Israel has arrested and then given two days of house arrest for a rather bizarre form of expression: defecating on flags, including Israel’s flag. I cannot say that I am eager to attend a showing of the Natali Cohen Vaxberg’s scatological creations, but the sentencing clearly violates free speech protections that many of us believe are a core human right. Warning: foul language is contained in the story below.
In the United States, the destruction of the flag is a protected form of free speech. In Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that flag burning was protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is considered one of the core cases defining free speech in the United States. Brennan was joined by Marshall, Blackmun, Scalia, and Kennedy (Kennedy wrote a concurrence).
Cohen Vaxberg posted a video showing her defecating on an Israeli flag while she played Israel’s national anthem. In another video entitled “Shit Instead of Blood,” Cohen Vaxberg is pictured defecating on flags from around the world, including that of the Palestinian Authority. Cohen Vaxberg is described as a left-wing activist and artist.
It is a truly disgusting form of expression. However, the anger that it produced reinforces the view that this is not only a form of artistic expression but political expression. The Israeli court not only sentenced her to home confinement but banned her from using the Internet for 30 days. The Tel Aviv police insisted that her videos causes “damage to symbols of the state.”
It is always hard to criticize such punishments (even short sentences) in the face of such obnoxious and truly disgusting forms of expression. However, free speech is not needed to protect popular speech. We pay a price for the guarantee of free speech. That price is people like Cohen Vaxberg. By maintaing a bright line rule, we protect much more valuable forms of speech and avoid the dangers of allowing the government to draw lines between valuable and valueless speech. The slippery slope problem (a troubling image given this case I admit) has proven a real and consistent threat to free speech. We gain far more than we lose in protecting the very small number of flag burners or desecrators in this country.
Pogo, Israel committed human rights violations in bombing civilians in Gaza. They continue to commit international human rights violations in Gaza.
The US, as a paying ally to Israel’s human rights violations owes and by virtue of international law, owes rebuilding to the Palestinians. These reparations are required by law. Not that law or people matter to USGinc. but they both should. I have no issue with not wanting to give the money to Hamas but money for reparations should be made to the people for these crimes by Israel.
Jill – that would be the same Palestinians who hide weapons in UN hospitals? The same ones who base themselves in schools and hospitals? Really? We owe them something? We owe them nothing!
@Jill
I agree.
The U.S. promised $212 million to help rebuild Gaza after buildings were destroyed after Hamas bombed Israel.
We shouldn’t be running around giving money to countries which are major violators of human rights.
@ Jill
My remarks have nothing to do with political support or money given to other countries. That is a completely different subject on which I suspect we have several items of common ground.
My remarks are merely observations from my early college years and training in sociology and anthropology (which was my college major that I never actually used IRL). Also gleaned from experience in a lifetime of sales, interactions with the public and as a financial counselor.
People and cultures MUST be understood before you can interact with them. If you treat everyone as if they have the same framework, social status, lifetime experiences as yourself or if you think that all cultures or societies have the same ideas and desires, you are making a huge mistake. If you are not aware of other’s motivations and what their framework or morality is, you are always going to be surprised and be a loser.
This is why it is so very important to have a foreign policy and professionals in that foreign policy diplomacy department that have the ability to look beyond and understand what might be normal to us, is NOT accepted normality for others.
It doesn’t mean we have to LIKE their views or even respect those views. It means that you have to KNOW what they are so you can deal with it. This lack of understanding or refusal to understand is one of the main reasons for the total failure of our current diplomacy towards Russia. Russia “gets” us, our diplomats are children trying to find their way in the dark. Reset button….LOL.. Putin is laughing at our naivete.
Know your enemy. Know your target. Know your customer. Or else fail and even maybe die.
We have a Nazi flag up in the outhouse here at the marina that has been cut into strips. They are about five inches wide and ten inches long. People wipe the arse and throw them down the outhouse hold among the muck. Another product for arse wiping is the People Magazine. Those pages are too slick and don’t grab well.
Paul, I looked up the site and stand corrected. Thank you.
I stand by everything else I said.
DBQ, We support Israel with enormous amounts of taxpayer money. I don’t know about you, but I am sick of the USGinc. running around giving money to countries which are major violators of human rights.
I would like the USG to save our money for cleaning up all the human rights violations of this nation and to put our people back to work and clean up the environment (just to name a few things that we could do with the money we would save.)
While I agree that her form of expression is pretty disgusting, I just don’t think that we can or should be judging other cultures based on our own.
WE highly value freedom of speech and expression. WE are not Israel or any other society so WE don’t get to tell them what to do in response to her actions. We can comment on it and express our disapproval.
The problem, as I stated in the previous thread about human rights, is that until you learn to understand the other culture’s moral stances and their historical framework, you will always be surprised, unready and unable to deal with their reactions. You have to realize that everyone is not YOU and that their unexpected (to YOU) reactions are logical in their own framework.
As Pogo stated. Free speech is a luxury that we have taken for granted. It can be taken away at any moment. But again….that is our society not Israel or any other.
I agree with Mike A. However, I disagree with JT.
GWB said our Constitution is just a piece of toilet paper. That is truly offensive because that speech comes from a man who is sworn to uphold that toilet paper. However, he still has the right to make this statement and certainly, it was a very truthful statement on his part.
The “leaders” of many nations are in fact, crapping on the people of the world. To crap on a flag to show what is actually happening to the people, is to graphically point out reality in a way that makes people take notice. Personally, I think the flags could and should be covered in blood as well. World “leaders” have soaked this and other nations with the blood of the people. We are so well propagandized that hardly anyone seems to notice or care as long as it’s not happening to them. Well, it’s time to recognize the enormous cruelty of these “respectable leaders”. They need to be delegitimized. This can happen when enough people are willing to make the statement that the screams of the dead surround these “respected leaders” and stop giving them any form of legitimacy.
Crap on!
Jill – GWB never said those words although the meme has been strong in the Democratic ranks. Here is a link to a fact-check on it.
http://www.factcheck.org/2007/12/bush-the-constitution-a-goddamned-piece-of-paper/
Why can’t the crazy people just burn flags like they did in the good old days?
Bailers – it is considered ‘performance art’ and you can blame Yoko Ono for its continued ‘popularity. There is neither a performance nor art in what she has done, or other ‘performance artists’ BTW. However, if you refuse to believe that this is true art you are a philistine of the highest order. 🙂
It is a damm tough bullet to chew. This line is from a poem by Rudyard Kipling celebrating the ‘Birken’ead’ drill or the first time when it was established that when a ship is sinking it is women and children first. It could apply in many situations. Allowing people to desecrate a symbol of patriotism, love, and, unfortunately, war is indeed a tough bullet to chew. However, it is the way.
If what the flag stands for is true enough and strong enough, then it won’t make a difference.
From a political standpoint it is the correct thing to do. If the BDS found that this girl defecated on the Palestinian flag and did not go to jail, all hell would break loose.
I think the “Piss Christ” is over the edge and if the Catholic Church wanted to jail the creator for a couple of days, it would not bother me.
Say what you want, it is their flag and they get to decide what you can do with it.
Defecating on a flag is neither a threat to Israel’s security nor damaging to “symbols of the state,” a particularly sloppy phrase suitable for multiple purposes. This is merely another example of criminalizing political opposition.
Holmes is right, big mistake, Israel should deport them to the country of their choice providing it’ll take them
Heh. I stole the quote.
I’ll admit I do not know if this prosecution is wise for Israel.
But just a few weeks ago a Palestinian man drove into a crowd that disembarking from light rail in downtown Jerusalem, killing a three-month-old baby and wounding seven.
I invite you to consider the flag pooping behavior in that context. People like Natali Cohen Vaxberg are usually quite mentally ill and unstable. In the US we tolerate crazy people until they are violent.
Israel probably figures they do not have the luxury to pretend they are the US.
“Israel is the only region in the Middle East expected to behave like a Christian.” Pogo Not kosher
In April 2014, a UK political leader was arrested for Quoting Winston Churchill.
Islamic states routinely murder dissenters.
Israel is the only region in the Middle East expected to behave like a Christian.
Free speech is a luxury good.
The US has criminalized speech during times of war, when such luxuries can present a danger. It has also dispensed with other luxuries such as personal freedom (e.g., conscription), and even rationed non-luxuries (food, energy, etc.).
Israel is in a long war, one that has punctuated its existence since its birth.
As such, she’s a traitor.
In Palestine, she would have been shot or hanged.
Israel is making a big mistake in this case.
Vaxberg: A vixen vexed by vexillology.
The censors always chose to be offended (understandably, but wrongly)) instead of looking away.
Allow the idiots their 15 seconds of fame.
Ms. Vaxberg will soon be forgotten.