B'Tselem is an Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

 (NGO). It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories". The group was founded on February 3, 1989 by a group of prominent Israeli public figures, including lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

s, academics, journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

s, and members of the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

.

B'Tselem's stated goals are "to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel". In December 1989 the organization shared the Carter-Menil Human Rights Prize

Carter-Menil Human Rights Prize

The Carter-Menil Human Rights Prize was established in 1986 by former United States president Jimmy Carter and US philanthropist Dominique de Menil to "promote the protection of human rights throughout the world." The foundation periodically gives out prizes of $100,000 to individuals and...

 with the Palestinian group, Al-Haq.
Its executive director is Jessica Montell.

The group has come under intense criticism from elements among Israel's nationalist camp; Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman charged the group with abetting terrorism and weakening Israel's defense forces.

History

B'Tselem was founded on February 3, 1989 by a group of prominent Israeli public figures, including lawyers, academics, journalists, and members of the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

. B'Tselem's stated goals are "to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel" with the primary objective being "to change Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories and ensure that its government, which rules the Occupied Territories, protects the human rights of residents there and complies with its obligations under international law."

The NGO's key founders were:

• Dr Daphna Golan-Agnon (academic and founding director of feminist peace group Bat Shalom
  Bat Shalom
  Bat Shalom is one of the organizations of the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace. Bat Shalom is a feminist grassroots organization of Jewish and Palestinian Israeli women working together towards peace, a just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, respect for human rights, and an equal...
  
  )
• David Zucker
  David Zucker (politician)
  David "Dedi" Zucker is an Israeli peace activist and former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Ratz, Meretz and as an independent between 1986 and 1999.-Biography:...
  
   (Knesset member for the Ratz party, one of the founders of the Peace Now movement)
• Haim Oron
  Haim Oron
  Haim "Jumas" Oron is an Israeli politician and former Minister of Agriculture. He is currently head of the political party New Movement-Meretz, for whom he served as a member of the Knesset.-Biography:...
  
   (Knesset member for the Mapam
  Mapam
  Mapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook and represented...
  
   party, one of the founders of the Peace Now movement)
• Zehava Gal-On
  Zehava Gal-On
  Zahava Gal-On is an Israeli politician. She is a member of the Knesset for Meretz, as a mid-term replacement after the retirement of the head of the party Haim Oron and is well-known for her outspokenness, opposition to Meretz's election strategy, and very liberal and pluralist...
  
   (Ratz party activist and future Knesset member for the Meretz party formed through the merger of Ratz and Mapam)
• Avigdor Feldman (civil liberties
  Civil liberties
  Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
  
   lawyer)
• Dr Edy Kaufman (academic and civil liberties activist)

Main activities

The focus on documentation reflects B'Tselem's objective of providing as much information as possible to the Israeli public, since information is indispensable to taking action and making choices.

Activity in the Knesset

B'Tselem regularly provides Knesset members with information on alleged human rights violations in the West Bank, and alleged injustices caused by Israeli authorities. Several Knesset members, from various factions, assist B'Tselem in placing human rights matters on the public agenda and in safeguarding human rights.

Public action

B'Tselem has hundreds of supporters and volunteers who work to improve the human rights situation in the West Bank. These activities include, in part, setting up information stands, distributing printed material, addressing problems and requests to decision-makers, and participating in protest

Protest

A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...

s in the West Bank.

Reports

B'Tselem publishes reports on various issues such as torture

Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

, fatal shootings by security forces, restrictions on movement, expropriation

Nationalization

Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

 of land and discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

 in planning and building in East Jerusalem

East Jerusalem

East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...

, administrative detention, house demolition

House demolition

House demolition is primarily a military tactic which has been used in many conflicts for a variety of purposes. It has been employed as a scorched earth tactic to deprive an advancing enemy of food and shelter, or to wreck an enemy's economy and infrastructure. It has also been used for purposes...

s, and violence by Israeli settlers. Over one hundred reports have been published so far. The organization serves as a source of information for journalists, researchers and the diplomatic community at the national and international level. B'Tselem's activities receive extensive media coverage.

B'Tselem also campaigns against the death penalty and the human rights record of the Palestinian Authority. On 17 February 2005, the organization called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas , also known by the kunya Abu Mazen , has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah ticket.Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally...

 to commute the sentences of Palestinians condemned to death and abolish the death penalty. Abbas had shortly before ratified the death sentences of a number of Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel or of other criminal charges.

Environment

• 2009 Foul Play. Neglect of Wastewater Treatment in the West Bank found that waste water from two million people in the West Bank and Jerusalem area was being allowed to drain untreated into the Jordan Valley. Whilst emphasising the illegality of the settlements the report calls for improvements in their sewage treatment. It points out that this illegality makes cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities impossible.

Gaza

• 2005 - One Big Prison. Freedom of Movement to and from the Gaza Strip on the Eve of the Disengagement Plan investigates the four and a half year old policy of restricting freedom and movement to and from the Gaza Strip. It points out that Israel has the right to defend its civilians and that attacks on Israeli civilians were defined under international law as "war crimes". But Israel does not have the right to "trample on the rights of an entire population, in a patently arbitrary and indiscriminate manner."
• 2006 - Act of Vengeance. Israel's Bombing of the Gaza Power Plant and its Effects reported on the 28 June 2006 Israeli missile attack which destroyed the Gaza Strip's only electricity power plant. It recognises that the high level decision to launch the attack was linked to the capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit
  Gilad Shalit
  Gilad Shalit is an Israeli – French citizen and Israel Defense Forces soldier. On 25 June 2006, he was captured inside Israel by Hamas militants in a cross-border raid via underground tunnels near the border with Gaza. The Hamas militants held him for over five years, until he was released on...
  
   but concludes that the attack, as an act of collective punishment, was a war crime.
• 2009 - Guidelines for Israel's Investigation into Operation Cast Lead 27 December 2008 - 18 January 2009 raised questions about soldiers and commanders breaching international humanitarian law; not only through the action of individual soldiers but primarily those of policy makers. It list questions that need to be answered as:

Were civilian objects the target of attacks?

Did the military respect the principle of proportionality?

Did the military use prohibited weapons including white-phosphorus shells and indiscriminate weapons?

Did soldiers shoot civilians who were not endangering their lives?

Did Israeli soldiers use civilians as human shields?

Were ambulances and medical teams attacked while performing their duties?

Was there unjustified delay in evacuation and treatment of wounded persons?

House Demolition

• 2002 - Policy of Destruction. House Demolitions and Destruction of Agricultural Land in the Gaza strip reports on the demolishing of hundreds of houses and thousands of acres of agricultural land in the Gaza strip on the grounds of "pressing military necessity." It concludes that the policy violates international humanitarian law conventions to which Israel is a signatory and calls for compensation for "every Palestinian who suffered as a consequence of Israel's policy of destruction."
• 2004 - Through No Fault of Their Own. Punitive House Demolitions during the al-Aqsa Intifada concluded that the Israeli policy of punitive house demolition was illegal and ineffective. The report cites Supreme Court
  Supreme Court of Israel
  The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...
  
   Judges Heshin and Shimon Agranat
  Shimon Agranat
  Shimon Agranat was the President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1965 until 1976.-Biography:Agranat was born to a Zionist family in Louisville, Kentucky in 1906. He attended the University of Chicago and later its law school. Agranat emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1930 and settled in...
  
  , as well as the UN Human Rights Committee, to make its case. It demands "that the government of Israel immediately cease the policy of punitive house demolitions, and that it compensate Palestinians whose homes have been demolished as a result of this policy."

Human Rights

• 2000 - Illusions of Restraint. Human Rights Violations During the Events in the Occupied Territories 29 September - 2 December 2000. During the period investigated B'Tselem found that Israeli security forces had killed 204 Palestinian civilians as well as 24 members of the Palestinian security forces, with approximately 10,000 wounded. Thirteen Israeli civilians and eleven members of the Israeli security forces had been killed by Palestinian civilians and five security personnel killed by their Palestinian counterparts. Whilst also drawing attention attention to Human Rights
  Human rights
  Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
  
   violations by the Palestinian Authority the reports main concern is the use of excessive force by Israeli forces in dispersing demonstrations by unarmed Palestinians, in particular the use of live ammunition. It called for an international commission of inquiry.
• 2001 - Civilians Under Siege. Restrictions of Freedom of Movement as Collective Punishment found that the Israeli security establishment was using Collective Punishment
  Collective punishment
  Collective punishment is the punishment of a group of people as a result of the behavior of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions...
  
   as "a deterrent" to discourage Palestinian attacks and that this was immoral, a gross violation of international law and a "slippery slope" that could lead to "the kinds of punishment that most people would find detestable." It noted that Hebron
  Hebron
  Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
  
   had been under intermittent curfew
  Curfew
  A curfew is an order specifying a time after which certain regulations apply. Examples:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time...
  
   for three months.
• 2001 - No Way Out. Medical Implications of Israel's Siege Policy concluded that Israel's policy of restricting Palestinian freedom of movement in the West Bank amounted to collective punishment. It notes that the International Committee of the Red Cross
  International Committee of the Red Cross
  The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
  
   had reached the same conclusion (February 2001).
• 2003 - Behind the Barrier. Human Rights Violations as a result of Israel's Separation Barrier found that the proposed route of the barrier "gravely violates human rights without any security justification whatsoever." It commented that Israel appeared to be creating facts on the ground that would affect any future arrangements and was in breach of the Haig Convention which prohibits expropriation of land in occupied territory.
• 2006 - Barred from Contact. Violation of the Right to Visit Palestinians Held in Israeli Prisons reported that tens of thousands of Palestinians were unable to visit relatives imprisoned in Israel, or only able to visit once or twice a year. It notes that the transfer of prisoners from occupied territory is prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention
  Fourth Geneva Convention
  The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1949, and defines humanitarian protections for civilians...
  
   which also requires that, following the September 2005 withdrawal, prisoners who are residents of the Gaza Strip
  Gaza Strip
  thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
  
   should be handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
• 2006 - Perpetual Limbo. Israel's Freeze on Unification of Palestinian Families in the Occupied Territories states that the processing of all requests for family unification in the Occupied Territories had been frozen since September 2000 and that as of October 2005 there were 72,000 of these requests pending. It concluded that this policy severely violates Israel's obligations under international law and was intended to change the demographic composition of occupied territory. It notes that this policy is forbidden, illegal and "constitutes racial discrimination."
• 2009 - Without Trial. Administrative Detention of Palestinians by Israel and the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law claims that Israel holds hundreds of Palestinians in prolonged detention on undisclosed suspicions, without giving them the opportunity to defend themselves and without indicating when they will be released.
• 2010 - Caution: Children Ahead. The Illegal Behaviour of the Police toward Minors in Silwan Suspected of Stone Throwing called on the Israeli police to end the practice of arresting minors at night, the use of violence during these arrests and ensure that minors are only interrogated in the presence of their parents. It notes that Israeli settlements built in East Jerusalem constitute a violation of international law.

Israeli army

• 2002 - Wounded in the Field. Impeding Medical Treatment and Firing at Ambulances by IDF Soldiers in the Occupied Territories states that attacks on medical personnel and the refusal to allow medical treatment of sick and wounded had reached "an almost unprecedented level." It quotes Palestinian Red Crescent figures that, since 2000, three PRC medical personnel had been killed by IDF gunfire, 134 wounded and 174 ambulances had been damaged.
• 2005 - Take No Prisoners. The Fatal Shooting of Palestinians by Israeli Security Forces during 'Arrest Operations' found that the IDF were carrying out an average of five arrest operations a day and that since the beginning of 2004 eighty-nine Palestinians had been killed in these operations; at least forty-three of those killed were unarmed and at least seventeen were not wanted or suspected of committing an offence.
• 2010 - Void of Responsibility. Israel Military Policy Not to investigate Killings of Palestinians by Soldiers reports that "a soldier who kills a Palestinian not taking part in hostilities is almost never brought to action for his act."

Jerusalem

• 1997 - The Quiet Deportation - Revocation of residency of East Jerusalem Palestinians. "For some eighteen months, a quiet deportation of East Jerusalem Palestinians has been taking place. Using laws, regulations, court judgements, and administrative tactics, Israeli authorities are expelling thousands of persons from the city." The report found that this was a continuation of a policy begun in 1967 to create a Jewish majority in East Jerusalem.
• 2003 - Nu'man, East Jerusalem. Life under the Threat of Exspulsion concluded that residents' basic human rights were being severely infringed and that villagers' freedom of movement had been significantly impaired for a decade. "The policy's goal is to maintain the 'demographic balance' in Jerusalem, meaning that the percentage of Palestinians in the city must not be allowed to exceed a certain ceiling - formerly set at twenty-five percent and now thirty percent."

Settlements

• 2001 - Tacit Consent. Israeli Law Enforcement on Settlers in The Occupied Territories found that Palestinians who killed Israelis were punished by the full extent of the law, sometimes with their families also being punished; in contrast violent offences against Palestinians by Israelis were treated with leniency and Israelis who kill Palestinians were not punished or given a light sentence.
• 2003 - Hebron, Area H-2. Settlements Cause Mass Departure of Palestinians accuses the Israeli army of systematically infringing the human rights of Hebron's Palestinians while ignoring "settlers' almost daily violence against Palestinians and Palestinian property."
• 2004 - Forbidden Roads. Israel's Discriminatory Road Regime in the West Bank concluded that there was an undeclared policy of preventing or restricting Palestinians using a number of roads in the West Bank. This policy was based entirely on verbal orders given to soldiers in the field. It infringes two fundamental human rights: the right to equality and the right to freedom of movement.
• 2008 - The Ofra Settlement. An Unauthorized Outpost concluded that Ofra
  Ofra
  Ofra is an Israeli settlement located in the northern West Bank in the jurisdiction of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. It is situated on the main road between Jerusalem and Nablus , 25 km from Jerusalem and has 3,200 inhabitants ....
  
  , despite being a recognised settlement, was an unauthorised outpost under the requisite criteria set by Attorney Talia Sasson and adopted by the Israeli government. It found that at least 58 percent of the land on which Ofra was built is registered to Palestinians in the Land Registry.
• 2008 - Access Denied. Israeli measures to deny Palestinians access to land around settlements recommended that

- The army, police and Civilian Administration should enforce the law on settlers, with respect to un-authorized taking of land and violence against Palestinians.

- Dismantle fences and physical obstructions placed without official approval.

- Protect Palestinians from settler violence.

Torture

• 1991 - The Interrogation of Palestinians During the Intifada: Ill-Treatment, "Moderate Physical Pressure" or Torture? examines the Israeli secret service's interrogation methods, and speculates on which were described in the guidelines set out in the secret sections of the Landau Commission
  Landau Commission
  The Landau Commission was a three-man Commission set up by the Israeli Government in 1987 following a long-running scandal over the deaths of two Palestinian prisoners in custody and the wrongful conviction of a Circassian IDF officer...
  
   Report. It quotes IDF statistics that during first three years of the Intifada
  First Intifada
  The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
  
   and average of 25,000 Palestinians had be arrested annually, with 15,000 eventually charged in court. B'Tselem estimates that each year around 8,000 prisoners underwent extended periods of interrogation and 1,600 per year were subjected to some of the forms of moderate physical pressure described in the report.
• 2000 - Legislation Allowing the Use of Physical Force and Mental Coercion in Interrogations by the General Security Service argues that "any statute that permits the GSS to use physical force, however minimal, even in exceptional cases, is equivalent to sanctioning torture."
• 2001 - Torture of Palestinian Minors in the Gush Etzion Police Station found "a shocking picture of torture and maltreatment of minors by police interrogators."
• 2010 - Kept in the Dark. Treatment of Palestinian Detainees in the Petah Tikva Interrogation Facility of the Israel Security Agency was based on testimonies from 121 Palestinians held at the Shin Bet interrogation facility at Petah Tikva
  Petah Tikva
  Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...
  
   during 2009. It concluded:"The detention conditions in the Petah Tikva facility, which have the capacity to break the body and will of detainees, cause severe deprivation of sensory, social, and motor stimuli." It called for "unbiased external inspection" of the facility.

Video

B'Tselem has expanded its operations in recent years to increasingly include video-based footage. The expansion of its video project began in August 2007 with the launching of MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

, Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 and YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 sites which are to act as an alternative area for the showcasing of the organisation's films - aimed at expanding the group's presence amongst a younger age category and attracting people to its main website. Other video sharing

Video hosting service

A video hosting service allows individuals to upload video clips to an Internet website. The video host will then store the video on its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view this video...

 websites were following.

Main research areas

B'Tselem investigates in a number of aspects related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In particular the following:

• The accountability of police
  Police
  The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
  
   and military
  Military
  A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
  
   forces in the territories.
• The use of administrative punishment.
• The continued use of torture
  Torture
  Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
  
   during interrogation
  Interrogation
  Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
  
  s, particularly by the GSS
  GSS
  - Science :* General Social Survey, a sociological survey in the United States* Genome survey sequence, a nucleotide sequence* Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome, a very rare, usually familial, fatal neurodegenerative disease...
  
   (General Security Services of Israel).
• The illegal policy of house demolition, as a form of collective punishment
  Collective punishment
  Collective punishment is the punishment of a group of people as a result of the behavior of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions...
  
  , which is often justified for alleged military purposes.
• Inequalities in the planning and building procedures which discriminate against Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs.
• The legal status of residents of East Jerusalem
  East Jerusalem
  East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...
  
  .
• The path and effects of the Israeli West Bank barrier
  Israeli West Bank barrier
  The Israeli West Bank barrier is a separation barrier being constructed by the State of Israel along and within the West Bank. Upon completion, the barrier’s total length will be approximately...
  
   and its legal status.
• Problems related to family unification and child registration.
• Neglect of infrastructure and services.
• Illegal Israeli settlement
  Israeli settlement
  An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
  
  s and the extreme closures placed upon the Palestinian population of Hebron
  Hebron
  Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
  
  .
• Breaches of international human rights
  Human rights
  Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
  
   law.
• The water crisis in Palestinian areas.
• Family separation.
• Restrictions on movement, such as checkpoints roads, curfew
  Curfew
  A curfew is an order specifying a time after which certain regulations apply. Examples:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time...
  
   and the effect these have on the economy and medical treatment.
• Israeli settlement land expropriation, settler violence and attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinian militants.
• Gaza Strip
  Gaza Strip
  thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
  
   - The scope of Israeli control, economic and social decline, sonic boom
  Sonic boom
  A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion...
  
  s, access restrictions, the firing of Qassam rocket
  Qassam rocket
  The Qassam rocket is a simple steel artillery rocket developed and deployed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. Three models have been produced and used between 2001 and 2011....
  
  s.
• Use of force - beating and abuse, use of firearms and human shield
  Human shield
  Human shield is a military and political term describing the deliberate placement of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in...
  
  s.
• Violations by Palestinians - attacks on civilians, harm to suspected collaborators, death penalty in the Palestinian Authority.
• Rights of workers from the territories.

Report on rockets from Gaza

A B'Tselem report devoted to Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians reported
http://www.btselem.org/English/Israeli_Civilians/Qassam_Missiles.asp
that from June 2004 to 17 January 2009, 19 civilians and 2 soldiers were killed in Israel by rockets and mortar fire by Palestinians. Four of them were minors.

According to the UN, cited by B'Tselem the number of rockets fired at Israel was as follows:

• 2005: 1194 Qassam rockets (an average of 100 a month)
• 2006: 1786 rockets
• 2007: 1331
• 2008: 2048 rockets and more than 1672 mortar shells.

Board members

B'Tselem board members are:

• Co-chairs:
  • David Kretzmer, Professor of Law, Faculty of Law and School of Public Policy, Hebrew University.
  • Gila Svirsky, Co-founder of Coalition of Women for a Just Peace
    Coalition of Women for a Just Peace
    The Coalition of Women for Peace is an umbrella organization of women's groups in Israel, established in November 2000. It describes itself as "a feminist organization against the occupation of Palestine and for a just peace."...
    
    .

• Neta Amar: Lawyer, Legal Advisor for IHL Project, Diakonia and Staff Attorney for Rabbis for Human Rights
  Rabbis for Human Rights
  Rabbis for Human Rights-Israel is an Israeli human rights organisation describing itself as "the rabbinic voice of conscience in Israel, giving voice to the Jewish tradition of human rights"....
  
  .
• Anat Biletzki
  Anat Biletzki
  Anat Biletzki is a lecturer in philosophy at Tel Aviv University and Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT.Biletzki was born in Jerusalem, Israel...
  
  : Professor of Philosophy, Tel-Aviv University.
• Orna Ben-Naftaly: Head of the Law and Culture Division and the International Law Division, the Law School, the College of Management Academic Studies.
• Menachem Fisch: Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science, Tel-Aviv University and Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute
  Shalom Hartman Institute
  Shalom Hartman Institute is a Jewish research and education institute based in Jerusalem, Israel, that offers pluralistic Jewish thought and education to scholars, rabbis, educators, and Jewish community leaders in Israel and North America...
  
  .
• Tamar Hermann: Dean of Academic Studies, the Open University of Israel
  Open University of Israel
  The Open University of Israel is a distance-education university in Israel. , the Open University taught around 39,000 students.The Open University of Israel has more students than any other academic institution in Israel. The administration is based in the city of Ra'anana. Students from all over...
  
  , and Senior Research Fellow, the Israel Democracy Institute
  Israel Democracy Institute
  The Israel Democracy Institute , established in 1991, is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank in Jerusalem, Israel. -History and goals:...
  
  .
• Amnon Kapeliouk
  Amnon Kapeliouk
  Amnon Kapeliouk was a Jewish French-Israeli journalist and author who interviewed Yassar Arafat and reported from the occupied territories...
  
  : Journalist, Le Monde diplomatique
  Le Monde diplomatique
  Le Monde diplomatique is a monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first created mainly for a diplomatic audience as its name implies...
  
  (Haaretz
  Haaretz
  Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
  
  named Kapeliouk as one of the founders of B'Tselem).
• Peretz Kidron
  Peretz Kidron
  Peretz Kidron was an Israeli pacifist, writer, journalist, and translator.-Biography:Born in Vienna, his family moved to Great Britain following the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. After completing his secondary education he emigrated to Israel, where he lived for 20 years in Kibbutz...
  
  : Journalist and Translator.
• Menachem Klein: Lecturer in Political Science, Bar Ilan University.
• Victor Lederfarb: Financial Administrator, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel
  Association for Civil Rights in Israel
  The Association for Civil Rights in Israel was created as an independent non-partisan organization to protect human rights and civil rights in Israel and the territories under its control....
  
  .
• David Neuhaus: Jesuit Priest, Reverend, Lecturer in Religious Studies at Bethlehem University
  Bethlehem University
  Bethlehem University is the first university founded in the West Bank, Palestine. Bethlehem University traces its roots to 1893 when the De La Salle Christian Brothers opened schools in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Nazareth, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt....
  
   and Seminary of the Holy Land in Beit Jala
  Beit Jala
  Beit Jala is an Arab Christian town in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank. Beit Jala is located 10 km south of Jerusalem, on the western side of the Hebron road, opposite Bethlehem, at altitude...
  
  .
• Danny Rubinstein
  Danny Rubinstein
  Daniel "Danny" Rubinstein is an Israeli journalist and author. He previously worked for Haaretz, where he was an Arab affairs analyst and a member of the editorial board.-Biography:...
  
  : Journalist, Haaretz
  Haaretz
  Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
  
  Newspaper.
• Alla Shainskaya: Senior Staff Scientist, Weizmann Institute of Science
  Weizmann Institute of Science
  The Weizmann Institute of Science , known as Machon Weizmann, is a university and research institute in Rehovot, Israel. It differs from other Israeli universities in that it offers only graduate and post-graduate studies in the sciences....
  
  .
• Ronny Talmor: Author and editor.
• Oren Yiftachel
  Oren Yiftachel
  Oren Yiftachel teaches political geography, urban planning and public policy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.Yiftachel studied during the 1980s in Australian and Israeli universities...
  
  : professor of political geography and urban planning, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Ben-Gurion University of the Negev   is a university in Beersheba, Israel, established in 1969. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has a current enrollment of 17,400 students, and is one of Israel's fastest growing universities....
  
  .
• Rayef Zreik: Co-founder of Adalah
  Adalah
  Adalah means justice and denotes The Justice of God. It is among the five Shia Principles of the Religion.The Shias believe that there is intrinsic good or evil in things, and that God commands them to do the good things and shun the evil...
  
  , The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University.

Board members have changed over the past 10 years. Four board members from 1998 remain on the board in 2008.

Staff

The group's executive director is Jessica Montell. In 2011 the group staff has 38 employees in a Research Department, a Data Coordination department, a communications department, and an administration department. Field data research in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for B'Tselem was, until the Second Intifada, performed by Israeli Arabs. Data analysis and dissemination was conducted at the Jerusalem office. Because of restriction on entry to these areas for Israeli citizens, the Israeli Arab field workers were replaced with similarly qualified Palestinian Arabs who transmit research data to the office via fax or phone, sometimes negotiating checkpoints to reach the Jerusalem office for debriefings.

Attacks on staff

B'Tselem staff members have been both verbally and physically attacked by both Israeli settlers and military/police, including the assault of two of its fieldworker staff. According to B'Tselem, in one such incident, captured on film on 19 January 2008, a fieldworker was beaten by Israeli soldiers, then arrested for attacking them. In another, on 20 June 2008, according to the organization, a worker was beaten and had his film confiscated after filming IDF troops ignoring violent crimes by Israeli settlers. Following B’Tselem’s complaint, Israeli military police opened an investigation. The group also claims to have been the victim of other kinds of harassment, such as the slashing of tires on the organisation's jeep.

Funding

B'Tselem is independent and is funded by contributions from foundations in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 and North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 that support human rights activity, by private individuals in Israel and abroad, and by the governments of some EU countries and the European Commission.

According to B'Tselem, their donors include:

• British Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
  
  
• Christian Aid
  Christian Aid
  Christian Aid is the official relief and development agency of 40 British and Irish churches and works to support sustainable development, alleviate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster relief in South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and Asia...
  
   (UK)
• Commission of the European Communities
  European Commission
  The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
  
   - 99,717 € per year (2007)
• DanChurchAid
  DanChurchAid
  DanChurchAid is one of the major Danish humanitarian non governmental organisations , working with churches and non-religious civil organisations to assist the poorest of the poor.DanChurchAid carries out its work with the objective:...
  
   (Denmark
  Denmark
  Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
  
  )
• Diakonia (Sweden
  Sweden
  Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
  
  )
• Development Corporation Ireland
• EED
  Evangelical Church in Germany
  The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
  
   (Church Development Service, Germany
  Germany
  Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
  
  )
• Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland
• Ford Foundation
  Ford Foundation
  The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
  
   (USA)
• Foundation for Middle East Peace
  Foundation for Middle East Peace
  The Foundation for Middle East Peace is an American nonprofit organization that promotes peace between Israel and Palestinians via the two-state solution. The organization was established in 1979 by Merle Thorpe, Jr. Ambassador Philip C. Wilcox, Jr...
  
  
• ICCO (Interchurch Organisation for Development Co-operation, Netherlands
  Netherlands
  The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
  
  )
• International Commission of Jurists
  International Commission of Jurists
  The International Commission of Jurists is an international human rights non-governmental organization. The Commission itself is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists , including members of the senior judiciary in Australia, Canada, and South Africa and the former UN High Commissioner for Human...
  
  , Swedish Section
• Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation
• New Israel Fund
  New Israel Fund
  The New Israel Fund is a U.S. based non-profit organization established in 1979, and describes its objective as social justice and equality for all Israelis.-Ideology:...
  
   (Israel)
• Norwegian Foreign Ministry
  Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the foreign ministry of the Kingdom of Norway...
  
  
• Shefa Fund
• SIVMO (Netherlands)
• Stichting Het Solidariteitsfonds (Netherlands)
• Trócaire
  Trócaire
  Trócaire is an Irish non governmental organization development agency. The charity is registered in the Republic of Ireland under Irish Charity No...
  
   (Ireland
  Ireland
  Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
  
  )

Critical commentary and response

B'Tselem has come under intense fire from elements among Israel's nationalist camp. Early in 2011, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for a parliamentary investigation of B'Tselem and other human rights organizations. These groups, he charged, "are clearly not concerned with human rights. They spread lies, they slander and incite against the state of Israel and against Israeli soldiers... Clearly these organizations are abetting terrorism and their only objective is to undermine Israel," he said in a speech to fellow members of his nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel our homeland") party.

B'tselem's opponents have challenged the accuracy of its reports. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America

Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is an American non-profit pro-Israel media watchdog group. The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to the Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general...

 (CAMERA), a pro-Israel media watchdog group, charged that B'tselem repeatedly classified Arab combatants and terrorists as civilian casualties. NGO Monitor

NGO Monitor

NGO Monitor is a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem, Israel whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations and the...

, another opponent, claimed that B'tselem distorts its data and uses "abusive and demonizing rhetoric designed to elicit political support for Palestinians". Caroline B. Glick, deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post

The Jerusalem Post

The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....

and former advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.Netanyahu is the first and, to...

, pointed to several instances where, she claimed, B'tselem had misrepresented Palestinian rioters or terrorists as innocent victims, or where B'tselem failed to report when an Arab allegedly changed his testimony about an attack by settlers. B'tselem and another human rights group are "radical leftist organizations with documented histories of falsifying and distorting data," charged Glick in an editorial. She charged fellow journalists who covered B'tselem's reports with "professional malpractice... As long as we continue to base our national debates and policies on enemy propaganda, it should surprise no one that Israel finds itself in its current dire predicament."

In each of these cases, B'tselem issued detailed rebuttals, based on its own research, as well as statistics and information from the Israeli army and international organizations. Although CAMERA challenges the reliability of B'Tselem's statistics and describes them as "grossly deceptive", CAMERA commentator Tamar Sternthal notes that B'Tselem's statistics on casualty figures are "cited widely by Western news organizations".

Representative publications

• The Gaza Strip: One Big Prison (2007)
• Medical Personnel Harmed: The Delay, Abuse and Humiliation of Medical Personnel by Israeli Security Forces (2003)
• Thirsty for a Solution: The Water Shortage in the Occupied Territories and its Solution in the Final Status Agreement (2000)
• Land Grab: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank (2002)

See also

• Human rights in Israel
  Human rights in Israel
  Human rights in Israel have been evaluated by various human rights treaty bodies, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals, often in relation to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict which forms part of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel internal...
  
  
• Hamoked
  Hamoked
  HaMoked an Israel based human rights organization founded by Dr. Lotte Salzberger with the stated aim of assisting "Palestinians subjected to the Israeli occupation which causes severe and ongoing violation of their rights." HaMoked works for the enforcement of the standards and values of...
  
  
• Alternative information center
  Alternative Information Center
  The Alternative Information Center is a joint Palestinian-Israeli non-governmental organization which "engages in dissemination of information, political advocacy, grassroots activism and critical analysis of the Palestinian and Israeli societies as well as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict"...
  
  
• Bimkom
  Bimkom
  Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights is an Israeli non-profit organization established in May 1999 by planners and architects seeking to address human rights concerns in their spatial and urban designs. Bimkom's goals include retroactively legalizing illegal construction in Arab neighborhoods...
  
  
• Bustan
  Bustan (organization)
  Bustan is a joint Israeli-Palestinian non-profit organization of eco-builders, architects, academics, and farmers who promote environmental and social justice in Israel/Palestine...
  
  
• Meretz