WRONG ON RIGHTS

The recent comment by Geoffrey Alderman ( JC, Jan 15) accuses B’Tselem, the independent Israeli human rights group, which I lead, of publishing “alleged infringements of Arab human rights” in the service of “foreign governments” while not respecting “Israel’s sovereignty”. I’d like to correct him. As an organisation founded by prominent Israelis, B’Tselem serves no one but the cause of advancing human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

These territories are not part of sovereign Israel, and their fate — and the fate of the millions of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation — are not an internal Israeli matter. This is an issue of great international concern.

So-called “alleged infringements” we publish are the result of meticulous, credible research. Punitive — and administrative — home demolitions, forced displacement, detention without trial, unchecked settler violence, the implications of settlements on the