• Website: www.btselem.org

  • B'TSELEM - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by “a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members” largely from the Meretz and Labor Parties.

  • Key staff: Jessica Montell, Executive Director; Najib Abu Rokaya, Fieldwork Director; Sarit Michaeli, Communications Director; Risa Zoll, International Relations Director

  • States that it “acts primarily to change Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories and ensure that its government, which rules the Occupied Territories, protects the human rights of residents there and complies with its obligations under international law.” B’Tselem does not report on human rights violations within Israel.

  • B’Tselem’s reports are repeated by international NGO superpowers such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch as well as Palestinian NGOs. B´Tselem also presses its political agenda actively in the Israeli courts and the Knesset.

  • Analysts have shown that B’Tselem’s methodology is problematic, often inconsistent, and reflects the organization’s political agenda. The organization identifies casualties according to their supposed activity at the moment of death, and therefore those “killed while not engaged in hostilities” – including terrorists, terror leaders and organizers, and rioters – are occasionally mislabeled “civilians.” Relies on statistics and reports of other NGOs, despite the political agendas and credibility problems of these other groups.

  • B’Tselem categorizes suicide bombings and rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians as "war crimes" and "a grave breach of the right to life", according to international humanitarian law. Yet its political agenda is evident in the minimal attention it gives to intra-Palestinian human rights abuses (including torture, extra-judicial executions and abductions).

  • Regularly minimizes Israeli security concerns, and ignores the fact that checkpoints, for example, have been instrumental in preventing attacks against civilians within Israel.

  • The 2006 budget was approximately 7 million shekels ($2 million at 2008 rates). Main funders include the EU and numerous European governments, Christian Aid (UK), DanChurchAid, Diakonia (Sweden) and other church groups, the Ford Foundation, and the New Israel Fund (Israel).