons, rather than trying to "legally" protect their backs?
There's this delusion that banning speech and assembly is something that can be fully policed and impartial, though it's quite glaring the same cannot be said for Israel's Parliament. Israel's catching wind on boycotts, and I imagine enforcers will run around like chickens with their necks cut off.
I actually like comparison with the Old South, though they succeeded in illegally jailing non-criminal persons for the purpose of weakening the several movements' momentums. The indefinite amount of time in jail was meant to scare off more boycotts, but this is where the local governments realized that the "arrest-everyone" mentality didn't work once it caught national and international attention. I feel like Israel's *always* had international attention, so I wonder how the pressure they're used to will pan out??
Edit* So I don't double post:
If anyone is interested in the public school testing scandal in Atlanta, be not surprised. I would love to boil it down to being in the South and the linear relationship it has with quality education, but that's doing these overworked, underpaid and (a lot of the times) one-year contract teachers a significant injustice. So the Atlanta Public School System (oddly including an investigation outside the metro area) are implicated in cheating on the CRCT - basically a comprehension exam of basic subjects like math, english, science and history/geography.
I believe the test goes from 4-8 grade. Teachers are accused of editing scan-trons, administrations are accused of pressuring teachers for pass-able test scores and the School Board is the mastermind behind it. To me, the CRCT was *very* easy (but I came from New Jersey before taking the test twice). Georgia's public school education is a joke, and has been a joke. A few years back after I graduated high school, my county lost its accreditation for several mismanagement and testing issues. Since then, many AP schools have been scrutinized for poor grades, student results and retention rates (my graduating class should have been 700 roughly, only 363... graduated I think?). I had the same teacher in a new subject every year because schools were using fresh college grads as insurance tags and momentary replacements because of constant fluctuating budget costs. These teachers (whom I believe were much better than the established teachers) were forced to adhere to a testing-curriculum as opposed to a comprehension-curriculum: "teach us how to pass the test."
Keeping in mind the pertinence administration felt for pushing kids out of the system, strained financial support, little community involvement (financially, also), increasing crime, increasing teen pregnancy and somehow youth's increasing disrespect for their elders and you have a very bad situation. Case in point: I took several AP courses. Passing the course meant I did not have to take several sections of the graduation test - so the administration told us. Come several weeks before graduating, and the administration tells us we *must* take the test in order to graduate. But what if we fail? What if we're nervous? What if we aren't attending our graduation because we're out of town due to plans made? Then the secretary begins to tell us (in an accusatory way as if it's our fault, or not a problem) that it doesn't matter what we put on the test. We just have to take it and fill a quota. For some damned reason, I was the only one to lash out while everyone balked to their superiors: "Why are we being held responsible for your inability to counsel graduating seniors properly? Why don't YOU guys just fill the tests out and put our names on it?" She got real PO'd then. I just don't get it. Even with the funding that came in because of reported inflated test scores, that's still not enough to save the system here. It's so fucked up.
