Right-wing NGO 'Outs' Four Left-wing Activists for 'Protecting Terrorists' in Video Clip
Rightist organization calls Israeli human rights groups’ leaders
'foreign plants who are fighting us.' Meretz MK Rozin demands attorney
general to investigate 'blatant incitement.'
The right-wing non-profit
organization Im Tirtzu on Tuesday publicized a video clip describing
four left-wing activists as protecting terrorists. At the start of the
video a terrorist is seen approaching the camera and pulling out a
knife, with the narrator in the background saying “Next time a terrorist
comes to stab you, he knows that there’s someone who will defend him.”
Afterwards
the clip shows Ishai Menuhin, the executive director of the Public
Committee Against Torture in Israel, who is said to be “a plant of
Holland who protects terrorists from Shin Bet security services
investigations.”
After him
appears Avner Gvaryahu, director of public outreach for Breaking the
Silence, who is said to be “a plant of Germany who calls Israel Defense
Forces soldiers war criminals.” Joining Gvaryahu is attorney Sigi Ben
Ari of Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, and according
to Im Tirtzu: “A plant from Norway who defends terrorists in the courts”
and Hagai Elad, director general of B’Tselem, who is called “a plant of
the European Union who calls Israel a war criminal.”
At
the end of the video the narrator says, “Hagai, Elad, Sigi and Avner
are Israelis, they live here with us but they are plants. While we are
fighting terror they are fighting us. The law against plants can outlaw
them, sign it.”
The video
clip comes in the wake of a draft bill signed by MK Yoav Kish (Likud)
centered on singling out NGOs that receive funding from a foreign
political entity as “plants” of the country that supports them. The
proposal includes an obligation to report on those organizations,
prohibits cooperation between them and government ministries and the
IDF, and will make it possible for the Registrar of NGOs to submit
requests to the court for dismantling them in the event that their goals
or their actions or the actions of those employed by them include
hostile activity against the state.
In
addition, Kish wants to impose a fine of 100,000 shekels ($26,000) on a
“plant” who has violated an obligation. On his Facebook page he wrote:
“A day after the lies and the lowering of the flag at the conference
with Breaking the Silence abroad, the time has come for action, enough!
NPOs that encourage boycotts, incitement and a call to bring IDF
soldiers to an international trial are not organizations that are
important for the internal discourse in the country. These NPOs are
acting to harm Israel in the international arena by disseminating lies
and incitement. This phenomenon must stop.”
In
the wake of the Im Tirtzu video clip MK Michal Rozin (Meretz) sent an
urgent demand to the attorney general to begin an investigation on
suspicion of incitement and said: “The Im Tirtzu ‘plants’ campaign
constitutes blatant incitement and extremism against fighters for
justice and the human rights organizations in whose context they work.
This is libel against the defenders of Israeli democracy, and its
purpose is to terrorize the left-wing organizations. The attempt to
delegitimize and dehumanize all those whose opinions differ from those
of the far right is singling out live targets and calling for targeted
assassination, which will end in violence.”
The
attorney general's office has said that it is examining requests to
investigate the Im Tirtzu video for incitement. Rozin and Hamoked, the
Center for the Defense of the Individual have both asked for a probe, and the latter also expressed intent to file a complaint with the police.
Kish said he objects to the personal campaign of Im Tirtzu.
“The
‘plants’ law that I am leading is an important law in the fight against
NPOs supported by foreign countries that are acting against the State of
Israel and the IDF. These organization use lies, distortions and half
truths, among other things, in the campaign of delegitimization that
they are leading. I support the law and will continue to promote it,” he
said.
However,
Kish added, “I object to the aggressive character of the campaign by the
Im Tirtzu student movement. I don’t relate to the campaign and it isn’t
my way, I deal with the essence. My [proposed] law is one thing and the
Im Tirtzu campaign is another.”
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