Man wrote hate e-mails to numerous Peace Now activists including director Yariv Oppenheimer.
A 21-year-old man who has already been indicted for various "price-tag" attacks, including several against activists and employees of Peace Now, was arrested again on Sunday night in connection with death threats he sent via e-mail to members of the organization yesterday.
Police suspect 21-year-old linked to previous price-tag attacks; Peace now dir.-gen. says he received death threat.
Peace Now filed a complaint with police Sunday evening over a series of so-called "price-tag" attacks, which were carried out against the organization's activists.
A number of the organization's leading activists, including Director-General Yariv Oppenheimer, were sent death threats to their personal e-mail accounts on Sunday evening.
The Washington Post's Sunday edition featured Hagit Ofran, the director of Peace Now's Settlements Watch project, in a story about the attacks on Israel's democracy and civil society. By ZELDA HARRIS
11/14/2011
There can never be social justice in a country with restrictive and anti-democratic laws that strengthen antagonism.
I love Hayarkon Park. It's very close to my home, so I was pleased to accept an invitation last Friday to a Peace Now meeting held in the park's Council for a Beautiful Israel Center.
Peace Now Director Yariv Oppenheimer said that "Israeli democracy has been surrendered to right-wing extremists and is in a state of bankruptcy."
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"...it is shocking to see Israel's democratic government propose measures that could silence its own critics."
(Interview with Peace Now's Yariv Oppenheimer; Maariv, 11/20/11, by Amichai Atali - Translation by Israel News Today)(Yedioth Ahronoth, 11/18/11, by Uri Misgav, p. B18 - Translation by Israel News)
Last Tuesday, Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch project, received a surprising visit. Six settlers, members of the small "Eretz Shalom" [Land of Peace] movement, wished to express regret for the events of the day. They were headed by Rabbi Menahem Froman, who despite his severe illness, insisted on holding the visit.
The outpost, Derekh Ha'avot, established early 2001 and is home to about 35 families; according to report 60 percent of the community is on Palestinian farmland.
By Chaim Levinson
"Today the government made it clear that it is not the law that rules in Israel, but the law breakers" (Michael Sfard, attorney for Peace Now and Yesh Din)
Peace Now's Yariv Oppenheimer: "The government is trying to stifle the law and does not care about the position of the attorney-general, who determined that the proposed law is unconstitutional," said Oppenheimer. "Israeli democracy has been surrendered to right-wing extremists and is in a state of bankruptcy."
Ha'aretz: "Peace Now activist Ofran: 'We must not fear. We are here, and we are many'"
Jerusalem Post: "16 years on: Annual Tel Aviv rally remembers Rabin"
Prominent speakers included Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch project: "The graffiti was sprayed in my home, but the taunts are in all of our stairwells. The tag may have marked me, but we all pay the price. We must not fear. We are here, and we are many.
by Trudy Rubin, Inquirer Opinion Columnist
JERUSALEM - When Hagit Ofran woke up Tuesday - within days of the 16th anniversary of the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - she found death threats spray-painted on her door.
(Ofran is pictured on her stairwell amidst the graffiti-ed death threats)
YNET: "'Rabin is waiting for you' spray-painted on leftist's building"
"Hagit Ofran, Rabin is waiting for you" was one of the spray-painted slogans, the second time in months that Ofran has been targeted, allegedly by right-wing extremists angry over dismantling of illegal West Bank settlements.
In recent weeks members of Congress have written to UNESCO to let leaders of that organization know that upgrading the status of the PLO will jeopardize U.S. funding to that organization. On 10/5/11, Rep. Granger (R-TX), Chair of the Appropriations Committee's Foreign Operations subcommittee, issued a statement warning UNESCO that upgrading the PLO's status could lead to a cut-off of U.S. funding. Rep. Lowey (D-NY), ranking minority member on the ForOps subcommittee, issued a similar statement on 10/5/11.
Lara Freedman, director of policy and government relations with Americans for Peace Now, blamed strong pro-Israel lobbying by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and American Jewish and right-wing Christian communities.
"The narrative that says that 'the Palestinians' decision to go to the UN is a form of diplomatic terrorism that cannot go unpunished' has firmly taken root," she said.
"It is all under dispute and anything beyond the 1967 lines needs to be established under international law," Ofra said. "In the big settlements there is constantly construction. These are massive cities that are treated as such by Israel." She added, however, that smaller outposts in the West Bank - often consisting of several trailer homes and a cabin on a hilltop - are also seeing a push in growth.
"The settlement movement is consistently growing," she said.
"The status quo - in which Israel continues to pursue policies that are anathema to the two-state solution and in which the Obama administration is unable or unwilling to exercise convincing leadership to restore credibility to its peace policy - will lead only to further isolation and marginalisation of both Israel and the United States in the international community," the group (Americans for Peace Now) warned.
