Yesh Din 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 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...

 group providing legal assistance to citizens of the Palestinian territories

Palestinian territories

The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...

. Its name comes from a Hebrew phrase meaning “there is law”. The group has been active since March 2005.

Board members include prominent former Israeli government officials and retired high-ranking generals of the Israel Defence Force (IDF):

• Shulamit Aloni
  Shulamit Aloni
  Shulamit Aloni is an Israeli politician and left-wing activist. She is a prominent member of the Israeli peace camp, founded the Ratz party and was leader of the Meretz party and served as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993.-Biography:...
  
   - former Israeli minister of education and culture, minister of communications, minister of science and arts
• Shlomo Lahat
  Shlomo Lahat
  Maj. Gen. Shlomo "Chich" Lahat is a former Israeli general and politician.Lahat was born in Germany and made Aliyah in 1933. He served in the Haganah and the Israel Defense Forces...
  
  , General (Ret.) - former mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa
• Michael Ben Yair - lawyer, former attorney general of the State of Israel.
• Shlomo Gazit
  Shlomo Gazit
  Shlomo Gazit is a retired Major General in the Israel Defense Forces and was in the past head of the intelligence service of the Israeli army, 1974–1978....
  
  , General (Ret.) - former head of Military Intelligence
• Paul Kedar, Colonel (Ret.) - former Israeli consul in New York
  New York
  New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
  
  ; head of Ministry of Defense delegation to Europe; IDF attaché
  Attaché
  Attaché is a French term in diplomacy referring to a person who is assigned to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency...
  
   to Turkey
  Turkey
  Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
  
  . Member of Beyt Hatfusot founders; director of Shlomi's Community Center.

Yesh Din monitors the IDF investigations into troops' and Israeli settlers suspected crimes against Palestinians.

Following the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict

2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict

The Gaza War, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world, was a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and hundreds of rocket attacks on south of Israel which...

, the group denounced the distribution of booklets which according to the group "bordered on incitement to racism", encouraging Israeli soldiers to fight an enemy described as "murderers" and advising them to "show no mercy". The distribution of the booklets caused IDF to reprimand one its officers, describing the case as an "isolated incident".

On January 30, 2009, the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 reported that Yesh Din plans to use a classified Israeli government database to prove that many West Bank

West Bank

The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...

 Israeli settlements were built on land privately owned by Palestinian citizens without compensation.

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...

has been critical of Yesh Din's activities.

External links

• Yesh Din main website (English)
• Backyard Proceedings. Comprehensive Yesh Din report published January 8, 2008.