The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories

Obviously as Israel is doing such a good job of ruining its own reputation that they have to "shoot the messenger,"

As for the IDF being the "... most moral army in the world," I'd laugh if so much cruelty had not been committed by the war criminals of the IDF. Crimes such as forcing neighbours of suspected insurgents to search homes to counter booby traps, indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilian areas, attempting to murder their own captured troops.

Israel can't have the truth about it spread around gor all to see.

It's far easier to kneecap the truth tellers as much as possible than own up to your sins.

Any idea how many " National-Civilian Service volunteers work in its organization " before this ban ? ..........

One !!!

Who is Sar Shalom Jerbi ?

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1247



More ...

Israel blocks rights group as alternative to military service

Reuters) - Israel has disqualified its foremost human rights group as a volunteer option for youths who choose civilian national service over military conscription, officials said on Thursday, citing the group's criticism of the Gaza offensive.

The government move against B'Tselem, while unlikely to affect the group's operations, reflected growing anger within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist coalition at Israeli activism it sees as stoking pro-Palestinian sympathy.

Hoping to close ranks with minority Arab citizens and ultra-Orthodox Jews exempted from the draft for ideological reasons, and to accommodate pacifists, Israel has been sponsoring alternative service in public bodies like education and health.

Civilian national service volunteers have their living expenses covered by the state and later become eligible for benefits akin to those extended to discharged soldiers.

The government's National-Civic Service Authority said it would stop providing staff for B'Tselem after the group argued that some military strikes in Gaza, where 1,945 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died in a month-old war, were illegal.

B'Tselem currently has one national service volunteer, authority director Sar-Shalom Jerbi told Israel's Channel 2 TV.

"The volunteers represent one camp, in that they want to contribute to the country, to society and to their community," Jerbi said. "B'Tselem crossed the line in wartime (by) campaigning and inciting against the State of Israel and the Israel Defence Force, which is the most moral of armies."

B'Tselem director Haggai Elad, responding in the broadcast, described the ban as politically motivated and undemocratic.

"We act out of a deep commitment to the values of the society we are part of," Elad said, calling on Uri Orbach, the government minister in charge of the Authority for National-Civic Service, to overturn the decision.

Orbach, a member of the ultranationalist Jewish Home party in Netanyahu's government, was unmoved.

"Israel is in the midst of a difficult military and diplomatic campaign against terrorists," he said in a statement, referring to Hamas-led Gaza guerrillas who have killed 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians inside the Jewish state.

"An organization that works to prove allegations that Israel is committing war crimes should be so good as to do so with its own resources and not with civilian national service volunteers and state funds."

Rightist lawmakers have been advancing legislation to trim foreign funding for advocacy groups they view as encouraging international censure of Israeli policies toward Palestinians. Left-wing lawmakers fear an attempt to stifle domestic dissent.

A new investigation by the U.N. Human Rights Council into possible war crimes committed by either side has been dismissed as a "kangaroo court" by Israel.

During the Gaza fighting, Israel's state broadcaster rejected a B'Tselem request to air the names of slain Palestinian children. The group appealed to the High Court of Justice, which upheld the broadcaster's decision on Wednesday.

"Reading the names of the children who died, even though one's heart goes out to them, has a political goal and is not for informative purposes only," the court said in its ruling.

source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/14/us-mideast-gaza-israel-rights-idUSKBN0GE1V420140814

Cant blame the religious Right for trying ....can you ???

Doesn't go well with free speech or freedom.

has anything to do with " free speech or freedom " King_David......or Democracy .

Got something for you .....:

Gevalt, anti-Semitism!

Since its establishment, more Jews were hurt in wars and terror attacks in Israel than anywhere else. The war in Gaza endangered world Jews as well, as no other war has before it.

By Gideon Levy

Israel is today the most dangerous place in the world for Jews. Since its establishment, more Jews were hurt in wars and terror attacks that took place in Israel than anywhere else. The war in Gaza took this one step backward – it endangered world Jews as well, as no other war has before it. The Jewish home, the national refuge, not only doesn’t provide refuge, but even threatens Jews everywhere else. When you tote up the results of the war, include that too in the loss column.

A wave of animosity is washing over world public opinion. In contrast to the complacent, blind, smug Israeli public opinion, people abroad saw the pictures in Gaza and were aghast. No conscientious person could have remained unaffected. The shock was translated into hatred toward the state that did all that, and in extreme cases the hatred also awakened anti-Semitism from its lair. Yes, there is anti-Semitism in the world, even in the 21st century, and Israel has fueled it. Israel provided it with abundant excuses for hatred.

But not every anti-Israeli sentiment is anti-Semitism. The opposite is true – most of the criticism of Israel is still substantive and moral. Anti-Semitism, racist as any national hatred, popped up on the sidelines of this criticism – and Israel is indirectly responsible for its appearance.

But Israel and the Diaspora Jewish establishment automatically tag any criticism as anti-Semitic. It’s an old trick – the burden of guilt is shifted from those who perpetrated the Gaza horrors to those who are tainted with so-called anti-Semitism. It’s not us, it’s you, anti-Semitic world. No matter what Israel does, the whole world is against it.

This is nonsense, of course. Just as not every policeman who gives a Jewish driver a traffic ticket is an anti-Semite, as the Jewish organizations try to put it, and not every robbery of a rabbi is a hate crime, so not every criticism of Israel is motivated by hatred of Jews.

These organizations have become the lightning rods of the criticism of Israel and they have brought it on themselves. This is the price of their blind support of Israel, their noisy propaganda campaigns in Israel’s name, their turning of every Jewish community center into a PR agency for Israel, and their unanimous support for everything Israel does. We’re all one people, they say. In that case, if every Jew who dares to censure Israel, even when it’s involved in brutal conduct, is a self-hating Jew – then everyone bears responsibility.

Quite a few Jews abroad sent me frightened messages during the war, pleading me to stop writing my articles, cease my criticism, because the anti-Semites use them. I replied to all of them that all my articles together haven’t affected Israel’s status as much as one news report from Gaza. I also know many who still harbor sympathy for Israel precisely because of the remnants here of a free society, one that allows criticism.

In any case, the address for the Jews’ fear should be the State of Israel. Many Jews now feel afraid. Part of the fear may be exaggerated, part of it is justified. It seems to me that being a Muslim in Europe is still harder than being a Jew. But in Paris, Jews don’t dare wear a kippa, in Belgium a woman wasn’t allowed into a store because she was Jewish and a French journalist who visited Algiers last week told me that the hatred for Israel and the Jews in France has reached an all-time high.

The address for all the complaints is Israel, because Israel is the one to blame for Gaza.

Whoever is afraid for the Jews’ fate, whoever is shocked by the anti-Semitic incidents, should have thought about it before taking Israel to another runaway war. The world isn’t always against Israel. Suffice it to remember Israel’s status during the Oslo period, when the entire world cheered it, including parts of the Arab world. This world will be happy to embrace Israel again, if this country only changes its bullying, domineering behavior.

Gevalt, anti-Semitism? Maybe. But Israel is supplying the fuse.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.610481

There are a lot of Jews affected by everyday life . Happens in NYC too.