B’Tselem to continue work with National Service volunteers

On 30 Sept. 2914, Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber overturned the decision of the director of the National Civic Service Authority to revoke B’Tselem’s status as an organization which may accept national civic volunteers. In her statement, Adv. Zilber wrote that the decision was procedurally flawed and was unreasonable, given the circumstances.

Zilber’s statement, which was given following a discussion with all the relevant parties, noted that while the director of the Authority has the power to deny volunteer work with certain organizations, doing so on the grounds that an organization encourages violence or supports terrorism requires particularly strong evidence, can be justified only in extreme cases, and must apply generally in an equal fashion. She added that the director’s decision regarding B’Tselem did not meet these criteria, as the facts he presented failed to establish that the organization’s services, and especially those provided by National Civic Service volunteers working with it, had changed. Therefore, the decision was to be overturned.

Zilber further noted that using administrative power to deny an organization recognition based on poor, anecdotal evidence is a dangerous step towards politicization of the National Civic Service Authority. In such circumstances, she wrote, the Authority might use its power to exclude specific organizations, exacting a financial and public price from those expressing controversial views at one end of the political scale only.

In response, B’Tselem Director Hagai El-Ad said: “Deputy Attorney General Zilber has clarified what should be obvious to the director of the National Civic Service Authority: a person in a public position should not abuse his power for political gains. The highly-publicized and personally motivated attempt to harm an independent civil-society organization by twisting facts did not pass muster this time.

Throughout the proceedings, B’Tselem was represented by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

Background:

On 13 Aug., the director of the Authority for National-Civic Service (ANCS), Sar-Shalom Jerbi, sent B'Tselem a political pamphlet stating that the ANCS would no longer permit national-civic service [an alternative to compulsory military service, available to some young Israelis] at B’Tselem. In doing so, he exploited an administrative position to attack a human rights organization.

B'Tselem's executive director, Hagai El-Ad, wrote to Minister Uri Orbach, who oversees the ANCS, demanding that the boundaries of Jerbi's position be made clear to him, or alternatively, that Jerbi be replaced with someone who has not forgotten that, in a democracy, disagreements over public issues are resolved through open debate rather than silenced through bureaucracy.

B'Tselem emphasized that in a democracy, the authority to decide what is right and beneficial for society is vested in the citizens, not government functionaries.

In a letter to B’Tselem and ACRI, Deputy Attorney General, Dina Zilber, informed the organizations on 17 August that the decision of the director of the National Civic Service Authority to stop allowing national civic volunteers to work with B’Tselem has been put on hold. Zilber said that the director would soon be summoned to the Justice Ministry to explain his decision and the circumstances under which it was made and that B’Tselem and ACRI would subsequently be informed of the final decision on this matter.