Global Voices Online is running a lengthy report on how Israeli activists and bloggers are protesting against the deterioration of human rights in their country. Among the issues they demonstrated against was the Sheikh Jarrah case where Jewish settlers were ordered by court to move into the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah while banning Palestinian families from their homes. This was based on a claim that the houses were former Jewish homes illegally colonized by local families. 

Among the activists arrested during the Sheikh Jarrah demonstrations was the Executive Director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) Hagai Elad, as well as  Palestine Note blogger Didi Remez. 

The other issues that the activists rallied against included the biometric legislation proposal, which suggests a compulsory biometric database of all Israeli citizens as part of switching to biometric IDs and passports. 

Here is an Excerpt from the Global Voice online article:

Human rights, from various perspectives, has been the main issue on the agenda of Israeli bloggers and tweeps (Twitter people) in recent months, in light of some of the current administration's policies perceived as a threat on Israel's democracy. On December 11th, 2009, ACRI initiated a unique human rights parade in Tel Aviv, uniting 116 NGOs supporting human rights from various points of view and with varied agendas.

The protest focused on a range of policies marking a peak in the deterioration of human rights in Israel as it was described by ACRI on the protest blog: policies like the Nakba law, the deportation of foreign workers, the biometric database law (see detailed report below), and a "general atmosphere of growing social gaps, silencing of protest, racism and violence". Thousands of people attended the parade (see video clips), held just one day after the international human rights day.

Of all human rights related activity that took place in recent months, the anti-biometric law activity was among the largest web campaigns that Israel has known so far, including the cooperation of 160 Israeli bloggers, a dedicated blog and Twitteraccount, and a busy Facebook page. 

Click here to read the full piece on Global Voices.

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