Israel: Human Rights Defenders in the collimator

Harshly criticized by some ministers and harassed by the authorities, stigmatized by the extreme right and vilified in several media, associations defending human rights in Israel are facing a campaign of unprecedented vilification.

•    "We increasingly face of plague in the climate that took place following the attack on Ghaza a year ago and the international outcry it caused," said the spokesman for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Nirit Moskowitz. 
  
     "We find ourselves accused of collaborating with the enemy for providing evidence to the Goldstone Commission of the UN," she protested. 
  
     The committee chaired by South African judge Richard Goldstone, appointed by the UN accused Israel and Palestinian armed groups of war crimes during the Israeli offensive in Ghaza from 27 December 2008 to January 18, 2009, which caused 1450 dead among Palestinians and 13 Israelis. 
  
     "We've made our contribution to this committee because the government has refused to establish an independent commission of inquiry on violations of the laws of war" during the operation, says Moskowitz. 
  
     Thirteen of the largest NGOs in Israel, including ACRI, denounced last week a "systematic campaign" against them. 
  
     They complain of summons to some of their members by the Shin Beth, the internal security service or police. They also protest against inflammatory statements by some ministers. 
  
     The Minister for Strategic Affairs, Moshe Yaalon, has accused the defenders of human rights "to destroy Israel from inside." 
  
     After the Goldstone report, a nationalist organization, Im Tirtzu, has violently attacked the New Israel Fund (NIF), a charity, with a budget of 12 million Euros, which raises funds to finance projects of humanitarian organizations, some NGOs were attacked. 
  
     According Im Tirtzu, "92% of the testimonies provided to the Goldstone Commission" came from NGOs funded by the NIF. 
  
     The popular daily Maariv took over by accusing the "heirs of the Zionist left to support those who deny the right of existence of Israel." 
  
     A member of the opposition party Kadima (centrist), Othniel Schneller, wants even to file a bill to end foreign donations made to these NGOs. 
  
     "The criticism is legitimate, but not when it attacks the supreme interests of the state and nation," said that member. 
  
     "The fact that the NIF has a positive effect in the social field does not justify it helps our enemies," argues Schneller. 
  
     On the left, these accusations are vehemently denied. Members of the opposition Labor Party denounced a "McCarthyite campaign. Pressure groups of pro-Israeli settlers are largely funded by American donors, including fundamentalist Christians, they joked. 
  
     "The Israeli right has never been aggressive," said political scientist Zeev Sternhell, himself the target of an attack of extreme-right last year. 
  
     "This is the myth of the « knife in the back of the enemy » which resurfaced, he analysises. The offensive is aimed primarily Israeli organizations engaged in defense of the Palestinians, but also international NGOs. 
  
     They have recently criticized the new restrictions by the Israeli Ministry of Interior in issuing work permits for their active members in the occupied West Bank and the Ghaza strip.
  
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.