ACHRS: Israeli Occupation Targets Palestinian Civil Society
ACHRS is alarmed by the recent Israeli terrorist designation of six Palestinian civil society and rights organizations. The Center stands in solidarity with Palestinian human rights defenders and calls on the Israeli authorities to immediately reverse their designation.
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On the 19th of October, the Israeli authorities issued a military order, designating six Palestinian civil society and rights organizations as “terrorist organizations.” These organizations are Addameer, Al-Haq, Defense for Children Palestine, The Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Bisan Center for Research and Development and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees. The Israeli Defense Minister’s decisions claim that the organizations have become the “arm” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Israel authorities said those organizations obtained financial resources for “terrorist activity (PFLP)” but the human rights office said there is no evidence presented to support these accusations.
The terrorist designation makes pursuant to an Israeli statute of 2016, which in practice outlaws the organizations’ activities. The designation gives the Israeli authorities the right to close the offices of the organizations, seize their assets, arrest and jail staff members, as well as prohibit funding or publicly express support of the organizations’ activities.
Among other things, these organizations document human rights violations on the occupied West Bank. The organizations work closely together with international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as Al-Haq holds special consultative status to the UN Economic and Social Council.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet spoke out against Israel’s designation of six Palestinian organizations as “terrorist organizations.” Bachelet, said the organizations are some of the “most respectable humanitarian and human rights groups in the occupied Palestinian territory” and that it is an attack on human rights defenders, freedom of association and the right to public participation, and must be revoked immediately.
The Israeli terrorist designation is a tool to silence the Palestinian civil society and the documentation of rights violations committed in occupied Palestine. The terrorism designation of the six organizations is a violation of the right to peacefully protest. It is a violation of the rights to think, participate, and speak. These organizations are among the most prominent Palestinian civil rights organizations defending human rights.
ACHRS joins organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticizing the terrorist designation and stands in solidarity with the six organizations. The designations against the six organizations are long-standing actions to restrict human rights defenders and civil society organizations working for the human rights of Palestinians. We condemn the Israeli authorities’ decision to designate the organizations as “terrorists” and calls for the immediate reversal of the decision. Furthermore, ACHRS calls on the Israeli authorities to reverse its 2016 statute, effectively outlawing activities of civil society groups.
Image Source: Majdi Mohammed/AP
