B’Tselem’s Invite to Address UN Security Council Draws Ire From Israeli Envoy

TEL AVIV – Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon on Saturday slammed the far left-wing Israeli human rights group B’Tselem for accepting an unusual invitation from Bolivia to address the UN Security Council session later this week. 

In a statement, Danon’s office said that while B’Tselem head Hagai El-Ad “has been invited in the past to UN discussions, this will be the first time in which he participates in an official and influential session of the Security Council.”

El-Ad, the statement continued, “will be joining Israel’s opposition at the council, who are behind his invitation.”

Danon blasted El-Ad for accepting the invitation from Bolivia, which holds the UNSC’s rotating presidency and has in the past charged Israeli soldiers with being “murderers.”

“B’Tselem, which has proved in the past that it cooperates with Israel’s enemies, is doing it this time with a nation that has called IDF soldiers ‘murderers.’ This is not only shameful for the organization but a crossing of red lines by foreign countries with an anti-Israeli agenda,” asserted the statement.

“We will expose not only Palestinian incitement and lies, but also those of Hagai El-Ad and B’Tselem. We will continue to defend Israel and the truth,” Danon said.

B’Tselem responded that it would “continue to document and publish the reality of the occupation which the government tries to hide, including this week, in which Israel intends on committing the war crime of demolishing Khan al-Ahmar and forcibly transferring its residents.”

El-Ad sparked outrage in Israel when he informally addressed a Security Council session in 2016 and called on the UN to take action against Israel’s settlements and the resulting “invisible, bureaucratic daily violence” Palestinians are subjected to “from cradle to grave.”

“With every breath they take, Palestinians are breathing in occupation,” El-Ad said.

A year later, at another conference at the UN marking “50 years of occupation,” El-Ad stated: “Palestinians who oppose the occupation are terrorists, Israelis who oppose the occupation are traitors, and those in the international community who oppose the occupation are of course anti-Semitic.”