Likud MK Nissim Vaturi demanded that Yuli Novak, executive director of the far-left NGO B’Tselem and former head of another extremist organization, Breaking the Silence, be stripped of her Israeli citizenship after she testified against Israel at the United Nations Security Council on Sept. 4.
In a Sept. 9 letter to Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the Shas Party, Vaturi, who serves as deputy speaker of the Knesset, said Novak should lose her citizenship for “breach of trust.”
As the nation of Israel emerges from its “most difficult day since the Holocaust,” and right after the murder of six hostages, and as Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon fights for Israel’s right to defend itself and to return its captive citizens alive, “an Israeli citizen chose to join with Hamas and Hezbollah and to demand that the U.N. act against Israel,” Vaturi wrote.
“This is the CEO of B’Tselem, Yuli Novak, who appeared at the U.N. in a special discussion,” he said.
Vaturi quoted a section of Novak’s briefing in which she claimed, “To understand 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.”
Vaturi attached a video of her briefing.
B’Tselem’s Novak also claimed that Israel doesn’t want to return the hostages but to continue the war “indefinitely.”
She said Israel is “laying the groundwork for long-term control of Gaza” and, by displacing millions of Gazans, is setting up the possibility of re-establishing settlement there.
“Settlers are attacking Palestinians and carrying out pogroms in broad daylight,” she also claimed.
She said Israel is holding thousands of Arabs in “inhumane conditions. Last month, we at B’Tselem published a report called ‘Welcome to hell.’ It shows a shocking pattern of abuse that amounts to torture. The government of Israel is using the war to turn Israeli prisons into a network of torture camps for Palestinians.”
She asked the council to take “effective action” against Israel. “It is time for the council to address the opinion of the International Court of Justice on the illegality of Israel’s entire occupation and settlement project,” she said.
The Security Council convened the meeting at the request of Danon following the murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas. He said it was “the first official discussion on the hostage situation” by the council.
At the meeting, Dr. Efrat Bron Harlev of Petah Tikvah’s Schneider Children’s Hospital testified about treating Israeli children who had spent more than a month in captivity in Gaza.
“When they arrived, they did not look like children. They looked like shadows of children,” she said.
The Security Council agreed to hear from Harlev on condition it also hear from Novak for the sake of “balance,” Danon said.
In a lengthy post on X, Danon criticized Novak’s testimony, saying, “Novak chose to demonstratively ignore the abductees on whose behalf the debate was convened.”
He also said that U.N. officials expressed concern to him for the well-being of Novak, although she reportedly no longer lives in Israel.
“I made it clear to everyone who asked that Israel is a democratic country and there is no fear that Novak will be arrested. However, it is a shame that the same concern was not expressed for the abductees and the first discussion on the issue was convened only after 11 months in which they were held captive by the monsters of Hamas,” Danon said.
