Dear Friends,
 This week, I joined B'Tselem as its new director. I am excited and proud to start working with B’Tselem’s outstanding staff who have been leading the human rights fight in the Occupied Territories. I am especially grateful to Jessica Montell, who headed B'Tselem for the last thirteen years. I feel it is a rare asset that she is delegating to me and I am committed to doing my best, together with you and with the organization's board, volunteers, and staff, to live up to this weighty responsibility.I was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1969, two years after the occupation began. The occupation has been around my whole life – and I am no teenager. Like every Israeli, I bear responsibility for this reality. If we do not act, I may not see the occupation end in my lifetime. Such a future is unthinkable, yet we must face the fact that this is a very real prospect. What are we prepared to do to change that? I write this as the occupation enters its 48th year. Soon, it will have existed for half a century, most of Israel's existence as a state. If we do not take action now, we can look forward to a gloomy future in which today's teenagers could in a generation's time echo this text’s sentiments, and so and so forth for decades on end. I harbor no illusions that human rights can be fulfilled under an oppressive regime of ongoing occupation and dispossession. Human rights under occupation are a contradiction in terms. The illusion that this state of affairs can continue is growing stronger, as the injustice it incurs deepens. The inevitable result is daily violation of the human rights of Palestinians living under occupation. The fight to change this reality is more essential than ever before, and in this B’Tselem has a major strategic role. Together, I believe in our moral power and in our ability to achieve justice, freedom and dignity.
Yours sincerely, Hagai El-Ad | | |  "Israel in the West Bank: A 47-year-long temporary occupation": At times, the occupation seems to be a thing of the past, but it is still going strong. A third, and even fourth, generation of Palestinians and Israelis has been born into this reality, and they know no other. Israel has created a reality in which the Palestinians live under a harsh military regime, which serves first and foremost Israeli and settler interests. This reality of dispossession, oppression and violation of human rights in the West Bank has lasted almost fifty years, and indicates far-reaching intentions for the future. While this state of affairs is progressively entrenched, the illusion that it can continue indefinitely grows stronger. The inevitable result is daily violation of the human rights of Palestinians living under occupation. Only ending the occupation will alter this reality. | | READ MORE >> | |
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