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Jonathan Ferguson
The New Understanding: Post-Secular Pluralism and Universalism!

Voter Suppression: A Warning from Britain

Image by Tanya from Pixabay.
Image by Tanya from Pixabay.

Image by Tanya from Pixabay

The notorious ‘Judicial Reforms’ threat means that Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners can never be trusted again.

Among other things, voter suppression would undoubtedly have been near the top of the list of his preferred measures to enact after neutering the Supreme Court.

This is not just because it is part of the standard far right playbook, such as in pre-Troubles Northern Ireland, apartheid South Africa and both Jim Crow and Trumpist America, but also because Netanyahu has previously been accused of voter suppression.

This includes placing cameras in predominantly Arab voting stations.

And shortly before the 2015 election, he issued a warning that:

Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves.

Imagine if a Presidential candidate in the USA said:

Black people are heading to the polling stations in record numbers!

Even Donald Trump never stooped that low.

Plus West Bank Palestinians cannot vote, while settlers in the West Bank can.

Complete Jewish sovereignty over the West Bank, or at least Netanyahu’s kind of favoured Jews, is a promise he has made.

Unfortunately, with regards to the protests over the coalition government, one commentator notes:

 Weekend rallies around the country have continued to draw hundreds of thousands out into the streets, but with the legislative freeze, the Knesset Passover recess, and the ongoing negotiations, the ardor of the campaign has naturally waned to a degree.

This doesn’t mean the protest movement is dead, or even moribund, but it does mean that constant vigilance is required to keep the enemy up.

Meanwhile, over here in the UK, voter suppression laws are probably among the reasons the Conservative Party performed shockingly badly in the local elections that were recently held.

Over 100 council seats were lost, while Labour became the single biggest party of local government and the Liberal Democrats made non-trivial gains.

The fact the Tories took an absolute hammering should give Israel some hope, just like the demise of Trump in the USA and Bolsanaro in Brazil shows the far right are neither omniscient in their strategising, nor omnipotent in their goals.

Obviously, various forms of resistance are possible.

Perhaps it’s time to ‘flood the zone,’ only in a good way!

Here is a letter I sent to the UK’s Levelling Up Committee, who were soliciting responses to their voter suppression law.

I pray it will inspire some Israelis to speak to their lawmakers about the various problems facing the country, including the lack of a Constitutional Convention to guarantee the basic rights of every person in Israel: Jewish, Arab or any people group at all.

***

Dear Levelling Up Committee

I am aware, as many both in the UK and worldwide are, about the blatantly anti-democratic voter suppression measures introduced by the current regime.

Along with other anti civil liberties measures such as the Anarchist’s Charter, which followed in the immediate aftermath of Sarah Everard by a Metropolitan Police Officer, and the blatant state terror attack at Clapham Common, the current tendency of the UK to emulate Apartheid South Africa and Jim Crow and Trumpist USA is an extraordinarily hubristic raid on our ancient, God-given Magna Carta common law civil liberties.

The reckless decision to abandon the best of our own customs and traditions and foolishly and rashly embrace the election-rigging ethos of former KGB contract killer Vladimir Putin and gruesomely cynical ethnonationalist elected dictator Viktor Orban, is frankly beyond contempt and is turning the entire country into a global laughing stock.

I would have a care to remind you that the last time the UK tried voter suppression, we ended up with a Civil War!

It would be wise not to repeat the dystopian Hobbesian scenario enacted in Northern Ireland once again, let alone by spreading it like wildfire to consume the entirety of the United Kingdom.

Any government that confiscates the inalienable, God-given rights of its citizens to vote as they please has lost the Mandate of Heaven and is destined to go the way of Ozymandias and all other tyrants, dictators and authoritarian caudillos.

Thank you for the time you have taken to read this letter, and I can assure it is fully heartfelt and I mean every word of it!

It is now up to you to decide whether you are going to do the needful, or suffer an unimaginable electoral bloodbath at the polling stations, come next election.

With all possible respect proportionate to the staggering provocation inflicted,

Dr Jonathan Ferguson

***

Ultimately, Israel has the choice about how the prophecies in the Book of Daniel will be fulfilled.

The State of Israel was founded in pn May 14 1948.

The first 69 weeks, or rather years, took it up to 2017.

The 70th week, which is actually a full seven years (this is hinted at because 62, 7 and 1 year are counted separately), takes us up to around May 14 2024, give or take.

Israel has an excellent chance to fulfil its historical destiny to be a light to the nations.

Please do not squander it.

Please help the world to heal!

***

Next article: an expose of the Corbyn faction’s collusion with Qatar. The topic of the Labour files has not lost its relevance.

About the Author
Dr Jonathan Thomas Ferguson is an alumnus of the University of Leeds and King's College London. He is interested in interfaith dialogue, international relations, the Apocalypse of Hope and spiritual matters generally.
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