A/HRC/34/70 48. Notwithstanding these toxic attacks and the failure of the Government to provide the protections and space for civil society to operate, several prominent Israeli intellectuals and advocates publicly defended B’Tselem and American Friends of Peace Now for their presentations at the Security Council. Zeev Sternhell stated that: “The one who forced the civil society groups to turn to international public opinion and international institutions is the government of Israel itself”, while Michael Sfard, a human rights lawyer, wrote that “the occupation is not an internal Israeli matter. And even if it were, human rights are always a matter for the entire international community”.67 49. Earlier, in December 2015, Im Tirtzu, an ultranationalist Israeli organization hostile to the country’s human rights movement, released a short inflammatory video accusing four notable Israeli human rights leaders of abetting murder and terrorism and acting as hostile foreign agents and moles (shtulim in Hebrew).68 The video, which has been viewed several hundred thousand times since its release, opens with a young Arab in a staged urban setting raising his arm to attack the viewer of the video with a knife. The frame freezes, and the narrator then intones: Before the next terrorist stabs you, he already knows that Yishai Menuhin, a planted agent belonging to Holland, will make sure to protect him from a Shin Bet interrogation. The terrorist also knows that Avner Gvaryahu, a planted agent belonging to Germany, will call the soldier who tries to prevent the attack a “war criminal”. He also knows that Sigi Ben-Ari, a planted agent belonging to Norway, will protect him in court. Before the next terrorist stabs you, he already knows that Hagai El-Ad, a planted agent belonging to the European Union, will call Israel a “war criminal”. Hagai, Yishai, Avner and Sigi are Israelis. They live here with us, and are implants. While we fight terror, they fight us. 50. Dr. Yishai Menuhin is the Executive Director of the Public Committee against Torture, which campaigns against the harsh treatment by Israeli security organizations. Avner Gvaryahu is outreach director with Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli military veterans who publicize testimonies by Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including accounts of human rights violations. Sigi Ben-Ari is a lawyer who works with Hamoked — Centre for the Defence of the Individual, which focuses on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory through legal advocacy. And Hagai El-Ad is the Executive Director of B’Tselem. The video displays pictures of the four individuals. Im Tirtzu, while a private organization, has close ties to current and recent Israeli cabinet ministers and has a history of vehemently attacking Israeli civil liberties organizations and successfully lobbying the current Government to enact restrictive legislation against human rights defenders. Following the release of the video (along with an accompanying report by Im Tirtzu denouncing a wider number of Israeli human rights groups),69 a number of staff in the targeted groups received death threats and the names, addresses and pictures of some of their staff were published on the Internet. 70 Among the commentaries in the Israeli press denouncing the Im Tirtzu video, Mira Sucharov wrote that it equated human rights and civil liberties with treason. She added that only a distinctly anti-democratic element of society would consider the upholding of basic democratic norms 67 68 69 70 14 Zeev Sternhell, “Yes, Israelis, we must air our dirty laundry in public”, Haaretz, 21 October 2016; Michael Sfard, “It’s every Israeli’s right, and duty, to speak up — including at the UN”, Haaretz, 24 October 2016. Because of his human rights advocacy, Michael Sfard became the target of political espionage by Regavim, an ultranationalist and partly State-funded organization with close ties to the Israeli settlement movement: see Uri Blau, “Did Israeli settler group use government funds to spy on human rights NGOs?” Haaretz, 19 January 2016. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=02u_J2C-Lso. See www.docdroid.net/9vaiR15/foreign-agents-report.pdf.html. Ofra Edelman, “Left-wing Israeli activists facing violence, death threats”, Haaretz, 29 July 2016; Human Rights Defenders Fund, communiqué to the Special Rapporteur; Chemi Shalev, “Im Tirtzu and the proto-fascist plot to destroy Israeli democracy”, Haaretz, 16 December 2015; and Robert Mackey, “Group calls Israelis ‘foreign agents’ for work on behalf of Palestinians” New York Times, 15 December 2015.