The Knesset’s Judicial Committee, led by MK David Rotem (Israel Beitenu) approved yesterday the “boycott bill” for its final reading. This likely means that the bill will imminently become a law.

The former version of the bill (Hebrew) defined a boycott for political reasons on Israeli products, or products made in the settlements (defined in the bill as “areas under Israeli control”), to be a felony, and allowed suing people advocating such a boycott and fining them 30,000 NIS (about 9,000 USD) without any need to prove that the litigant was actually damaged by the boycott. The bill was also retroactive: It allowed for the retroactive punishment of people advocating a boycott: It allowed for the suing of people who advocated a boycott in the past, up to a year before the passing of the bill.

The version approved yesterday is somewhat different (ACRI’s translation here). The new version – oppsed, by the way, by the Treasury and the Foreign Office – is different in three ways from the original. First, the retroactive nature of the bill was removed, probably because that would be the excuse the SCJ would use to strike it down. Second, the amount of the fine is no longer fixed and is left for the decision of the court, though the litigant still does not have to prove he suffered any damage.

And third and most importantly, the bill is now wider: Where earlier on it targeted individuals, now it also targets corporations and NGOs. Article 4 (1) of the bill, for instance, seems to be an attempt to deny tax exemption status to left-wing NGOs, by denying organizations supporting a boycott of settlement products their status as a public institution. In a phone conversation, Hagai Elad, the CEO of ACRI, noted that an association who is not tax-exempt, cannot give its donors their usual tax deduction, which is an attack on it from two sides.

Article 4 further dictates that companies who supports a boycott on settlements – such as the Israeli companies who participate in the building of Rawabi, who are contractually obligated to refrain from buying settlement products – will not be eligible for government benefits or securities, to which other companies are eligible.

Elad estimates that the chances of the bills passing, in the current Knesset – which he claims is the “worst for democracy in the history of Israel”, apparently being unduly optimistic about the next one – to be quite high. In an ACRI press release, Elad said:

“Why should Israeli citizens be allowed to boycott Israeli cottage cheese, as we have heard and seen in recent weeks, but be barred from boycotting the occupation? This bill is politically motivated and unfortunately it is not the only bill promoted in Knesset these days that stands in contrast to democratic values. A boycott by consumers is a legitimate tool of protest and falls within the protection of freedom of expression. It is ironic that this bill will further enhance the criticism voiced against Israel.”

A representative of Coalition of Women for Peace, who was present in the committee debate, quoted Rotem as saying “international law is none of my interest.”

The boycott bill is also supported by several MKs from the so-called center party, Kadima. It is in effect the outlawing of an entire political camp, which considers the settlements to be a disaster for Israel. You won’t be able to say so when it passes – some settler NGO will take you to court, arguing this promotes a boycott and that you somehow hurt the business of some resident of Ma’aleh Dlilah. After all, it won’t have to prove any damage was sustained. Now it all depends on what remains of the opposition party – and it’s a good bet that Tzippi “Who? Me?” Livni won’t show up.

Update: The Prime Minister’s Office confirms government officials promoted the “gay on the flotilla” hoax, and refuses to deny its officials were involved in its production (Hebrew). Apparently Eli Yishai, the Minister of the Interior, did not get the memo that Israel is gay-friendly now; he denied citizenship to the gay consort of a Jewish immigrant, even though the Law of Return grants it. (Hebrew). Oops.

A couple of days ago, a Youtube video of some guy calling himself Mark popped up. Mark claimed to be an American gay rights activist who decided to broaden his horizons and, going all hog, decided to join the Gaza flotilla, representing the gay rights group of which he is a member. He sent an email to the flotilla organizers, but – alas! – after waiting for quite a while, received a negative reply. Upon which Mark experienced a Road to Damascus moment, the scales fell from his eyes, and he saw the bright, shining light of truth: The flotilla is organized by Hamas-supporting Islamists, all of whom are good friends with Ismail Hanyieh.

We are, of course, dealing with a professional hasbara flick. “Mark” refrains from showing us the bomb he pretends to hold, namely the mail he purportedly received from the flotilla organizers. This is not an accident: As Max Blumenthal quickly found out, the video was promoted by someone named Neil Lazarus, a professional hasbara man. The video was promoted in Twitter, Blumenthal found out, by the Israeli Government Press Office, who was quoting someone called Guy Seemann, who works for the Prime Minister’s Office. Seemann’s tweet promoting the video was his only one, and it seems he opened his account for this purpose.

Last night, Electronic Intifada exposed the fact that “Mark” is in fact the Israeli Omer Gershon, a two-bit micro-celeb from Tel Aviv. This exposes, if this wasn’t clear yet, the lie behind the video: As an Israeli, “Mark”’s naiveté and his claim to see the light is particularly ridiculous.

I don’t have much of a problem with Gershon. He’s an actor, presumably he was paid for his part, and actors have promoted untruths and myths since the times of Thespis. The office of the PM, promoting such clumsy propaganda, is another case entirely.

This schtick ought not to be surprising: After all, the Foreign Ministry decided more than a year ago (Hebrew) to outsource hasbara, since official Israeli sources are burned, and considered unreliable. Israel is conducting a dirty tricks campaign against the flotilla, trying to poison the minds of people in the West, by dispensing lies through people allegedly unrelated to it.

Trying to make the Western world forget for a while it holds millions under occupation and is running the largest open sky prison in Gaza, Israel is trying to wave its relatively good record in the area of gay rights. To do so, it focuses on the homophobia of traditional Muslim society while hoping nobody pays attention to the homophobia of traditional Jewish society and while silently praying nobody will notice homophobia is the only thing bringing Orthodox rabbis and imams together, as in the protests against the Jerusalem gay parade. It also hopes nobody will realize its Chief rabbis, past (Hebrew) and present (Hebrew) incited against the gay community, while receiving a government salary and pension and trusting to their position to protect them from investigation.

As collateral damage, Israel tars the gay groups in the Middle East as its collaborators. There have been claims before these groups are “pro Zionists”, and in fact there is nothing surprising in an oppressed group seeing the bright sides of the enemy of its oppressor.

But the use Israel makes of the gay cause and gay groups will easily allow the authorities in the rest of the Middle East to portray them as Israeli collaborators, perhaps even spies, and use this excuse to persecute them. Paradoxically, Israel’s embrace of gays will promote their harassment in neighboring countries.

Then again, who cares? We’re only talking about gentiles, after all, Muslim and gay ones to boot. At least, we gave them a good hasbara fight. Next time, we won’t get caught. Hopefully.