On Oct. 18, B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad addressed the UN Security Council about the situation of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

“You are a citizen of the State of Israel who is serving our enemies,” Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon lashed out at El-Ad after his UN speech. “They are using you against us. IDF soldiers guard you, and you came here to defame them. Shame on you.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the speech by the director of El-Ad as a “disgrace.” Opposition Knesset member Yair Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid party, tweeted, “B’Tselem’s speech at the UNSC was a predictable mix of lies, distortions and propaganda.” 

El-Ad responded to the condemnations with an op-ed in Haaretz, writing that the real disgrace was “continuing to oppress and kill the Palestinians. And it’s disgrace to lead Israelis farther and farther down this slope.”

Israeli human rights organizations, B’Tselem among them, are used to almost daily attacks against them. Their leaders, activists and researchers devote themselves to the important tasks they undertake despite the personal toll it often exacts. They are dubbed “radical left” — with “left” having long ago become a dirty word in Israel — traitors, collaborators with the enemy and Israel haters. Some suffer physical violence; others face calls for their citizenship to be revoked. Still, they keep going despite the burning hatred they experience, believing it their duty to show Israelis what they would rather not see — the injustice of 51 years of Israeli occupation.