Abstract

A central dilemma in human rights law is how to reconcile the government’s duty to respect freedom with its obligation to protect individuals that might be harmed by the exercise of said freedom. Intolerance toward the dissemination of certain illiberal positions may have adverse social and political unintended results. One central concern is that such a policy would create a common culture that does not appreciate the critical importance of a vibrant public discourse. As such, it might enable governments, in terms of popular legitimacy, to curtail speech beyond the limits of justifiable infringements. Recent developments in Israel illustrate this concern. In recent years, normatively legitimate antiracism legislation was unjustifiably expanded by imposing sanctions on expressions that were deemed harmful to national sentiments or questioning the legitimacy of Israel’s Constitutional Identity as a Jewish state. Similarly, laws against the support of terrorism were followed by prohibitions on advocating boycotts against Israel. This Article proposes to halt the sociological slippery-slope trend of curtailing speech far and beyond the permissible scope of such a policy, by implementing rules-based legal doctrines that may foster a stronger public pressure on the government to protect free speech; restricting the scope of “harm-in-one-step” approach; and providing a clearer definition of the requirement of state neutrality in the context of regulating speech.

中文翻译：

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禁止宣传仇恨和调节竞选资金的意外后果：以色列言论自由地位的下降

摘要

人权法的一个中心难题是如何调和政府尊重自由的义务与保护个人的义务，因为个人有可能因行使自由而受到损害。对某些自由立场的传播不容忍可能会产生不利的社会和政治意想不到的结果。一个中心关注的问题是，这样的政策将创造一种共同的文化，而这种文化不会意识到充满活力的公共话语的至关重要性。这样一来，就大众合法性而言，这可能使政府能够将言论限制在合理的侵权范围之外。以色列最近的事态发展说明了这种担忧。近年，通过对被认为有害于民族情绪的言论施加制裁，或质疑以色列作为犹太国家的宪法身份的合法性，对规范合法的反种族主义立法进行了不合理的扩展。同样，在反对恐怖主义的法律之后，禁止提倡抵制以色列。本文建议通过实施基于规则的法律原则，以制止公众对政府施加更大的压力以保护言论自由，从而制止社会言论自由化的趋势，这种趋势远远超出了该政策的允许范围。限制“一步一步伤害”方法的范围；并在规范言论的背景下为国家中立性要求提供了更清晰的定义。