The Race for International Legitimacy: Nationalist counterprotests to Human Rights Organizations in the Fight for the Image of Israel

The paper discusses the vicious circle created by the counterprotest, of a wide nationalist network, to the Israeli Human Rights Organizations (HRO), denouncing Israeli violation of Palestinian’s human rights and demanding the end of 55 years of Israeli occupation of The West Bank, Gaza, and Est Jerusalem. This, while referring to both the discourses of the protest and the counterprotest and to the interactions between them. In September 2009, the United Nation’s “Goldstone Report”, that investigated the Israeli assault on Gaza, from December 2008 to January 2009, was published, accusing Israel of war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. The accusations were based, among others, on information and testimonies collected by Israeli HRO. The report and its accusations created a great shock among Israeli society - an unprecedented mobilization was set up to delegitimize it. In the framework of this mobilization, the Israeli HRO that participated in the elaboration of the report were presented as traitors and collaborates with foreign entities aiming to harm the image of Israel. In the following years, multiple nationalist organizations were founded in the attempt to fight against, what they called, the “immoral image” of Israel created by Human Rights NGOs. Furthermore, several nationalist organizations, active prior to the publication of the report, drastically changed the main arena of their activity and joined the campaign combatting the “delegitimization” of Israel in the international community. A wide network was thus created by longstanding and new organizations involving journalists, academics, and politicians legitimizing, both inside the country and within the international community, Israel’s actions and ongoing occupation of Palestinians. This paper will focus on the complexity of the dynamic interactions between the HRO protests for Palestinian human rights and the network’s counterprotest advocating for the morality of the State of Israel and the righteousness of its actions. While the nationalist counterprotest network was set up in order to influence the impact of the HRO within the international community, it paradoxically strengthened their voice within the country bringing their actions and arguments into the public discourse. Having said that, since 2010, the local attacks on HRO are reinforced and their actions are constantly delegitimized, obliging them to turn more frequently towards international advocacy. Calling for more international pressure, on their own country is reinforcing counterprotest critics and attacks, narrowing the HRO field of action within the country. I seek to thus discuss, the apparition of massive counter-reactions to the publication of the Goldstone Report, its influence on the discourse and actions of HRO and the overall radicalization of the public debate over the image of Israel, both within the country and abroad. This will allow us to go beyond the Israeli case, and better understand the nature of the dynamic of the interactions between protests and counter-protests and the mutual influence that it implies.