A draft Israeli bill proposes to ban filming of soldiers and jail offenders for up to 5 years. Here are some videos that would qualify as an offense under the proposed ban, slammed as an attempt to hide abuse of Palestinians.

The controversial legislation states that anyone who “filmed, photographed, and/or recorded soldiers in the course of their duties, with the intention of undermining the spirit of IDF soldiers and residents of Israel, shall be liable to five years imprisonment,” according to reports in Hebrew-language media earlier in May.

The document, which critics see as a new way of silencing criticism of the Israeli army, says that the country “has witnessed a worrying phenomenon of documentation of IDF soldiers” in recent years. It accuses human rights groups such as B’Tselem, Machsom Watch Women, and Breaking the Silence of waiting patiently for any IDF activity “that can be presented in biased and tendentious form.”

The Knesset member behind the bill, Robert Ilatov, insists that Israel has “a responsibility to provide IDF soldiers with optimal conditions for carrying out their duties.”

The legislation was proposed amid worldwide condemnation of the IDF’s use of lethal force during the Palestinian ‘Great March of Return’ protests, which saw at least 119 people killed since the end of March. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) called the bill a “serious breach” of freedom of media and expression. It insisted that if IDF troops have nothing to hide, “there is no harm in documenting their actions against Palestinians.”

 

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