Ex-B'Tselem employee says NGO fired him for opposing a ceasefire call

A wrongful termination lawsuit, currently underway in the Jerusalem Labor Court, has revealed turmoil at the head of the left-wing human rights organization B’Tselem, according to a report in the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz.

The plaintiff, Ro’ei Yelin, claims that at the heart of his employment dispute is a fight over the wording of a call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

He admits, however, that while upset about that matter, he changed the password of the organization’s Instagram account, effectively locking out his colleagues, after which he was summoned for a hearing and then fired. He maintains that he was fired for his views.

According to the lawsuit, the events of October 7 had a profound effect on B’Tselem, causing “a shock and serious crisis” as a consequence of differences of opinion among the organization’s employees, “including painful phenomena of denial or attempts to downplay the severity and scope of the crimes.” 

On October 9, two days after Hamas’s attack, the organization published a statement focusing on the terror group’s atrocities. In that statement, the description of Hamas’s actions was immediately followed by the declaration that “anyone who abandons the basic principle that all human beings are created in the image [of God] has lost the image of man.” Afterward, however, that sentence was moved to the end of the press release, Yelin says, which he took as a softening of the statement’s condemnation of Hamas.

When the organization discussed whether to call for a ceasefire, Yelin opposed calling for a unilateral one, arguing that it was not appropriate for a human rights organization, saying that such a call exceeded the professional mandate of the organization and crosses into the domain of politics. Yelin also argued that it would be a tactical mistake to call for a ceasefire before the organization knew what the plan would be to protect residents of Israel’s south in such a scenario. 

His colleagues charged him with support for genocide, he says. 

At the end of the discussion, the group decided not to publish the ceasefire call. About a month later, though, when the organization issued such a call, Yelin said he accepted the decision “due to his deep commitment to the organization” and helped prepare the announcement. He noticed, though, that the final version of the statement was titled simply, ‘Ceasefire Now.’ In Yelin’s eyes, this version of the statement amounted to a one-sided call directed only at the Israeli government and not at Hamas.

It was after this incident that Yelin changed the credentials to B’tselem’s Instagram account, after which he was called in for a hearing and fired. 

B’Tselem rejects Yelin's account, stresses condemnation of Hamas

In response to the lawsuit, B’Tselem said: “The exact circumstances regarding Ro’ei’s termination were detailed in the letter sent to him at the time of his termination. Out of respect for all the employees of B’Tselem, past and present, we have no intention of publicly discussing the personal affairs of any of them or engaging publicly in a labor dispute.”

The group added in its statement that B’Tselem’s “positions regarding the horrific war crime committed by Hamas on October 7 are clearly presented on the organization’s website and in a series of public announcements,” saying its “clear position regarding the need to protect the human rights of all people, Jews and Palestinians, and our resolute opposition to any harm to civilians was and still is unequivocal and has been published many times since October 7,” and reiterating its call for a hostage deal. 

“That parts of the initial conversations [after October 7], which were so painful and personal, were removed from their context causes us great pain,” the group said. Its words since the attack “were carefully chosen and were the result of long discussions and much thought, and we are absolutely proud of that.”

Leon Kraiem contributed to this report.