Dutch government financed B'Tselem report attacking Supreme Court
The Dutch government not only financed the report but also specified the report's goals and what it aimed to create with it.
By URI BOLLAGUpdated: FEBRUARY 12, 2019 04:23A Jewish settler walks at the Jewish settlement outpost of Adei Ad B in the West Bank(photo credit: REUTERS/NIR ELIAS)
The Dutch government commissioned and financed a B’Tselem report attacking the Israeli Supreme Court about its decisions and construction planning in the West Bank, according to a copy of the document detailing the agreement.The agreement states that, according to the Dutch government, “the situation [in Israel] of human rights developments, rights of women, the most serious violations and freedom of expression are all under pressure,” and the left-wing NGO’s activity “feeds very well into the Dutch priority of supporting ‘change agents.’”B’Tselem received some 176,000 euros from the Dutch government to compose the report that would include criticism of Supreme Court decisions under the headline “Expulsion of Palestinian Communities from Their Land.”The report by B’Tselem was released last week and painted the Supreme Court as “being part of the occupation,” and enabling the “violations of human rights by granting judicial legitimacy to Israeli policy.”B’Tselem was to pen a report about the role of the Supreme Court in the expulsion of Palestinian communities, mainly in the Jordan Valley, the southern Hebron Hills and in the Ma’aleh Adumim area, as a “test case” for the Dutch government, the agreement revealed.It also underscored that the Dutch government not only financed the report, but also specified the report’s goals and what it aimed to create with it; to “erode the status quo by challenging the principal mechanisms that maintain the occupation, and by calling for international action to end the occupation,” and “efforts to erode the image that Israel seeks to promote of a clean and lawful occupation.”B’Tselem said in response that “contrary to NGOM’s false claims, B’Tselem always has, and always will, decide independently the issues we write reports on and how we focus our work - with the purpose of advancing human rights and ending the occupation.”“We are proud of the report we published and fully stand behind every fact in it,” the B’Tselem spokesperson said.
