[News] Israel declared our human rights work 'terrorism.' But it won't silence us

Anti-Imperialist News news at freedomarchives.org
Sat Nov 6 15:15:24 EDT 2021


latimes.com
<https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-11-06/israel-human-rights-palestine-groups-designation-terrorism>
Op-Ed:
Israel declared our human rights work 'terrorism.' But it won't silence us
Rana and Milena - November 6, 2021
------------------------------

We work at Addameer, one of the biggest organizations providing direct
support to Palestinian political prisoners. Recently, our workplace and
five other leading Palestinian human rights organizations were designated
as “terrorist” groups
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-declares-six-palestinian-human-rights-groups-terrorist-organizations/>
by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

Harassment of human rights advocates by the Israeli authorities is routine.
But this latest move is a blanket attack that effectively outlaws our work
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israel-outlaws-palestinian-human-rights-groups-causing-backlash-from-israeli-international-rights-organizations>;
puts us at risk of arbitrary arrest and prosecution and our organizations
at risk of forcible closure or defunding; and criminalizes public
expressions of support for our work.

International human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International, have condemned this designation
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/10/israel-opt-designation-of-palestinian-civil-society-groups-as-terrorists-a-brazen-attack-on-human-rights/>
as “appalling and unjust.” Israeli human rights groups are standing with us
<https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/palestinian-ngo-head-calling-us-terrorists-imperils-israeli-democracy-683300>.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has demanded that the
designations be revoked immediately
<https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27708&LangID=E>
.

On a daily basis, we at Addameer give free legal support to Palestinians
held in Israeli prisons, helping families to navigate a legal system that
was built by Israel to facilitate the settler-colonial takeover of land. We
conduct visits to hundreds of prisoners a year, documenting cases of
torture, medical negligence and other forms of violence. We also fight for
the rights of political prisoners on the international stage, filing urgent
appeals, complaints and crucial reports to the United Nations.

This summer, we advocated <https://www.addameer.org/news/4417> for the
release of Amal Nakhleh, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy who was arrested by
Israel without charge or trial despite a rare autoimmune disorder. We
visited prisoners in solitary confinement in Israel’s infamous Naqab
prison, who told us about the torture and inhumane living conditions they
were subjected to. We visited hunger strikers protesting their arbitrary
detention in hospital beds in the Ramleh prison clinic and submitted
appeals to United Nations bodies to intervene. We have called on the
International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli war crimes, and in
Israeli military and civil courts, we have defended Palestinian
parliamentarians, students, children, journalists, feminists, human rights
defenders, academics and thousands of everyday people who are arbitrarily
arrested every year. We also defend Palestinian political prisoners in
jails run by the Palestinian Authority.

This is the vital work that Israel is trying to end. As Palestinians we can
hardly be surprised that Israel is trying to silence us with the claim of
“terrorism.” This red herring, with decades of anti-Arab racism behind it,
is used against us every time we try to stand up for our rights under
Israel’s prolonged military occupation, entrenched apartheid system
<https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution>
and ongoing settler-colonialism.

Since Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the Defense
Ministry has classified more than 400
<https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/12/17/born-without-civil-rights/israels-use-draconian-military-orders-repress>
Palestinian organizations as “hostile,” “unlawful,” or “terrorist.” This
criminalization extends to all aspects of Palestinian civil society — from
journalists and nongovernmental organizations to students and human rights
defenders. Working with prisoners, we have seen intimately how any
Palestinian can be criminalized and arrested. The low standard of evidence
and the politicized context of Israeli military courts
<https://www.btselem.org/topic/military_courts> results in a conviction
rate of over 99%, <https://www.haaretz.com/1.5214377> making it nearly
impossible for Palestinians to challenge a charge against them. Israel’s
2016 counterterrorism law is now being used to expand the powers of Israeli
authorities to criminalize legitimate social, humanitarian, political and
charitable action
<https://www.justsecurity.org/78732/counterterrorism-off-the-rails-israels-declaration-of-palestinian-human-rights-groups-as-terrorist-organizations/>
by Palestinians.

The five other organizations targeted in Gantz’s declaration are the
Palestine branch of Defense for Children International
<https://www.dci-palestine.org/>, Al-Haq <https://www.alhaq.org/>, the Union
of Palestinian Women’s Committees <http://upwc.org.ps/?lang=en>, Bisan
Center <https://www.bisan.org/> and the Union of Agricultural Work
Committees <http://uawc-pal.org/index.php?&lang=en>. Like Addameer,
they are well-known pillars of Palestinian civil society, providing
essential services and doing legal, human rights, monitoring and advocacy
work that Palestinians desperately need.

As workers in these organizations, we routinely face the risk of arrest,
residency revocation, deportation and travel bans. The Israeli military
raided Addameer’s offices in 2002, 2012 and most recently
<https://www.addameer.org/news/israeli-occupation-forces-raid-addameers-office-and-steal-its-belongings>
in September 2019, during which they ransacked our files and stole
significant equipment and data, including five laptops. Many of our
coworkers and board members have been arrested, often on administrative
detention orders
<https://www.un.org/unispal/document/special-rapporteurs-call-on-israel-to-release-or-charge-five-palestinian-hunger-strikers-press-release/>,
which allow Israel to hold Palestinians without charge, trial or
conviction, indefinitely.

We call on members of civil society across the globe to stand with us.
Imagine if the young activists in your community were being targeted and
arrested. Imagine if the nonprofits providing services to the most
vulnerable among you were being outlawed and their staff punished. We are
members of Palestinian civil society, but we are also members of the global
community dedicated to social justice. We need the international community
to demand that Israel rescind the terrorist designations immediately.

*Rana is a programs manager at Addameer. Milena is an international
advocacy officer at Addameer. They are withholding their last names because
of risks to their safety.*
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