B’Tselem The International Rescuers Award 2023 Winner

General introduction

This year we chose to shine a spotlight on civil society organizations that fight for human rights. We chose the B’Tselem organization that operates inside Israel, and six Palestinian organizations: Al-Haq, the Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), the Bisan Centre for Research and Development, The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.

Why did we choose to honor these organizations this time?

It is very important for a person to act according to their conscience when faced with injustices, but it is difficult for a person alone to keep going for long, and the tasks that lie ahead of us require tenacity. This is the importance and power of organizations: they are the cornerstones of a society that wants to establish an egalitarian and just culture for all.

The uniqueness of the selected Palestinian organizations:

The organizations are non-profit associations that operate within the framework of civil society in the territories of the Palestinian Authority. In addition to monitoring the injustices of the Israeli military rule in the occupied territories, they often also criticize the rule of the Palestinian Authority. Through non-violent actions these organizations put pressure on the mechanisms of governance. Their methods of action include legal struggle, advocacy, struggle for policy change, mobilizing solidarity with affected groups, raising local and global awareness of the situation, mobilizing media for the struggle, strengthening local communities and economic empowerment for the victims of the occupation. Sometimes their work involves genuine risk: as the director of the Bisan center Obeid Al Aboudi said: In recent years I have been arrested twice - once by Israel and once by the Palestinian Authority.

The steering committee of the Garden of Rescuers in Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom chose this year an act of resistance: we will not participate in this action of silencing, but will make the voices of these organizations heard and tell their story.

Even if we are currently unable to hold a joint ceremony, God willing, we will soon be able to visit them and they will be able to visit us, as equal partners in the struggle for a more just and democratic society.

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories strives for a future in which human rights, liberty and equality are guaranteed to all people, Palestinian and Jewish alike, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Such a future will only be possible when the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime end. That is the future we are working towards. B’Tselem (in Hebrew literally: in the image of), the name chosen for the organization by the late Member of Knesset Yossi Sarid, is an allusion to Genesis 1:27: “And God created humankind in His image. In the image of God did He create them.” The name expresses the universal and Jewish moral edict to respect and uphold the human rights of all people.

Since it’s inception in 1989, B’Tselem’s have been documenting, researching and publishing statistics, testimonies, video footage, position papers and reports on human rights violations committed by Israel in the Occupied Territories. The initial mandate B’Tselem took upon themselves focused on the occupation regime in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and in the Gaza Strip. However, over the years, it has become clear that the concept of two parallel regimes operating between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River – a permanent democracy west of the Green Line and a temporary military occupation to the east of it – is divorced from reality. The entire area that Israel controls is ruled by a single apartheid regime, governing the lives of all people living in it and operating according to one organizing principle: establishing and perpetuating the control of one group of people – Jews – over another – Palestinians – through laws, practices and state violence.