The Israeli military is "favorably considering" a request by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel to send a military representative to participate in the group's legal training program, the group said Sunday.
An IDF official confirmed that the military had been approached on the matter, but stressed no decision has been made at this time.
ACRI's website said the program, held in collaboration with the International Red Cross, will focus on international humanitarian law and "many of the high-profile issues in Israel's foreign relations, as well as on the public discourse within Israel that touches on policies pertaining to the occupied territories."
The program, scheduled for March, will include lectures by leading academic experts, the Civil Service, members of international and human rights organizations and the IDF, and will combine "theoretical knowledge, case studies from around the world, and a broad presentation of issues arising from the reality in Israel and the occupied territories," ACRI said.
Shai Glick, head of Betzalmo, which describes itself as a "Jewish human rights organization," urged Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to take action to prevent any military involvement with this program.
"It is clear that this program will focus only on a specific type of human rights – those of terrorists, their families and accomplices and perhaps also Palestinians," Glick wrote in a letter to the defense minister.
"It is delusional for the IDF to even consider sending a representative to a program hosted by an organization that defends terrorists, thus violating human rights. We call on the IDF and the defense minister to sever all ties with an organization that supports terror. This is a gross violation of the terror victims' human rights," he said.
ACRI issued a statement saying, "This is the seventh year that the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Red Cross are holding a training program for attorneys in the field of international humanitarian law."
"Appealing to the defense minister with the aim of undermining the activities of civil rights groups is doomed to fail," the statement went on to say. "Attorney General [Avichai] Mendelblit recently touted the great importance of the activities pursued by such organizations in general and by ACRI in particular, as well as the continued dialogue between these organizations and government authorities. ACRI has made it clear that this year's program will be held as scheduled."
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel is closely affiliated with the New Israel Fund, which sponsors many Israeli left-wing nonprofits, including radical ones.
NGO Monitor, a watchdog group that promotes greater transparency among foreign-funded Israeli nongovernmental organizations, said that between 2012 and 2014, donations from foreign governments and entities comprised 39.6% of the total donations made to ACRI.
According to NGO Monitor's data, between 2008 and 2014, the New Israel Fund authorized grants worth $7.5 million to ACRI.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel is the driving force behind dozens of High Court of Justice petitions filed against the IDF's counterterrorism policies and the construction of the security fence in the greater Jerusalem area. During the last wave of terrorism, ACRI called on the attorney general to launch investigations against soldiers and civilians who killed terrorists. ACRI attorneys also represent Palestinian terrorists jailed in Israel on matters regarding the conditions of their imprisonment.
