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Palestinians concerned about new Israeli NGO law

Palestinians working with B’Tselem and other human rights organizations are worried that the new Knesset law will restrict their work.

B'Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad (2nd R) listens to a testimony from a Palestinian farmer, who said his land was damaged in an attack by Israeli settlers, in the West Bank village of Turmus Aya near Ramallah June 8, 2015. B'Tselem is an Israeli NGO that has long been a bane of the government, tirelessly flagging human rights abuses by Israel's military in the Palestinian territories. Set up by a group of academics, lawyers, journalists and politicians more than 25 years ago, the organisation - whose nam
B'Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad (2nd R) listens to testimony from a Palestinian farmer, who said his land was damaged in an attack by Israeli settlers, in the West Bank village of Turmus Aya near Ramallah, June 8, 2015. — REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Susan Jaber says her life changed four years ago when she began volunteering with the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. “When they gave me a camera and I began using it, the level of harassment and attacks by settlers and soldiers went down a lot,” Jaber told Al-Monitor.

Jaber, 39, lives in Hebron very close to the Ibrahimi Mosque and in the path of Jewish settlers who would be happy to see her leave. “Before we began filming and B’tselem was publishing videos of settlers’ harassment, our family was living in constant fear. We are now able to live a normal life. The cameras that we have are our strongest weapon,” Jaber, a mother of seven children, said. She pointed to the Facebook page showing her and other volunteers filming.

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