The Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed last July a draft law, after the final reading, designed to restrict the work of Israeli human rights and other civil society groups that track the occupation crimes and receive funding from western states and international organisations. The law amounts to an act of incitement, posing a threat to the life of Israeli activists (both Jews and Arabs) opposed to the occupation of Palestinian lands. It is a law that discriminates against such civil liberal and progressive groups supporting the rights of Palestinians in the 1948 areas, while extremist far-right associations remain untouched by such restrictions.
On top of these centres and groups comes the ‘Breaking the Silence’ movement founded by Israeli soldiers and reserve officers in 2002, bringing to the public testimonies on crimes and abuse committed against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Other groups include the ‘Rabbis for Human Rights’ organisation, the ‘Peace Now’ movement, tracking the colony activities, the Israeli ‘Public Committee against Torture’, the ‘Association for Civil Rights in Israel’ and the ‘Yesh Din’ organisation that works to improve human rights in the Occupied Territories that involve engaging in advocacy with Israeli authorities and taking legal action in certain situations. B’tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, is the most targeted being the group that monitors the Israeli occupation crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank, occupied Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
A report published by liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz said all these centres and associations regard the law and statements against them as part of a campaign spearheaded by the state’s leaders with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on top. The report said that activists have long been feeling that they are facing an attempt to delegitimise their activities and that the daily tracking has turned into an operation of chase and suppression and attempts of intimidation to silence them. Ishai Menuhim, director of the ‘Public Committee against Torture’ declared that he had received death threats from the right-wing Im Tirtzu organisation, which launched a campaign against human rights activists, accusing them of being ‘moles’. ‘Breaking the Silence’ Public relations coordinator Nadav Weiman also said he had received phone calls threatening to kill him with his wife as well as the family’s dog. Arik Aschemran, co-founder of the Rabbis for Human Rights’, was also attacked and physically harmed by a Jewish colonist.
The assault on B’tselem — in which Netanyahu and a number of Israeli politicians took part, accusing the organisation of siding with opponents of Israel — came after its representatives and others from ‘Americans for Peace Now’ spoke at a special discussion of political settlement at the UN Security Council, saying that occupation and Jewish colonies are the causes behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. B’tselem executive director Hagai Al Ad told the meeting that the occupation of Palestinian lands is a legal guise for Israel’s organised violence. He said “for the past 49 years and counting, the injustice known as the occupation of Palestine and Israeli control of Palestinian lives in Gaza, the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem has become part of the international order. The first half century of this reality will soon be over. On behalf of B’tselem the Israeli Centre for Information for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, I implore you today to take action. Anything short of decisive international action will achieve nothing but usher in the second half of the first century of the occupation.”
Al Ad was slammed for his remarks and Netanyahu reacted by announcing he will act to amend “the national service” law so that young Israelis will no longer be able to serve at B’tselem. His notorious Justice Minister, Elite Shaked, accused B’tselem of being part of a campaign to delegitimise Israel, while Zeev Elkin, the Minister for Occupied Jerusalem Affairs, said that B’tselem pours oil on the fire of incitement against Israel in the world and it should be deprived of any tax privileges.
On the other side, the White House, along with other Israeli as well as European voices denouncing such an assault, criticised Netanyahu’s attack on B’tselem. US State Department spokesman John Kirby said “we believe it is important that governments protect the freedoms of expression and create an atmosphere where all voices can be heard. He added: “We believe that a free and unfettered civil society is a critical component of democracy”. The most remarkable comment, however, came in a very revealing editorial in Haaretz, which said that “the assault on Al Ad shows the low level to which Israel’s democracy has fallen under the Likud government and the threat it is facing”. The newspaper added, “With the fact that [there are] Knesset members from the Zionist camp, including Yair Lepid, who themselves should have spoken against the occupation, the picture grows much darker”. The editorial concluded, “B’tselem and similar organisations, only contribute to demonstrating an image of Israel in the world as a state that still has the democratic elements in civil activism for human rights. Israel’s politicians and policies in the Occupied Territories, the newspaper noted, are responsible for the other image of Israel as a pariah state. Netanyahu, Haaretz said, is the one causing damage to this image and not Hagai Al Ad”.
— Professor As’ad Abdul Rahman is the chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia.
