Rayhan Uddin
Middle East Eye / September 6, 2024
Likud MP urges police to question Yuli Novak under law punishable by death penalty or life sentence after Security Council speech.
An Israeli lawmaker has written a letter to the head of the police calling for the detention and interrogation of the director of Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, following a speech she made at the United Nations Security Council earlier this week.
Tally Gotliv, a member of Israel’s parliament, penned the letter to Israeli Chief Police Commissioner Daniel Levy on Thursday, calling for Yuli Novak, B’Tselem’s executive director, to be questioned.
On Wednesday, Novak told the UN Security Council via video link that Israel had pursued a goal of “Jewish supremacy” over the past 11 months, since its war on Gaza began following the 7 October Hamas-led attacks.
The surprise attack by Palestinian fighters on southern Israeli communities in October killed more than 1,000 Israelis, and dozens of foreigners. Around 250 others were taken captive back to Gaza.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the enclave, the majority of whom are women and children.
“To understand the Israeli government’s criminal conduct over the last 11 months, you have to understand the overall goal of this regime,” Novak told the Security Council.
“Since Israel was founded, its guiding logic has been to promote Jewish supremacy over the entire territory under its control.”
She said that Israel’s far-right government had exploited the collective trauma of Israelis following the 7 October attacks “to violently advance its project of cementing Israeli control over the entire land”.
‘Expulsion, starvation and killing’
She added Israel was committing daily war crimes, including “expulsion, starvation, killing and destruction on an unprecedented scale”.
“Every day that this council does not act on the court’s call to end the occupation and apartheid is another day you are abandoning us, the people of this land, who are suffering and dying in tens of thousands needlessly under a cruel and unjust apartheid regime,” Novak said.
B’Tselem is one of the most prominent rights groups in Israel, which, notably, released an eight-page report in January 2021 calling Israel an apartheid state.
Gotliv, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, called on Novak to be probed by Israeli police “for the suspected serious crime of assistance to the enemy in war”.
She said that such a crime was an offence under Section 99 of the penal law, “which carries the death penalty or a life sentence”.
“Novak has shamefully put the state of Israel, currently engaged in a war for survival, at risk and assisted Israel’s enemies on various fronts,” the lawmaker wrote, accusing the activist of telling lies about Israel committing war crimes.
She said Novak’s “horrific remarks” had put Israel’s military objective and freeing Israeli captives “at risk” and had assisted “the enemy in its mendacious allegations against the heroic IDF fighters”.
“An immediate investigation should be initiated with instructions to interrogate enemy sympathizer Novak in detention conditions, given the grave threat associated with her conduct and the potential harm to the State of Israel in a time of war,” she concluded.
Shai Parnes, a spokesperson for B’Tselem, told Middle East Eye that the organization stood to protect human rights, “even when the Israeli government chooses to neglect its basic duty to protect its citizens and the subjects under its control”.
“While the government chooses occupation and war over saving human lives, and promotes a policy that is contrary to international law and the principles of justice and equality, we will continue to act on behalf of all those who suffer from violations of their rights.
“We will continue to fight for human dignity and freedom. Human rights are universal and non-negotiable.”
Rayhan Uddin is a Middle East Eye journalist based in London
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‘Assistance to enemy in war’ – Israeli MK requests death penalty for B’Tselem’s director
The Palestine Chronicle / September 7, 2024
The move followed a speech delivered by Novak on September 4 at the United Nations Security Council.
The Israeli Likud Party Knesset Member Revital Gotliv requested the death sentence or life imprisonment for Yuli Novak, the executive director of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, for what she labeled as “the suspected serious crime of assistance to the enemy in war,” the Anadolu news agency reported.
Gotliv reportedly made her request in a letter addressed to the Israeli Chief Police Commissioner Daniel Levy, in which she demanded the detention and interrogation of Novak.
The move followed a speech delivered by Novak on September 4 at the United Nations Security Council.
The Knesset member said that ‘aiding the enemy’ is a crime under the penal law, “which carries the death penalty or a life sentence.”
“Novak has shamefully put the state of Israel, currently engaged in a war for survival, at risk and assisted Israel’s enemies on various fronts,” she wrote in her letter.
“Who needs enemies when you have Yuli Novak?” she questioned.
She further accused Novak of telling lies about Israel committing war crimes.
Novak’s speech
The executive director of B’Tselem told a UN Security Council session via video call on September 4 that Israel has promoted “Jewish supremacy” since its inception.
“To understand the Israeli government’s criminal conduct over the last 11 months, you have to understand the overall goal of this regime. Since Israel was founded, its guiding logic has been to promote Jewish supremacy over the entire territory under its control,” Novak said.
B’Tselem’s executive director accused the Israeli government of war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip embodied in “expulsion, starvation, killing and destruction on an unprecedented scale,” to make the enclave “inhabitable.”
She further accused Israel of exploiting the events of October 7 “to violently advance its project of cementing Israeli control over the entire land.”
Moreover, Novak emphasized that Israel has taken advantage of the ongoing war on Gaza “to turn Israeli prisons into a network of torture camps for Palestinians. This violence is possible because Israel has enjoyed impunity for decades,” quoting a recent report by B’Tselem titled ‘Welcome to Hell’.
Novak concluded her speech by condemning the failure of the international community to put a halt to the war and to protect Palestinians in Gaza from “Israel’s criminal policy of massive harm to civilians in Gaza,” adding that this policy is at present extending to the West Bank.
Ongoing genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,878 Palestinians have been killed, and 94,454 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
