I Will Not Argue On Twitter.

I Will Not Argue On Twitter.

I Will Not Argue On Twitter.

Seriously one of the main reasons I gave up online political discussion boards is that I found I kept having to go back and clarify what was going on. Twitter rows are even more chaotic.

Last night on Twitter I read a report of a rumour that the Israeli government were planning to introduce a bill that would strip the associates (friends, family etc) of Palestinian terrorists of permits to live in Israel - particularly east Jerusalem - along with other social welfare benefits. I should point out that this rumour might not be true and we certainly don't have an exact text of the proposal to discuss. Plus if such a bill is introduced it will be subject to extensive debate within the Israeli Parliament which may even vote to reject it rather then making it law. However I did comment that it sounded dangerously close to an example of collective punishment to me.

This brought me to the attention of a proudly Zionist Israeli who was keen to argue why it wasn't an example of collective punishment. Given the time difference between the UK and Israel though I kind of got the impression that most of the arguments were between him and the voices in his head rather then anything I had to say.

However we started discussing the differences between a punishment against an individual which would have a knock-on (vicarious) effect on their associates and a punishment that specifically targeted an individuals associates. A rather benign example would be evicting a family from their home because the head of the household has failed to pay the rent versus evicting a family from their home because the guy across the road has failed to pay his rent.

Part of the discussion is the due process that is afforded to an accused before a punishment is imposed. For example in the UK if you don't pay your rent your landlord can't simply kick you out. Instead they first have to apply to a Court for an eviction order. This leads to a Court hearing at which you can argue why you shouldn't be evicted. In extremely exceptional circumstances the Court can deny an eviction order on the grounds that it would have an undue, negative effect on an individuals associates. For example in the case of an severely disabled child who needs the special modifications that are part of a specific building.

Throughout this discussion the Zionist seemed incapable of thinking of Palestinians ("Arabs" is the correct technical term) as individual human beings rather then as part of a single, amorphous blob.

However before I had time to raise this point he moved on to accusing me of trying to hold Israel to a higher standard then any other country on earth. This is sadly something that does happen and was a particular problem during this summer's Gaza war. However it certainly was not true in this case and to prove my point I used the European Convention on Human Right (ECHR) as an example.

Drafted just two years after the formation of the State of Israel and 43 years before the formation of the European Union (EU) the ECHR grants a number of rights such as the right to life, the right to liberty and the right to family life which would make the Israelis treatment of the Palestinians extremely difficult if Israel were a signatory to the convention. The ECHR frequently comes up in terrorism cases with the case of Abu Qatada al-Filistini/Omar Mahmoud Othman being a particularly high profile case recently although the UK Courts kept that particular saga going for around 2 years after the ECHR gave permission for him to be deported. 

As such it seemed quite clear that I was actually holding Israel to a far lower standard then the 47 nations that have signed the ECHR hold themselves to.

This prompted the standard Zionist response that any criticism of Israel, no matter how slight, was anti-Zionist and anti-Zionists are all anti-Semites therefore I'm a Nazi. Long after I'd ended the conversation and gone to bed this person apparently reported me to Twitter for trolling which is interesting because I was sitting there minding my own business when he approached me.

Anyway I think the point is that this is what Israelis living in Kibbutz's on the Gaza border have to put up with on a daily basis. It would really help if Hamas wasn't constantly firing rockets at them. 

12:40 on 23/11/14 (UK date).