Hagai El-Ad, director of rights group B'Tselem, was the target of wall-to-wall criticism on Thursday after strongly criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and its "supremacy and oppression" of the Palestinians during a contentious U.N. Security Council meeting.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon responded, accusing El-Ad of staging "a circus" in the council and then in Hebrew telling him: "Shame on you! You are a collaborator!"
That drew a rebuke from Britain's U.N. Ambassador Karen Pierce, who complained that council members could not understand Danon's remarks in Hebrew, which is not one of the U.N.'s official languages.
B'Tselem opposes Israel's Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise and has alleged abuses committed by Israeli soldiers. The rights group also accepts funding from foreign donors including the European Commission and airs its criticism in international venues like the United Nations.
Netanyahu told a recent meeting with Christian media outlets that he defined B'Tselem as "a disgrace."
El-Ad was invited to address the U.N.'s most powerful body by Bolivia, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, and he used his speech to decry "the indignity, the outrage, the pain of the people denied human rights for more than 50 years."
He described how Israel is fragmenting Palestinian land, separating Gaza from the West Bank, walling off east Jerusalem which the Palestinians want as their future capital, and how Israeli courts legalize demolitions of Palestinian homes and the relocation of people.
The Israeli government is "quite expert at constructing this facade of legality which has been very successful at allowing us not to have to deal with any international consequences," El-Ad said. And this has enabled Israel to continue "oppressing millions while it somehow is still being considered a democracy."
He said ongoing efforts to legislate against Israeli human rights organizations "now go hand-in-hand with the routine in which opposition to the occupation is being equated with treason.
"So to president Netanyahu I say this: You will never silence us, nor the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who reject a present founded on supremacy and oppression and stand for a future built on equality, freedom and human rights," El-Ad said.
El-Ad urged the world to "let Israel know that it will no longer stand idly by, that it will take action against the continued dismantling of the Palestinian people."
Danon said B'Tselem was invited by Bolivia, "a country with a terrible human rights record to defame our strong democracy – but it actually had the opposite effect" and proved "the strength of Israel's vibrant democracy.
"I challenge you all, all of you, to find a Palestinian or a Bolivian who could dare defame his government at the Security Council," Danon said. "At best he might be thrown in jail but he would more likely end up dead."
Danon then accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of inspiring a "rampant culture of hate" during his 13 years in office and "enabling an imminent war" between Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Israel.
"Far from a peace partner, Mahmoud Abbas is the obstacle for peace," he said.
Bolivia's deputy U.N. Ambassador Veronica Cordova Soria, who presided over the meeting, had a message for El-Ad when she spoke.
"On behalf of this council I want to apologize for the way he was mistreated today," she told members. "We're not here to discuss Bolivia's human rights."
In response to El-Ad's statements, Netanyahu said: "At the same time that our soldiers are preparing to defend Israel's security, B'Tselem's director chooses to give a speech full of lies in an attempt to aid the enemies of Israel. B'Tselem's conduct is a disgrace that will be remembered as a brief, fleeting episode in the annals of our nation."
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid also accused El-Ad of delivering a "speech laden with lies, distortions and propaganda."
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev (Likud) said, "Hagai El-Ad has joined the Trojan horses from the Joint Arab List whose entire goal is to harm Israel."
Zionist Union MK Ayelet Nahmias Verbin said Hagai's "one-sided texts" were "deserving of every condemnation."
Even U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley decried El-Ad's comments as "one-sided."
