"The government particularly fears Breaking the Silence because its testimonies show the army isn't investigating evidence of brutality and wrongdoing by soldiers," said Yossi Gurvitz, an Israeli analyst who has followed Im Tirtzu's activities.
"If soldiers are going unpunished, then that removes Israel's basic defence against investigations from outside bodies like the International Criminal Court. It makes it more likely that soldiers will one day face war crimes trials."
Gurvitz added: "There is a clear pattern of Im Tirtzu being used as the government's attack dog. It issues a report showing 'traitors' in our midst, and then the government immediately announces a law to tackle the problem."
Barred from schoolsThe release of Im Tirtzu's video coincided with new government measures against Breaking the Silence, B'Tselem and other anti-occupation groups.
Last month the defence minister, Moshe Yaalon, described Breaking the Silence as "malicious" and barred it from access to army activities.
Shortly afterwards Naftali Bennett, the education minister and leader of the settler party Jewish Home, banned the group from schools.
"Lies and propaganda against the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] -- not in our schools," he said.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, also from the Jewish Home party, has proposed a new bill, nicknamed the Transparency Law, that casts suspicion on Israel's human rights community.
She has justified it on the grounds it would stop activists from "being used as a tool by foreign countries to implement their own policies."
Indicating that her goal is to muzzle such groups, she said the legislation would help to "limit the information that gets to foreign countries."
Under pressure from the US and EU, Netanyahu insisted Shaked drop a provision that would have forced human rights groups to wear lobbyist badges on visits to the Israeli parliament.
However, the groups will still have to detail their funding sources in all reports and documents, and meetings with state officials, or face a fine.
Undercover filmingCollusion behind the scenes between far-right groups and the government has come to light in a series of investigations published in recent weeks.
Walla, an Israeli news website, published an investigation this month into Ad Kan, which recently issued video and audio recordings from spying operations on Breaking the Silence and Taayush, a loosely structured collective of anti-occupation activists.
Ad Kan is reported to have spent many months working undercover inside human rights organizations.
The group is funded by the Samaria Settlers' Committee, which in turn is financed by the Samaria Regional Council, a large local authority for settlers living in the northern West Bank.
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