The US State Department and the UN Secretary General’s office last week condemned Israeli police and military who defend against stabbing, stone and Molotov cocktail throwing, by using the means in their disposal to repel and subdue the attackers. This was followed by repeated NGO claims that Israel is using “excessive force” in stopping the attackers, followed by articles in the same spirit in the international media.
This theme, reminiscent of accusations against the IDF for using a “disproportionate” response during the 2014 Gaza war, is a central tactic of politicized NGOs and the Palestinian Authority, according to NGO Monitor, that seeks to criminalize Israeli self-defense. The reference has appeared frequently in NGO statements since the terror campaign intensified on October 1. These statements introduce an unreasonable standard to the actions of Israeli security forces when dealing with murderous terrorists during their attacks. The reports, as a matter of course, erase the efforts of emergency responders and doctors to save the lives of injured terrorists—including ones with blood on their hands.
NGO Monitor cited a few particularly “problematic” examples of such allegations:
A group of Israeli NGOs (most of them funded by the New Israel Fund), including B’Tselem, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, and Yesh Din, described “a WORRYING TREND to use firearms to kill Palestinians who have attacked Israelis or are suspected of such attacks” (emphasis added). They suggest that public “support for such actions endorses the killing of Palestinians in the Territories and in Israel.”
Amnesty International condemned “the widespread use of excessive force by Israeli forces against demonstrators across the occupied West Bank,” this while acknowledging that these same demonstrators “have thrown rocks and firebombs towards Israeli forces in many demonstrations, and there are reports that Palestinians have shot at Israeli forces in isolated cases.”
Human Rights Watch stated that it has “documented the unlawful use of force by Israeli security forces…over many years.” Its director, Kenneth Roth, tweeted, “Horrible deadly cycle: ‘lone wolf’ Palestinian attacks, excessively lethal Israeli response.”
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights habitually calls terrorists who have attacked Israeli civilians as “victims,” suggesting that “Israeli forces could have used less force against the victims or could have arrested and tied them if their allegations were true.”
Finally, Al Haq accuses Israeli security forces of “wanton and excessive use of force against Palestinians, with no accountability for the deaths they cause.”
The only proper response to this disturbing approval of the murder of Jews and the support for the murderers, is to expose it. The fact that many of these organizations still enjoy a tax exempt standard both in Israel and the US should be examined.