The Israeli occupation of the territories has engendered dozens of human rights organizations and peace movements over the years, and its political right spreads libel about each one. Peace Now “informs” on settlers and their associates. B'Tselem “poisons” the media by spreading video clips showing settlers abusing Palestinians. Yesh Din “snitches” on Jews who “merely” reminded their Arab neighbors who's boss in “Judea and Samaria.” Taayush “collaborates” with “the enemy” — non-Jews who refuse to remove themselves from the land "promised" to the people of Israel. And so on and so forth — some are a “fifth column," and others “Israel haters” and “petty leftists.” But only the activists of one organization, Breaking the Silence, have the dubious honor of being labeled “traitors.” That organization, which has documented and published testimony by military veterans about human rights violations in the territories since 2004, draws more fire than all the other organizations put together.

The Israeli right does not consider the term “occupation” a legitimate one. Thus, any person or organization that defines itself as an activist against the occupation is considered illegitimate. But over the past year, Breaking the Silence has become anathema even in the talking points of Yesh Atid, and the unrestrained incitement against the organization is usually greeted by silence from Labor.

There are those who explain that the reason this group of former soldiers has become the punching bag of the country stems from the fact that it is no longer limiting itself to activity within Israel’s borders. Not only does it publish reports in Hebrew, it translates them into English, gets funding from foreign organizations and individuals, and appears before foreign parliaments. To put it bluntly, many believe that dirty laundry should be washed at home. Not in the foreign media, not in the offices of the European Union in Brussels and not in testimony before an investigative panel of the UN Human Rights Committee. By the same logic, even if the average Israeli concedes that the occupation is a pollutant, he must put up with the smell. A good Israeli must shut the windows and keep the stench at home.

Or perhaps it’s the sensitivity around state secrets that stung Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that the nongovernmental organization is being investigated for trying to obtain classified information. If his record on the subject is anything to go by, Netanyahu would never have been accepted into his own security detail. In June 1995, for example, the young lawmaker disclosed a secret document compiled by a senior officer in the planning department of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The document detailed the security arrangements that Israel should demand from Syria in negotiations for a peace agreement. At the time, Netanyahu called the leaker a “patriot.” In September 2007, as opposition leader, Netanyahu broke Israel’s official policy of silence on the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Syria. In August 2014, this time as prime minister, Netanyahu’s name came up in the media as the possible source of a secret presentation shown at a Cabinet meeting. Among his other reasons for refusing to order an investigation of the prime minister, then-Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein cited the possibility that the move would entail questioning very senior Israeli public figures.