On Sunday, we woke up to the news that six Israeli hostages were executed by Hamas, just before soldiers reached them in a tunnel in Gaza. Another six, added to tens of thousands of people in this land who should not have died over the past year. During this week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets. They feel angry, desperate and betrayed by their government. They have understood, perhaps for the first time, that the Israeli government does not want to return the hostages in a deal, but to continue the war indefinitely. They see that the occupation and the settlements matter more than human life – and not only of Palestinians, said B‘Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak, who addressed the UN Security Council last night (Wednesday) . B’Tselem – the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was invited by the Slovenian President of the Security Council to provide an expert review of the state of human rights in Israel/Palestine following the war.
Archiv: B’Tselem (organization)
Deranged Member of Knesset and guardian angel of rapists Tally Gotliv, of the Likud, calls for the execution or life imprisonment of Yuli Novak from @btselem , following Novak‘s speech at the UNSC.
‘Assistance to Enemy in War’ – Israeli MK Requests Death Penalty for B’Tselem’s Director
The Israeli Likud Party Knesset Member Revital Gotliv requested the death sentence or life imprisonment for Yuli Novak, the executive director of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, for what she labeled as “the suspected serious crime of assistance to the enemy in war,” the Anadolu news agency reported.
Gotliv reportedly made her request in a letter addressed to the Israeli Chief Police Commissioner Daniel Levy, in which she demanded the detention and interrogation of Novak.
The move followed a speech delivered by Novak on September 4 at the United Nations Security Council.
Israel-based civil society and human rights organizations call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the immediate release of hostages
We, the undersigned Israel-based civil society and human rights organizations, call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demand the immediate release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. An immediate ceasefire will prevent further loss of civilian lives and facilitate access to vital aid for Gaza to address the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe there.
Civil Society and Human Rights Organizations in Israel Called for a Ceasefire
Among the civil society and human rights organizations who signed the statement: Akevot – Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, Amnesty International Israel, Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Combatants for Peace, Emek Shaveh, Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, Green Olive Collective, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Haqel – In Defense of Human Rights, Ir Amim, Isha L’isha Haifa Feminist Center, Jordan Valley Activists, Looking the Occupation in the Eye, Machsom Watch, Mothers Against Violence, New Profile – The Movement to Demilitarize Israeli Society, Parents Against Child Detention, Peace Now. Physicians for Human Rights PsychoActive – Mental Health Professionals for Human Rights, Rabbis for Human Rights, Rea’cha Kamocha, Social Workers for Peace and Welfare, Standing Together, This Is Not an Ulpan, Torat Tzedek, Yesh Din, Yesh Gvul and Zazim – Community Action.
In Israel’s killing of 3 hostages, some see the same excessive force directed at Palestinians
Israelis were left stunned and speechless when three hostages held by Hamas were killed by Israeli forces in the middle of an active war zone after they waved a white flag and screamed out in Hebrew to show they did not pose a threat.
For some, the incident was a shocking example of the ugliness of war, where a complex and dangerous battlefield is safe for no one. But for critics, the incident underscores what they say is the excessively violent conduct of Israel’s security apparatus against Palestinians.
Dear President Biden: The humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip
(12.12.2023)
Dear President Biden,
The war in the Gaza Strip has been underway for more than nine weeks, ever since Hamas carried out its horrific and criminal attack on Israeli civilians, which included killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping some 250 to Gaza – among them Israeli civilians, foreign nationals and children. Immediately after the attack, and in a speech you later gave in Israel, you made it clear that Israel has the right to defend itself, while emphasizing it must do so only in accordance with the provisions of international law, and particularly the rules of war.
We, Israeli human rights organizations and civil society groups, must at this stage state with a heavy heart that our government has chosen to ignore your advice and similar statements by US officials. This letter does not address the grave suspicions of Israeli violations of international humanitarian law during the war, but centers on the extreme humanitarian crisis developing in Gaza and the urgent need to change Israel’s policy on this issue.
Israeli Human Rights Organizations to President Biden: Stop the Humanitarian Catastrophe
(13.12.2023)
Among the signatories: Academia for Equality, Akevot – Institute for Israeli Palestinian Conflict Research, B’Tselem, Bimkom, Breaking the Silence, Combatants for Peace, Gisha, HaMoked – Center for the Defense of the Individual, Jordan Valley Activists, Looking the Occupation in the Eye, Machsom Watch, Parents Against Child Detentions, Psychoative, Rabbis for Human Rights, Social Workers for Peace and Welfare, Yesh Din and Zazim -Community Action.
Life in the Gaza Strip right now is an unimaginable nightmare, as the result of a deliberate Israeli policy. Millions of residents are dangerously overcrowded in inhuman conditions – without water, food, medicine or fuel – and hospitals that have collapsed. >
All of this under unprecedented and relentless Israeli bombings. The situation is deteriorating and aid organizations are almost incapable of helping. This isn’t the war’s biproduct, it’s the deliberate outcome of Israel’s policy – a manufactured humanitarian catastrophe. >
Our analysis of the policy over the past two months:
https://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20231207_humanitarian_catastrophe_as_policy
The Gaza-ification of the West Bank
(November 1, 2023)
And also just to be very clear, everything that I’ve been describing, all of these various mechanisms that the state has been using, are backed by Israeli courts, and backed by the Israeli legal system. This is not some random phenomena that is happening uniquely to a single unlucky community far from the eyes of the state. On the contrary, this is part of an ongoing Israeli state project of trying to push, to cleanse, as many Palestinians out of Area C, using all available state mechanisms in order to accomplish this goal. (…)
There are checkpoints. There are threats. And all this goes on for years. And yet somehow you managed to stay on the land and make a living and try to raise a family under these conditions. And that in and of itself is horrific and criminal and appalling, and also happens in broad daylight. Everything I’ve been talking about now and describing has been documented for years already by Palestinian, Israeli, and international human-rights organizations. But Israel never relented and never stopped because, as I said, it’s part of the state’s goal to accomplish that. What has escalated in recent weeks is that you have repeated reports of masked men showing up in the middle of the night. Armed, masked men.
Maybe they are settlers, maybe they’re soldiers, maybe they’re a mix. And they openly threaten the people in the community and tell them that they have twenty-four hours to leave, and if you say otherwise we would wipe you out.
Peace activist Vivian Silver, former board member of B‘Tselem, cofounder of Women Wage Peace, and member of Road to Recovery & rozana has passed away due to the massacre on the 7th. May her memory be a blessing, and serve as a reminder of what we should strive for; peace & unity.
توثيق: مستوطنون يضرمون النار في محلات تجارية وسيارات على مدخل قرية دير شرف في محافظة نابلس، مقطع فيديو من قبل ساعة.
תיעוד: מתנחלים מציתים חנויות ומכוניות בכניסה לכפר דיר שרף באזור שכם, התיעוד מלפני שעה קלה
Video: settlers torching shops and cars at the entrance to the village Deir Sharf, Nablus area, a short while ago
(2 hours ago)
Voices from Gaza
Residents of the Gaza Strip live in a humanitarian disaster zone. This entirely man-made disaster is a direct result of a policy employed by Israel, which, to this day, continues to dictate what daily life in Gaza looks like. This callous, unjustifiable policy sentences the nearly two million residents of the Gaza Strip to a life of abject poverty in near inhuman conditions no longer seen in the Western world. In testimonies collected by B‘Tselem‘s field researchers, residents of the Gaza Strip describe their lives, the dreams they will not get to realize, the medical conditions they have no way of treating, the ongoing separation from family members and friends outside the Strip, and the unbearable suffering caused by their confinement to the Strip, with no hope for change.
Human Rights Organizations raise a loud and clear voice against the harming of all innocent civilians
12 October 2023
We, members of the undersigned human rights organizations in Israel, are shocked and horrified in these dreadful days.
Hamas’ horrific crimes against innocent civilians – including children, women, and the elderly – have shaken us all, and we are struggling to recover from the unbearable sights and sounds. Some of us were in the Israeli communities on the Gaza border during the assault; many of us have family, friends, and colleagues who endured and are still in the midst of the harrowing events; and we all know people who were murdered, injured, or abducted. It will take time to fully understand the implications and consequences of Hamas’ heinous attack, for which there can be no justification.
Statement by members of the human rights community in Israel
(13.10.2023)
We call for the immediate release of all hostages and an end to the bombardment of civilians in Israel and in Gaza. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach civilian populations, medical facilities and places of refuge must not be harmed, and vital resources such as water and electricity must not be cut off. The killing of additional civilians will not bring back those who were lost. Indiscriminate destruction and a siege harming innocents will not bring relief, justice, or calm.
Announcement of human rights organizations in Israel, October 2023
(15.10.2023)
As individuals working to promote human rights and who believe in the sanctity of life, we urgently call for an end to all indiscriminate harming of civilian lives and infrastructure. We call for negotiations and all possible action to be taken to bring about the release of the hostages – while prioritizing the civilians held by Hamas. It is the only humane and rational thing to do, and it must be done now.
We, Members of the Undersigned Human Rights Organizations in Israel, are Shocked and Horrified.
(15.10.2023)
Most of our teams include Israelis and Palestinians; therefore, some of us have relatives and colleagues in Gaza currently living under the ongoing assault of the Israeli military. Children, women, and the elderly are being indiscriminately attacked with nowhere to hide.
Even now – especially now – we must maintain our moral and humane position and refuse to give in to despair or the urge for vengeance. Keeping our faith in the human spirit and its inherent goodness is more vital than ever. One thing is clear: We will never surrender our belief in humanity – even now, when doing so is more challenging than ever.
Human Rights Organizations, MK Cassif Raise a Clear Voice Against the Harming of Civilians
Among the signatories to the declaration: Mothers Against Violence, Itach Ma’aki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice, Academy for Equality, Amnesty International Israel, BIMKOM – Planners for Planning Rights, B’Tselem, Gisha, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Parents Against Child Detention, Hamoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, Zazim – Community Action, Haqel – In Defense of Human Rights, Yesh Din, Yesh Gvul, Combatants for Peace, Mehazkim, Machsom Watch, Women Wage Peace , Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, Standing Together, Ir Amim, Emek Shaveh, The Parents Circle-Families Forum, Rabbis for Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, Breaking the Silence and Torat Tzedek.
Human rights organizations in Israel condemn vicious attacks on Amnesty International
Signed,
Adalah, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Combatants for Peace, Gisha, HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, Haqel: In Defence of Human Rights, Human Rights Defenders Fund, Ofek: The Israeli Center for Public Affairs, Parents Against Child Detention, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, The Public Committee Against Torture In
Israel, and Yesh Din
B‘Tselem welcomes Amnesty International‘s new report, calling the Israeli regime what it is: apartheid.
This is an essential step in the struggle to change this reality, towards a future where all people living here will enjoy justice, equality and respect for their human rights.
The panic sounded by Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid, as well as the false claims made by various Israeli “Hasbara” organizations, as if the report is an attempt to deny the State of Israel’s right to exist, reveal their stance – that a regime of Jewish supremacy is justifiable, and should be perpetuated. Yet, the demand for equality and for the protection of human rights for all, threatens only those opposed to these values. The claim that this demand causes them harm makes it abundantly clear which side they have chosen.
French FM warns Israel of ‚risk of apartheid‘
The official‘s rhetoric echoes recent reports by the Israeli B‘Tselem rights group, as well as by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) organization, both of which accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to a multi-tiered regime of discrimination not unlike the racist system of governance that held sway in South Africa between 1948 and 1991.
Set up, demolish, repeat: Israel targets Bedouin tent community
Israeli rights group B‘Tselem has accused Israel of creating „a Kafkaesque reality that leaves Palestinians almost no way to build legally“.
בצלם עם פרסום תוכנית טראמפ: לא שלום – אפרטהייד
תוכנית הממשל האמריקאי הממותגת כ“דיל המאה“ היא גבינה שוויצרית במסגרתה מציע הנשיא טראמפ להעניק לישראלים את הגבינה ולפלסטינים את החורים. ישנן דרכים רבות לסיים את הכיבוש, אבל האפשרויות הלגיטימיות היחידות הן אלו המבוססות על שוויון וזכויות אדם לכולם. לכן, התוכנית הנוכחית – שמכשירה, מקבעת ואף מרחיבה את היקף הפרות זכויות האדם שביצעה ישראל ב-52 השנים האחרונות – אינה חלופה מתקבלת על הדעת.
B‘Tselem on President Trump‘s „peace“ plan: not peace, Apartheid
The American administration’s plan branded as the “Deal of the Century” is more like Swiss cheese, with the cheese being offered to the Israelis and the holes to the Palestinians. There are many ways to end the occupation, but the only legitimate options are those based on equality and human rights for all. This is why the current plan which legitimizes, entrenches and even expands the scope of Israel’s human rights abuses, perpetuated now for over 52 years, is utterly unacceptable.
Israeli human rights group @btselem describes the Trump administration plan as „apartheid“, rather than „peace“. „The Trump plan drains the principles of international law of any meaning and completely neuters the concept of accountability for breaching them.“
Hagai El-Ad‘s address at the United Nations Security Council, 18 Oct. 2018
The rules-based international order will not defend itself. And the successful fragmentation of Palestine is detrimental to both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as to international law and the values enshrined in it. It is the role of the UN Security Council – your delegations, seated in this chamber – to oversee precisely that. The stakes are high. The Security Council must take action. In fact, it has already decided to do so, even if in a very limited fashion. However, it is a matter of record that the Secretary General has so far had little to report to the Council on the implementation of Article 5 of Resolution 2334.
Israeli envoy fumes at unprecedented invite to B’Tselem by UN Security Council
El-Ad was invited by Bolivia, currently presiding over the council, to represent Israeli civil society in a periodic session Thursday, October 18, on the state of the Middle East conflict.
B‘Tselem Invited to Appear Before UN Security Council
‚Violations that occur in the occupied territories, outside of the official borders of the state, are certainly of international concern,‘ says B‘Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad