Nov. 7th, 2023, a month into the War, I’m Efrat Fenigson, bringing you an update from Israel. I’ll touch on several topics today: Oct. 7th impacts, the general atmosphere and mainstream narrative in Israel, my personal angle, and a list of seven government restrictions under the guise of war, which to me feel like a further decline into totalitarianism.

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The Israeli police had set up a special task force to monitor speech online. This force, which was established in May 2023, has been operating on high speed since the war began: they’ve already imprisoned 103 suspects and 44 indictments have been filed in an expedited procedure against those who incite terrorism and express support for Hamas. Most of them were people who have shown support in Hamas terror actions or showed intention to harm others. The police taskforce is also working diligently to remove social media posts which are encouraging terror acts, about 1000 such posts have been removed already.
In my opinion, while any incitement to violence and support of a terrorist organisation are wrong, dangerous and should be handled, the slippery slope is allowing this special police taskforce to threaten citizens who raise different opinions, I’ll explain where I see this slope:
A week after the massacre, A police Sub-Commissioner released a deterrent note, referring to a number of Israelis who, since the beginning of the war, have been spreading “conspiracy theories” online hinting on an inside job, which he claims is “completely unfounded”. The sub-commissioner said those people are echoing Hamas or Iran conspiracy theories. “In cases where it is Israeli citizens who spread these fake theories, most of them are expected to soon find themselves in the police interrogation rooms. We will reach out to anyone who tries to harm the public’s well being and safety by publishing such news or theories that the enemy is trying to echo in Israeli society.”
This can be transformed into an amendment to the law or a new law, if they should choose to take it one step further.
Remember, that such efficient handling of incitement, and such swift measures were NOT taken when people, including politicians and doctors incited against Israeli citizens during Covid.

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