The dirty war between Israel’s right-wing and left-wing NGOs
Israeli human rights nongovernmental organizations object to an investigative report by Channel 2 that accuses an activist of plotting against Palestinian land owners selling their property to Jews but stained all the NGOs in the process.
The investigative report by Sokolov Prize-winning journalist Omri Assanheim, aired on Channel 2’s weekly news show "Uvda" Jan. 8, told the story of right-wing activists operating undercover in left-wing organizations. The show set off a firestorm in Israel.
The report focused on two left-wing activists, Ezra Nawi from Ta'ayush and Nasser Nawaja, a researcher for B’Tselem. The two were documented plotting to hand Palestinian land dealers over to the Palestinian Preventive Security Forces for planning to sell land to settlers. The authentic footage was shot with hidden cameras by ''planted'' activists from the previously unknown right-wing Ad Kan group, which according to its members was founded to disclose the tactics employed by left-wing groups in Israel.
The piece at the center of the storm showed Nawi with a huge grin on his face, boasting that a Palestinian land dealer was handed over by him to the Palestinian security forces, and that he was effectively responsible for his death.
Activists from left-wing groups offered three responses to the report. The first was that the program’s editorial board relied on footage from a right-wing organization that no one had heard of before the report aired. The second was that the Palestinian Authority hasn’t executed anyone since 2006, so Nawi was just bragging — and so his words should not be taken seriously. The third and most important claim was that the report completely ignored years of important work by human rights organizations in Israel and gave the false impression that left-wing groups employ unscrupulous methods.
