ISRAEL: Thousands protest against parliament investigation into Israeli human rights groups

Record ID: 396696

  • Title: ISRAEL: Thousands protest against parliament investigation into Israeli human rights groups
  • Date: 16th January 2011
  • Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (JANUARY 15, 2011) (REUTERS) NIGHT SHOTS VARIOUS OF THOUSANDS OF ISRAELIS DEMONSTRATING AGAINST INITIATIVE TO ESTABLISH A PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE FUNDING OF LEFT-WING NGOS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS (3 SHOTS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR GENERAL OF 'PEACE NOW', YARIV OPENHEIMER, SAYING: "We came to protest against the new legi
  • Embargoed: 31st January 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel, Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA580G797P04INUALJ9FUFN6E1L
  • Story Text: Thousands of Israelis on Saturday (January 15) demonstrated against the Israeli Parliament's decision to probe Israeli Human Rights groups.
    The protest followed Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's recent initiative to establish a Parliamentary committee to investigate funding for several left-wing NGOs.
    Yariv Openheimer, director general of Peace Now, an Israeli left-wing NGO, said the Israeli government wants to stop NGOs from exposing the reality in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
    "We came to protest against the new legislation in the Knesset leading by Lieberman and Netanyahu in order to stop democratic life in Israel and to investigate NGOs and human rights activists for their activity to expose the reality in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip."
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused human rights groups collectively of demonstrating "hypocrisy" toward Israel.
    In a speech to U.S. Jews, Netanyahu said such groups "turn a blind eye to the most repressive regimes in the world, regimes that stone women and hang gays," but target a nation he said was "the only liberal democracy in the Middle East."
    Adam Keller, spokesperson for Gush Shalom, another left-wing NGO, said the current government threatens Israeli democracy.
    "There is a very big danger to Israeli democracy and to the future of this country because we have a government where there is a dominant presence of racists and anti-democratic people and some of them really are outright fascists."
    Several organizations, including political parties and human rights groups, marched under the title "The Democratic Camp" against what they said is the Israeli government's attack on Israeli democracy led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
    Some 2.4 million Palestinians live in the West Bank alongside more than 400,000 settlers. The World Court has described settlements built on land Israel occupied in 1967 as illegal.
    Palestinians want the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for their future state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel says all of Jerusalem is its "eternal and undivided" capital, but this is not recognized internationally.
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