The mounting campaign to silence Israel’s human rights organizations

What We’re Reading

From the FMEP Blog

Likud Chairman Threatens Citizenship of B’Tselem’s Executive Director,

The chairman described B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad’s testimony to a special session of the United Nations Security Council on Israeli settlements as “explicit breach of trust by an Israeli citizen against the state, and as such he should find himself another citizenship.”

Israeli politics

Opinion: While Bibi was busy slamming me on Facebook,

“Last week, I laid out the reality of the occupation before the UN Security Council. Thanks to broad media coverage, the important information I presented there also reached many in Israel. Since then, Benjamin Netanyahu has been doing everything in his power to avoid actually responding to what I said,” writes B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad.

Coalition chairman's bill to ban Israelis from speaking at international agencies,

MK David Bitan is seeking to prevent Israelis from addressing international bodies like the UN and imposing sanctions on those who do, claiming that limiting the venues for free expression does not limit the freedom of expression.

Following attacks, B'Tselem donations increase tenfold,

Over 3,700 people have signed on to a call supporting the human rights organization, after the Knesset coalition chair calls to revoke its executive director’s citizenship.

Occupation/Human rights

Opinion: The two-state solution is dead. Let’s move on,

“It’s time for Israelis and Palestinians to recognize that we’ve reached a stalemate: nobody is leaving where they are right now, and the status quo just isn’t pragmatic,” writes Talal Jabari.

Opinion: Opposing the occupation means being anti-Israel, to Netanyahu,

“The Israeli right has worked very hard to erase any distinction between Israel and the occupation — between Ariel and Acre, Hebron and Haifa. Ironically, this is the same thing he accuses Palestinians of trying to do,” writes Mairav Zonszein.

Driving while Palestinian, across the Green Line,

The very nomenclature of ’48 Palestinians and ’67 Palestinians shows how the Nakba remains at the root of Palestinian fragmentation. Roads function as a prime instrument of separation between the two.

Palestinian villages 'get two hours of water a week',

Israeli control over water supplies in the occupied West Bank has left Palestinians desperate.

Gaza

Liberman to Palestinian paper: Israel would ‘completely destroy’ Hamas in next war,

Defense minister says Hamas has spent over $500 million on arms; insists Israel doesn’t seek another war, would rebuild Strip once rockets, tunnels cease.

Gaza agriculture on brink of collapse,

With new Israeli encroachment in the name of security and restrictions on the importation of chemicals and fertilizers, even more of Gaza’s farmers are being forced to abandon their lands despite a near-total lack of other employment options.