As part of its decades-long crackdown on political activism in the occupied territories, Israel outlawed six prominent Palestinian human rights groups on October 22. The declaration gave Israeli authority chance to raid their offices, seize assets, arrest staff, and criminalize any expression of support for the groups. The organizations targeted documented human rights violations by both Israeli and Palestinian Authorities, both of which routinely detain Palestinian activists. Israeli and international rights groups condemned the move as an assault on civil society and expressed solidarity with the targeted organizations. Israel had already outlawed peaceful political activities in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians want the area captured by Israel in the 1967 war to form the core of their future state.
Al-Haq is a human rights group established in 1979, as are Addameer, Defense for Children International-Palestine, Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. The Israeli Defense Ministry said they were tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a left-wing political movement with an armed wing that has been conducting deadly attacks against Israelis. Western countries and Israel consider the PFLP to be a terrorist organization.
The statement was released during the weekend between Israel and Palestine. Representatives of the organizations were not immediately available for comment. In a statement, the Defense Ministry said the organizations are ‘controlled by senior leaders’ of the PFLP and employ some of its members. Israel has long accused human rights groups and international organizations of bias against it and of singling it out while ignoring graver violations by other countries. The organizations claim to provide the PFLP with funding and have received ‘large sums of money from European countries and international organizations’.
In the Palestinian territories, the EU delegation acknowledged financing by several groups. Past allegations of misuse of EU funds by partners have not been substantiated, but the EU takes the matter seriously and is investigating it. ‘EU funding is an important tool for our support of the two-state solution,’ said the statement. The local office of the U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights criticized Israel for its declaration, which was based on ‘very vague or irrelevant reasons, including completely peaceful and legal activities’.
Israel was urged to ‘respect the rights of freedom of association and expression without any interference or harassment against the organizations or their staff,’ adding that some Palestinian groups were considered ‘key partners’. It is a strategic assault on the civil society of Palestine as well as the Palestinian people’s right to oppose Israel’s illegal occupation and expose its crimes. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both condemned the move as an ‘attack by Israel against the international human rights movement’.
‘For decades, Israeli authorities have systematically suppressed human rights monitoring and punished those who criticize their repressive rule over Palestinians,’ they said. This decision is an alarming escalation that threatens to halt the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organizations. Israel’s human rights group B’Tselem described the government’s declaration as ‘an act characteristic of totalitarian regimes, with the clear goal of shutting down these organizations’.
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