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- DISCLAIMER ABOUT LEGAL ADVISE - Greetings to our Visitors. The content of this website is for informational purposes only. The information from this website cannot be considered to be legal advice at all. The staff of Israel Law Resource Center strongly recommends that if you need legal advice then that you consult with an attorney. The reason is that attorneys are trained in both how to use legal information such as is found on this website, and in the ins and outs of the legal system itself, both of which cannot be gotten just from reading the information found on this website. In addition, lawyers would have direct experience of working in the legal system and thus would known of the subtleties of the system, such as shortcuts and hidden pitfalls, which also could not be gotten just from reading the information found on this website. Lastly, experienced lawyers would have connections in the system, and be aware of the personalities of the actual people running the legal system, and thus would know how to take advantage of that as well to benefit their clients. Finally, practicing law and giving out legal advice requires a license in most jurisdictions, and a licensed legal service is not amongst the services that the ILRC website currently provides. The licensing process, and the watchdog functions of bar associations are important for protecting clients because they can be used to track the performance of practicing lawyers, and to censure and warn potential clients about low quality lawyers. Thus, we truly hope that our visitors benefit from the information that they will find on our website, but we are very clear on its limits, and wish our visitors to be clear on them as well. Sincerely, The Staff of the Israel Law Resource Center
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- DISCLAIMER AGAINST CLAIMS OF ANTI-SEMITISM - There are many who claim that those who criticize the State of Israel are practicing anti-Semitism. The term "anti-Semitism" means hatred of the practicioners of a specific religion - Judaism. But this does not apply to the critics of the State of Israel - because they are criticizing a government and its policies, and a political philosophy (Zionism) - which are rights gaurenteed in our democratic system, and in the State of Israel itself, which it claims is also a democracy. It is a mistake to label this criticism of Israel and the Zionist philosophy anti-Semitism because:
Many of the supporters of Israel claim that there is a complete identity between the religion of Judaism and the government of Israel, and that this is the basis to the claim that criticism of that government is criticism of the Jewish religion and its followers. But this is a grave error because governments are completely different from religions. This is a dangerous and unnatural association because it is very important that we be able to criticize governments because of the way they affect the lives of people. For example, the people of the government of South Africa and members of the Ku Klux Klan considered themselves to be good Christians, yet no one labels their critics Christian-haters. And it is very important that we criticize the South African government and the Ku Klux Klan. This is why two of the basic principles of democracy are free speech to criticize the government and also separation of church and state. Very often, defenders of Israel don't even try to counter criticisms of Israel with facts or reason but instead just try to attack the accuser directly by labelling him/her anti-Semitic. Often people use such tactics when they cannot defend their position - they just attack the messenger. This is another effort to censor free speech. |
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(C) Israel Law Resource Center, February, 2007.