http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/17/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-netanyahu-settlements-security-council.html 2016-10-16 20:20:57 Daunting Questions Lurk Beneath Israel’s Quarrel With Rights Group A fierce exchange between the government and the human rights group B’Tselem has touched on arguments over patriotism and the character of Israel. === JERUSALEM — The latest cross-fire of accusations began after Prime Minister The announcement came a day after Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of B’Tselem, addressed a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council The session was initiated by the Palestinians and requested by five countries, including Most of the world considers Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories that were conquered from Jordan in the 1967 war, to be a violation of international law. The Palestinians demand those areas as the heart of a future independent state, and continued Israeli building there has been a constant source of tension between Israel and the United States. Mr. Netanyahu’s pronouncement was largely symbolic: only three volunteers from a program for 18-year-olds exempted from compulsory military service on ideological, religious, health or other grounds applied to perform national service at Yet it underscores the rawness of the political divide in Israel over the fate of the territories it seized nearly 50 years ago, “Anything short of decisive international action will achieve nothing but ushering in the second half of the first century of the occupation,” Mr. El-Ad told the Security Council meeting on Friday. Living under Israeli military rule in the West Bank, he said, “mostly means invisible, bureaucratic, daily violence.” Israel officially considers the West Bank disputed, not occupied, and it annexed East Jerusalem in a move that was never internationally recognized. Mr. Netanyahu denounced B’Tselem and He added, “the truth is that the Palestinians have been attacking Israel for 50 years, since before a single settlement existed.” He described B’Tselem and similar organizations as “ephemeral and delusional.” Sar Shalom Jerbi, the director of Israel’s National Civilian Service authority, told Israel Radio that B’Tselem had “crossed a red line” by addressing the Security Council meeting and had carried out “an act of betrayal.” Zehava Galon, a former executive director of B’Tselem who now leads the left-wing Meretz party, which sits in opposition to Israel’s right-wing government, Responding to what it called Mr. Netanyahu’s “slander,” B’Tselem said in a statement, “We insist on saying loud and clear: The occupation is not Israel, and resisting it is not anti-Israel.” Mr. Gilutz, B’Tselem’s spokesman, said that just as his organization did not take a position on the nature of the solution of the conflict, it was also not specifying what kind of international action should be taken. Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said in a recent statement that “the international community, including the United States, must completely and unequivocally boycott Israeli settlements.” The Israeli government has long questioned the patriotism of left-wing groups that oppose its policies in the West Bank, and in July, the Knesset The latest quarrel over B’Tselem came after the Obama administration After years of delays and legal wrangling, the