[CIMC-work] FW: [IMC-Process] On changing the Indymedia Israel domain to israel.indymedia.org

[Chris Kaihatsu]

_________________________________________________________________________
6/18/03 WHY AMERICA NEEDS WAR "The fact that Bush is keen on war has little
or nothing to do with his psyche, but a great deal with the American
economic system. This system -- America¹s brand of capitalism -- functions
first and foremost to make extremely rich Americans like the Bush "money
dynasty" even richer. Without warm or cold wars, however, this system can no
longer produce the expected result in the form of the ever-higher profits
the moneyed and powerful of America consider as their birthright."
www.whatreallyhappened.com


Iraq and Al Qaeda: another lie unravels
www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jun2003/iraq-j24.shtml


A CRACK IN BUSH'S FAÇADE
Growing WMD Scandal Could Lead to Impeachment
www.uexpress.com/tedrall/



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From: "Bryan Atinsky" <bryan at indymedia.org.il>
Organization: Indymedia Israel
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 18:09:12 +0200
To: <imc-process at lists.indymedia.org>
Subject: [IMC-Process]  On changing the Indymedia Israel domain to
israel.indymedia.org

Hello all,

Due to legal issues here, including a current criminal investigation against
us initiated by the attorney general of Israel, for incitement (more about
it at the bottom), we have come to the conclusion that it would be wise to
change the domain, and therefore the legal ownership of the domain, out of
the hands of Israeli citizens, who can be harassed (as we are right now and
have been two other times) through dubious criminal investigations against
the legal owners of the domain.

The domain 'israel.indymedia.org' would mean that any case against the site
would have to be tried in the United States, making it much harder for them
to use these dubious investigations as tools to quash the freedom of speech.

We would be most interested in hearing any comments, suggestions, questions
on this subject, and if possible, movement as quick as possible to implement
this change.

Thanks fer listenin',

Bryan

--------------------------------------------
Here is a copy of what was written to imc-legal about our situation:

Hello IMC-Legal people,

We at Indymedia Israel thought it would perhaps be good to inform you that
we have been under criminal investigation (for the third time now in the
last two-years or so) for the past month.

The investigation was started by Elyakim Rubinstein, the Attorney General of
Israel after a complaint initiated by the right-wing settler media
organization Arutz 7.

They are accusing us of "hasahtah", which in english translates to either
incitement or sedition, which is a criminal offence.

The complaint was in regard to an article published in hebrew on November
18th 2002:

 http://indymedia.org.il/imc/webcast/42414.html  (the article is in Hebrew).

The article is in regard to an attack against Israeli soldiers in Hebron by
the Hamas, where nine Israeli soldiers were killed, including one officer,
who also happened to be a settler (he was, I think, the highest ranking
Israeli soldier to die during the Al-aqsa intifada).

The author writes at one point in the article (not an exact translation, but
very close): "I couldn't help but smile" hearing about the death of the
officer.

This statement in the complaint is considered to be inciteful speech.

It seems to the editorial group of Indymedia Israel that the accusation of
incitement is ridiculous.  One cannot incite a violent act that already
occured, incitement always implies a future act.

For instance, if one says they are happy that 'so and so' died of a heart
attack, while this may not be in the best taste, it had no bearing on the
life or death of the individual (who is already dead).

We only heard about the investigation when or office was called for
information and to give a statement to Ma'ariv, the Israeli newspaper.

The police have not contacted us in any way in regard to the investigation,
but information of the investigation was published in all the major Israeli
news sources (Ha'aretz, Yideot, Ma'ariv, Nana, etc).

We were later contacted by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
which is more or less the ACLU of Israel.

They have stated that they will help in any way that they can.

However, until the police contact us (if they ever do), there is nothing
they can do except write a letter of complaint to the offices of the
Attorney General.

We have decided to stay low and not publish any replies to the
investigation, thinking that it is best to be ready, but to refrain from
upping the ante in the public side of this issue.

We thought that it would be good also if you were informed of the ongoing
investigation.  If you have any suggestions, comments, questions, please
feel free to send them to my e-mail address (I am acting as the legal
contact for this case).

Please do not publish any comment for now about this investigation onto the
newswires of indymedia.

We hope that like the other specious investigations which have been
initiated against us, this one too will be closed.

But for now, we can only wait.

Thank you for your time,

Bryan
Indymedia Israel




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