[News] The international community cannot let the Israeli apartheid regime criminalize human rights work
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The international community cannot let the Israeli apartheid regime
criminalize human rights work
November 23, 2021
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor’s Note: The following statement was released by participants on
the 2016 U.S. Prison, Labor and Academic Delegation to Palestine.
/Mondoweiss/ occasionally publishes press releases and statements from
organizations in an effort to draw attention to overlooked issues.
The U.S. Prison, Labor and Academic Delegation to Palestine (2016) joins
with organizations and individuals around the world to express our
strongest solidarity with the six Palestinian human rights organizations
that were falsely designated “terrorist institutions” by the Israeli
government on October 19, 2021. On November 7, 2021 the government
issued a follow-up order declaring the organizations “illegal,” opening
the way for their offices to be closed and the possible administrative
detention of their staff.
These six organizations –Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights
Association <https://www.addameer.org/>, Al-Haq
<https://www.alhaq.org/>, the Bisan Centre for Research and Development
<https://www.bisan.org/>, Defense for Children International – Palestine
<https://www.dci-palestine.org/>, the Union of Agricultural Work
Committees <http://uawc-pal.org/index.php?&lang=en>, and the Union
of Palestinian Women’s Committees <http://upwc.org.ps/?lang=en> – all
welcomed us to Palestine in 2016. They enabled us to hear stories
directly from Palestinians about the impact of military and settler
violence, extra-judicial murder, mass imprisonment, land confiscation,
house demolitions, persecution of women, restrictions to water access,
lack of worker rights, and the systems of comprehensive surveillance and
control that envelop Palestinian lives.
We also learned about the persistent, steadfast work that these
organizations undertake on a daily basis to defend against constant
violations of the most basic human rights. It is this courageous work
that the Israeli government wants to silence by demonizing them as
terrorist organizations. We in the international community cannot let
the Israeli apartheid regime shut down, isolate and criminalize their
critical human rights work!
Our delegation was the first from the U.S. to focus specifically on
political imprisonment and solidarity between Palestinian and U.S.
prisoners. Convened by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, a professor at San
Francisco State University, the delegation included former U.S.-held
political prisoners, Black Panthers, prison abolitionists, and labor
activists. We were already very familiar with the ways in which the U.S.
has criminalized political activists and Black, Brown and Indigenous
communities in order to repress resistance and dissent. Our visit to
Palestine strengthened our understanding of how the U.S. and Israel have
collaborated over decades to develop colonial carceral systems which
function in similar ways.
When we witnessed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy being tried in Israeli
military court as an adult and facing two life sentences, we thought
about the thousands of Black and Brown youth across the U.S. who are
tried and convicted as adults and are serving extreme sentences. When we
heard from mothers, wives and sisters about the arduous challenge of
visiting their loved ones in prison, traveling for 10-15 hours each way,
we thought of the countless women in the U.S. who make long, expensive
trips to their family members on a regular basis. When we saw the daily
arduous realities of crossing the Apartheid wall and multiple
checkpoints to get to work, schools and hospitals, we thought of the
hardship of working families in the U.S. who struggle daily to make ends
meet. When we heard about olive trees being burned and settlers taking
over farmers’ lands, we recalled the history of farmworker organizing
and indigenous peoples struggling to defend their lands in the U.S. We
understood the crucial importance of the human rights organizations that
insist on defending Palestinians despite the risks they themselves face.
In a recent L.A. Times op-ed
<https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-11-06/israel-human-rights-palestine-groups-designation-terrorism>,
two members of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
described some of their recent work. “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. “
Addameer challenged organizations in the U.S. “Imagine if the
nonprofits providing services to the most vulnerable among you were
being outlawed and their staff punished.”
Those of us working in community organizations, universities and labor
unions in the U.S. are not currently being outlawed in the same manner
as the human rights organizations in Palestine. Over the past several
years we have seen escalated campaigns targeting those who act and teach
in solidarity with Palestine and organize their communities against
racism and oppression. Clearly, the threat against Palestinian human
rights organizations has global implications for those of us who fight
for abolition and social justice.
We stand with the six criminalized organizations and demand that Israel
rescind the terrorist designations immediately. We demand that the US
government:
1. Affirm that the Biden administration’s commitment to human rights
has universal applicability;
2. Issue a public statement that rejects the Israeli government’s false
accusations levied against Palestinian civil society organizations;
3. Publicly condemn and rebuke Israel for this authoritarian action,
and call on Israeli authorities to immediately reverse their
decision and end all efforts aimed at delegitimizing and
criminalizing Palestinian human rights defenders;
4. Support Palestinians seeking the protection and promotion of
fundamental human rights, justice and accountability, including at
the International Criminal Court.
5. Cut all U.S. funding to Israel
*In Joint Struggle,*
* *Rabab Abdulhadi*, Professor and Director of the Arab and Muslim
Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies, San Francisco State University*,
California
* *Diana Block*, author and activist, California Coalition for Women
Prisoners*, San Francisco, California
* *Susan Chen*, counselor, faculty member California Faculty
Association – San Francisco State University*, California
* *Dennis Childs*, author and professor, University of California*,
San Diego
* *Susie Day*, writer, Monthly Review Press*, New York City, New York
* *Emory Douglas*, Revolutionary Artist and Minister of Culture, Black
Panther Party, 1967-1982
* *Diane Fujino*, author and professor, University of California*,
Santa Barbara
* *Alborz Ghandehari,* former member of UAW 2865 BDS Caucus* assistant
professor, University of Utah*
* *Anna Henry*, activist and member, California Coalition for Women
Prisoners*, San Francisco
* *Rachel Herzing,* Community Advisor to Center for Political Education
* *Hank Jones*, activist, former US-Held political prisoner and
member, Black Panther Party, Los Angeles, California
* *Manuel la Fontaine*, former US-held prisoner and member, All of Us
or None*, San Francisco, California
* *Claude Marks*, Former US-held political prisoner, Freedom
Archives*, San Francisco, California
* *Nathaniel Moore*, archivist, Freedom Archives*, San Francisco,
California
* *Isaac Ontiveros*, activist, Oakland, California
* *Michael Ritter*, counselor faculty (retired) ; (former) CSU
academic senator, and CFA Board, San Francisco State University,*
California
* *Jaime Veve*, Transport Workers Union, local 100NYC(retired).
* *Laura Whitehorn*, Former US-held political prisoner, New York City,
New York
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