Israel can't allow those who call for its destruction to remain
Opinion: Some would like to overturn Supreme Court decision to expel human rights activist who repeatedly called for boycott of Jewish state, but it's clear that no country in the world would allow agitators against it to stay within its borders
Omar Shakir, who had his visa to remain in Israel revoked by the Supreme Court, identifies himself as a "human rights activist." He is the Israel director for Human Rights Watch, the biggest human rights organization in the world.
It's fair to assume that Israel will pay for the decision to deport Omar down the line. The country will once again be depicted as undemocratic - afraid of those that dare criticize it, terrified of those who may expose it as a human rights violater.
It's worth mentioning that even though "human rights organizations" has became a synonym for "hostile elements" in Israel, not all of them, and not always, but HRW is the most prominent organization of them.
The president of the HRW, Kenneth Roth, sent a letter to then-U.S. president Bill Clinton demanding that he not forget the Palestinian "right of return" to land in Israel.
On the last Nakba Day ("Day of Catastrophe" on which Palestinians mourn the creation of the State of Israel) Shakir, while staying in Israel, also issued a statement demanding the recognition of the Palestinian right of return, presenting it as the HRW's official stance on the subject.
This demand by Shakir by its very nature abolishes the right of Israel to exist.
After all, there are tens of millions who were displaced in the 1940s - and even as recently as the 70s - and yet, HRW didn't issue any demands supporting their right of return.
Legally speaking, these so-called demands are nothing but fraud, and international courts already discussed demands of this nature in the past.
For example, the Sudeten Germans were denied their demand to return to the Sudetenland in the Czech Republic after they were expelled in World War II.
The same verdict was given when the Greeks demanded the world recognize their right to return to Northern Cyprus after their displacement by Turkish forces in 1974.
Because it might be considered rude to come out and flat out say, "we support Iran and Hamas' demand to destroy Israel," HRW uses the term "right of return" instead, while vehemently lying that there was ever any such a right to begin with.
Shakir reached a new level of guile, and called for the Palestinians to withdraw their demand for self-determination (a cardinal principle that states people have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and political status) and demand the right of "one voice for one person" instead, meaning one country for two people, effectively eliminating Israel as a refuge for the Jewish people.
From the moment Omar Shakir stepped on Israeli soil, he had the same modus operandi he always did and even traveled to Bahrain to promote a FIFA ban on Israel. Bahrain denied him entrance to the country.
Last year, following the decision to cancel Shakir's visa, 15 human rights organizations, Including Israeli NGOs B'tselem and Breaking the Silence, called for the decision to be reversed.
"This decision only serves to partner Israel with a list of shady countries whose governments want to control the opinions, thoughts and actions of human beings, instead of protecting their right to free speech," the groups said.
Well, let's see: Canada banned former British MP and vehement Israel-hater George Galloway; France banned Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, considered by Sunni Muslims to be a prominent intellectual; Britain banned American anti-gay protester Fred Phelps and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper from entering the country, as well as Michael Savage, a far-right conservative radio host; the U.S. denied entry to Filipina human rights activist Liza Maza who intended to attend a conference on American activity in her country; and recently, both the U.S. and Britain banned the entrance of Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and Omar Shakir's ideological twin.
It's safe to assume that anti-Israeli elements will resume their usual drivel about damage to free speech, which is curious given that Shakir himself is an advocate of harming free speech.
In 2015, Shakir signed a petition calling for a ban on Muslims who dared accept the invitation of the Hartman Institute (on Jerusalem-based center for pluralistic Jewish thought and education) for an educational tour of Israel.
Every country has the right to deny entry to agitators, and there's no country in the world that would allow a person who denies its right to exist enter its borders. This is true of Israel as well.
