Israel turning into ‘police state’: Lawmaker

A member of Knesset (Israel’s parliament) said Monday that Israel has turned into a “police state”, according to Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday.

Israel “has become a police state in which any person whose opinion opposes the government will be held and questioned,” Mossi Raz of the left-wing Meretz party said.

On Sunday, Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet questioned two Jewish activists for alleged support for the Palestinians and their opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Simone Zammerman, an American Jewish activist, was held by at the border between Israel and Egypt for at least three hours on Sunday evening.

Shin Bet agents asked Zimmerman which places she had visited in the West Bank and what she thought of Netanyahu, Haaretz reported.

Zimmerman is a founding member of IfNotNow, a movement that seeks to end the American Jewish community's support for the Israeli occupation.

Jewish activist Abby Kirschbaum was also held and questioned about which protests against Israeli policy she had attended in the Palestinian territories and with which organizations.

In 2017, Zimmerman, who resides in Israel and has a work visa, published a video criticizing an Israeli law barring entry to foreigners who support boycotting Israel or its West Bank settlements.