B’Tselem slammed over UN appearance
An Israeli human rights group has caused a furore, for lambasting Jerusalem’s policies from the podium of the UN Security Council.
An Israeli human rights group has caused a furore, for lambasting Jerusalem’s policies from the podium of the UN Security Council.
The anti-settlement group B’Tselem joined “the choir of slander against Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fumed, and as far as Itzik Shmueli of the dovish Zionist Union was concerned, it helped to advance “the libel and demonisation of Israel”.
B’Tselem’s director Hagai El-Ad addressed the Security Council for more than 20 minutes, urging its members to take the situation into their own hands and push Israel to end what he called “the injustice known as the occupation of Palestine”.
He spoke at a meeting, convened by Egypt and other critics of Israel with the brief of discussing settlements as “the obstacle to peace and a two-state solution.”
Jerusalem’s nightmare scenario is the Security Council passing a resolution demanding Israeli withdrawal from areas captured in 1967 – and El-Ad appeared to call for exactly this course of action. He told Security Council members that they have “more than just power: you have a moral responsibility” to change the situation. “The rights of Palestinians must be realised; the occupation must end; the UN Security Council must act; and the time is now.”
The other speakers were Lara Friedman from Peace Now’s American arm, and François Dubuisson, a law professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles who likened Israel to apartheid South Africa. Officials from various countries including Russia, France and Britain spoke out against Israeli policy at the meeting, and American representative David Pressman described settlements as “corrosive to peace.”
Netanyahu quickly announced a punishment for B’Tselem’s participation in the meeting: he will legislate so that it can no longer have young Israelis helping the organisation as part of their national service. B’Tselem’s spokesman Amit Gilutz dismissed this move as “media spin,” saying that in the 27 years since the organisation was founded, it has only had three national service volunteers.
He told The AJN that B’Tselem accepts that its UN appearance was unpopular, but stands by its decision to go. “We’re not in a position that is to be popular, that’s not our job,” Gilutz said, “We have the ungrateful task of holding a mirror to Israel, and this generates anger and friction.”
But B’Tselem’s long-time critic the NGO Monitor watchdog organisation has called the organisation’s agenda into question, saying that its appearance at the Security Council is an example of how the foreign funding it receives is “exploited for political warfare, far removed from genuine concern for human rights”.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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