Btselem regrets to inform the public that it has reached the age of 20.At the bottom was an invitation to join them in tours they're giving. I signed up to a tour of Hebron, next week.
We're sick of it. And you're sick of us. But four million people in the Occupied Territories still lack their rights, and they're even more sick of it.
When they live in dignity and freedom, we'll leave. We promise.
You can disagree with much that Btselem does - I certainly do - but they're trying to fix what they percieve as wrong in their own society, and they live here to pay the price when they're wrong. You've got to respect that, at least. They aren't the same as the International Intervention Brigade.
I agree with your sentiment, that they at least live in Israel and pay the price (and that's another story - is the price so bad??) but the flip side is that they spend a lot of effort trying to get negative views about Israel reported in the foreign press.
ReplyDeleteI would say they are no different than the Viet Cong prepared to wait 400 years if need be to topple the south and install a communist regime. Of course they live in Israel. Who else would have them? The Arabs?
ReplyDeletethey are sponsored by EU countries and then the EU (Germany i.e.) cites them to justify de facto an economic embargo on Israel's goods. I think, this is far from my understanding of moral. Here the links, sorry, only in german here
ReplyDeleteand here
O. Bender
Yaacov,
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to get a report back on the experience after your tour.
They aren't the same as the International Intervention Brigade
ReplyDeleteRegret to inform you -- B'Tselem is part of the International Intervention Brigade. The organization is funded by the same European governments that normally slam Israel, plus a few progressive churches and one or two extreme leftwing Jews. The field work is done by corageous Arabs who are the ones who get beaten by the soldiers they film.
There's little Israeli about B'Tselem. If it were up to the Israelis, it would have gone out of business a looong while ago.
So that you can cancel that trip to Hebron. You were not going there to learn anything but to work out how you could whitewash what you'd see, anyway.
You know what, Fake-Ibrahim? Come and join me on the tour, and we'll argue about it. It's next Wednesday. If you can't come that soon, tell me when you can and I'll reschedule it accordingly.
ReplyDeleteWhat, you've never been here? Not even once?
Yaacov,
ReplyDeleteThere's an new NGO Monitor Report here
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/trojan_horse_the_impact_of_european_government_funding_for_israeli_ngos
Only the executive summary is available in English, so I'm reluctant to make any comments.
I would like to hear your views, especially after the tour.
"There's little Israeli about B'Tselem. "
ReplyDelete"Fake Ibrahaim" (or the man who claimed "All Israeli Jews are racists" on Elder of Ziyon), did you support B'Tselem's opionion on Goldstone? Or was that too much of an 'Israeli response' for you?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1130954.html
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259243045210&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259243065320&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/rosner/entry/gerald_steinberg_on_european_funding
Which might raise the question of how B'tselem maintains at least a partial Israeli identity, unlike some othe the other organization.
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/professor_gerald_steinberg_s_knesset_speech
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/funding_of_political_activities_in_israel_by_foreign_states_preliminary_remarks_from_the_viewpoint_of_international_law