Israeli Bill Would Allow Secret Blacklists For Websites

jonklinger writes with the lead from his report on a move to hamper internet freedom in Israel: "Israel is to attempt, again, to pass a bill that authorizes police officers to issue warrants to Internet service providers to block or restrict access to specific websites involved either in gambling, child pornography or copyright infringement. The bill itself proposes that such administrative procedures shall be clandestine and that court decisions shall be made ex-parte, where some of the court's ruling will not be even dislosed to the owner of the website, and the court may hear and use inadmissible evidence."

This used to be a joke...

[CanEHdian]

block or restrict access to specific websites involved either in gambling, child pornography or copyright infringement.

It used to be a joke when "copyright infringement" was put in the same category as serious offences, see this wonderful video [vimeo.com]. Are these politicians out of their mind, or are these people bought and paid for as the video suggests?

Re:hitler would be proud

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't recall Israel saying they wanted to kill all Palestinians."

Of course they don't say it; they're much to smart for that. (Imagine the international repercussions.) Instead, they just methodically take slow steps towards that end, taking West Bank resources and land, effectively imprisoning Gaza, calculating just enough calories to keep Palestinians alive but stunt the physical and brain growth of their children to ensure a stupid and obedient next generation, etc.

Everyday in denmark since 2005

[pinkishpunk]

In 2005 such a DNS based filter was rolled out here in Denmark, First toured as a filter against Child pornography, as a none binding aggrement between the danish branch of save the children and the biggest Isp. By design its ofcause a none public liste, later in 2006 allofmp3.com was blocked using the same system, then the pirate bay was added, then sites that sells medicin that requires a prescription, and the lates addion was gamling sites that doesnt pay danish tax. In 2008 the list was leaked ( http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Denmark:_3863_sites_on_censorship_list%2C_Feb_2008 [wikileaks.org] ) , was found to be blocking sites not related to what it was intented to, legitime sites. It always starts out as against Child pornography, and then they will start put more and more into it.

Re:hitler would be proud

[Anonymous Coward]

Technically correct, and completely symbolic and irrelevant.

Israeli policy in the West Bank has typically been to take land by force and demand that the Palestinians do nothing about it. Israeli policy in the Gaza Strip has been to blockade all shipments to the area and to forcibly prevent anyone from leaving, and then periodically "mow the grass" (this is the Israeli term for their periodic indiscriminate bombing of Gaza).

Any reasonably fair way of looking at the conflict in the Levant acknowledges three basic facts:
1. Both Israelis and Palestinians have been absolutely brutal, including attacking and terrorizing civilians.
2. Israel is currently winning by a wide margin. For instance, in the last dust-up, approximately 1200 Gazans died, and approximately 10 Israelis died. Or you can look at who controls what land [thehypertexts.com]. Or you can look at the casualties over the last 10 years, which give Israel approximately a 6:1 advantage.
3. Neither Israel nor Hamas nor Fatah operate within the bounds of international law.

I know a doctor who has been going to Gaza for years to operate on people injured and crippled in Israeli attacks. According to him, while the Israelis don't block medical shipments, they delay them until medications are time expired and they do things like store delicate medical equipment outside exposed to the elements until it is useless before releasing it or search sealed sterile containers without resealing them properly resulting in equipment arriving full of dust and dirt i.e. useless. If you want to get medical equipment into Gaza you are better off shipping medicine and medical equipment to Egypt and then negotiating with criminals to smuggle it into Gaza via tunnels. At least that way it will get to Gaza in a usable condition. The Israelis will also refuse medical professionals and aid workers entry after making them wait for weeks, without any rational explanation as to why they are being turned back.

Re:hitler would be proud

[offerk]

> For instance, in the last dust-up, approximately 1200 Gazans died

According to Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cloud_Pillar [wikipedia.org] ) this is actually the number of Palestinians *injured*, not killed:

"Between 158 and 177 Palestinians died in the operation, with between 55 and 120 of them being combatants. An additional 1,200-1,300 Palestinians were injured, and between 350 and 700 Palestinian families displaced."