In the early morning of August 18, 2022 Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided the offices of six respected Palestinian human rights organisations.
The organisations were shut down after the raids. These organisations provide legal aid and confidential information was stolen from their premises.
These Palestinian civil society organisations raised the alarm about the coming crackdown one year ago, when the Israeli defence minister designated these six well known West Bank Palestinian human rights organisations as terror organisations. Ireland was one of the few countries to censure Israel over the decision.
These organisations are respected around the world. Now that the people working in these organizations are facing arbitrary arrest, detention or worse for standing up for the rights of Palestinians
Al Haq has been operating in Palestine since 1979 and has actually been critical of both Israel and the Palestinian authority at times.
Addameer provides support to Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons.
Defense for Children International works to monitor abuses of children and minors and their offices were already raided on July 29, 2021.
The Bisan Center for Research and Development stands for the rights of peasants in Palestine as does the Union of Agricultural Work Committees.
The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees was formed in 1980 to empower Palestinian women .
Al Haq has been posting all the statements of support which have been sent to date from organisations around the world . One which stood out was by Gregg Carlstrom, a writer at The Economist: “For Israel political pressure is “diplomatic terror,” boycotts are “economic terror,” and now civil society is terror as well. If you’re Palestinian and you do anything to resist the occupation, it’s terrorism.”
On November 3, 2021 the the Israeli military commander signed an order that outlawed the six Palestinian civil society organisations within the rest of West Bank as well. This means that the people working with or associated with these respected human rights organisations could be arrested for working with an illegal organisation. According to Al Haq: “the military order is grounded in Article 84 of the Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945 that was issued under the British Mandate and repealed shortly before the end of the Mandate. As Britain has categorically stated, ‘Regulation 119 was already repealed under the Palestine (Revocations) Order-in-Council of 1948 and as such no longer applies.’”
On November 7, 2021 the Irish Foreign Minister issued a statement stating that Israel had not provided evidence to Ireland or the EU justifying this attack on international human rights. To date, this is the only country which has spoken out to defend the six organisations and human rights defenders in Palestine.
Al Haq is calling on the public to work on the following:
- Call on Israel, to urgently rescind the designations as acts which violate the freedoms of opinion and expression, and freedom of association, and amount to an acts of apartheid prosecutable under Article 7(2)(h) of the Rome Statute;
- Publish a bulletin to banks and financial institutions, putting them on notice to dismiss as inapplicable Israel’s ‘terrorist’ and ‘illegal organisation’ designations of the six Palestinian organizations;
- Communicate directly with, and recommend, that the European Union and Third States remove “terrorism” clauses as internal conditions placed on donor funding of civil society organizations in the occupied Palestinian territory;
- To unilaterally or collectively implement comprehensive trade sanctions against Israel, to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law and prevent further erasure of Palestinian presence from the occupied territory. Particular emphasis should be given to the need to end the sale or supply of military products to Israel;
- To implement laws banning the import of goods produced in illegal settlements located in the occupied territory, having particular reference to the UN’s 2020 report on business enterprises involved in certain activities relating to settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
- Take concrete and immediate measures to end Israel’s prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territory, and bring to an end the apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole. Ensuring effective remedy and redress for all Palestinians, including the right of self-determination, and the right of refugees and exiles in the diaspora to return to their homes in Palestine.
Of course, we must demand that the federal government and other public institutions in Canada take action as well if we have a chance of impacting the Trudeau government’s history of turning a blind eye to Israel’s actions.
September 1, 2022 – Editor’s Note: This article was updated to remove an incomplete sentence.
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