[News] Israeli Occupying Forces Raid, Damage and Close Offices of Al-Haq and other Designated Organizations, International Community Must Intervene
Anti-Imperialist News
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Thu Aug 18 10:39:44 EDT 2022
Alert: Israeli Occupying Forces Raid, Damage and Close Offices of Al-Haq
and other Designated Organisations, International Community Must Intervene
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*Alert: Israeli Occupying Forces Raid, Damage and Close Offices of
Al-Haq and other Designated Organisations, International Community Must
Intervene*
*#**S**tand**W**ith**T**he6*
18 August 2022
During the early morning hours of 18 August 2022, at approximately 3:00
am, Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) entered Ramallah, targeting, forcibly
entering, raiding the offices and confiscating property from the six
designated
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=18f8ed1f5c&e=08c14cf485>
Palestinian civil society organisations, Al-Haq, Addameer, the Bisan
Center for Research & Development, Defence for Children
International-Palestine, Union of Agricultural Workers Committees
(UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC). The
incursion, raids, pillage and closures, are the latest in a pattern of
repressive attacks by Israel, targeting Palestinian civil society
organisations who advocate for human rights and international rule of
law, and call for an end to Israel’s aggressive 74-year colonial and
apartheid regime, that denies the collective right to self-determination
of the Palestinian people and the right of refugees to return.
On 19 October 2021, Israel designated six leading Palestinian human
rights organizations as “terrorist” groups under its Counter Terrorism
Law, 2016. The designation was given effect in the occupied Palestinian
territory (OPT), on 3 November under a military order, declaring the
organisations as unlawful associations under Regulation 84(1)(b) of the
Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945. The military order
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=bf91465ac0&e=08c14cf485>declares
that “every member of the institution ‘Al-Haq Institution’ or
‘Al-Haq’…is an illegal organization in the meaning of the defense
regulations.” Following yesterday’s decision
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=c75ba2d59b&e=08c14cf485>
by Benny Gantz, the military order has taken full effect in the OPT,
whereupon Yehuda Fox, the Israeli military commander, led an armed
incursion into Ramallah to forcibly close the six organisations, in an
attempt to quash the work of human rights defenders, in serious
violation of the right to freedom of expression and association. Such
orders infringe upon and overreach into the work of human rights
organisations and civil society, exceeding the competence of the
military commander under Article 43 of the Hague Regulations (1907), in
addition to violating fundamental humanitarian rights guarantees of
protected persons under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949).
At 3:23 am, Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) forcibly blasted through the
locked security door of Al-Haq’s offices, bursting the door from its
hinges and raiding the premises, setting off the alarms. Below the
premises of Al-Haq, the IOF bludgeoned and broke the front door of the
Episcopal Church, leaving long shards of exposed broken glass,
sponge-grenades, and several teargas canisters, rubber coated and live
bullets around the property. Armed military forces broke into Al-Haq,
systematically raiding each room and blasting the hinges off the locked
doors of the finance department, the administrative office, the General
Director’s office, and the main server room, causing material damage.
The military rummaged through files, scattered and displaced accounting
folders to the ground, knocked over coffee cups leaving spillages, and
trashed offices, and trashed and bathrooms.
In Al-Haq’s meeting room, raiding soldiers tore an Irish flag to the
ground, which had been symbolically placed in recognition of the
Occupied Territories Bill, prohibiting the import of settlement goods
and services. In addition, the IOF tore down large maps of 1948
Palestine, maps which depict an unfragmented Palestine, free from the
tyranny of settler colonialism and apartheid and the infliction of
international crimes. The IOF also removed from the wall at reception,
the framed certificate of the prestigious Geuzenpenning Prize for Human
Rights Defenders, awarded to Al-Haq in 2010, for Al-Haq’s commitment and
excellence in documenting and monitoring Israel’s widespread and
systematic violations of human rights against the Palestinian people.
After raiding and rampaging through Al-Haq’s offices, the IOF welded a
new reinforced iron door to the outside of Al-Haq’s office, completely
sealing off the office and preventing any entry, attaching, alongside
it, a military order, and another copy of the order on the main entrance
door. The military order states that, under Article 319 of the Emergency
Regulations, of 1945, and following the declaration on 3 November 2021
of Al-Haq as an unlawful association, the Israeli military commander
orders the closure of Al-Haq’s offices for the safety and security of
the area, the IOF and public order. The military order further warned
that “those administering the organisation, must shut down the
organisation, refrain from managing it and keep it shut, from the moment
of receipt of this order”. According to the military order, Al-Haq's
office is considered to be illegal or is used to conduct activities that
are considered illegal.
In raising this urgent alert, Al-Haq calls on the international
community to immediately intervene to protect the six designated
organisations, whose finances and assets risk being confiscated, and
their staff members, directly targeted, arbitrarily arrested and
imprisoned. Al-Haq warns that, in targeting the Palestinian civil
society organisations, Israel is dismantling the very fabric of the
Palestinian society, and systematically removing the critically vital
monitoring and oversight institutions, necessary for a viable and
functioning society based on the principles of democracy, human rights
and the rule of law.
In view of the above, Al-Haq urges the international community to take
concrete actions, including:
* Call on Israel, to urgently and immediately rescind the designations
labeling the organizations as ‘terrorist’, as violating the freedoms
of opinion and expression, and freedom of association, and amount to
acts of apartheid prosecutable under Article 7(2)(h) of the Rome
Statute;
* Call on the international community to pressure Israel to
immediately reverse the military order designating the six
organisations as unlawful associations, and the military order
commanding the closure of closing the organisations’ premises,
criminalising the work of the six organisations and their staff;
* Take concrete measures, such as trade restrictions and arms
embargoes, to ensure that Israel is held internationally responsible
for its ongoing systematic inhumane acts of apartheid, including the
persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders;
* Calls on the Assembly of States Parties and the Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court, to intervene to and protect and ensure
the viability of organisations working to submit evidence to the Court;
* Calls on Third States to continue their support and increase
funding, including core funding to the six organisations, and engage
with financial institutions in their home States to ensure the
transfer of funds to the six organisations.
See this statement on our website here
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=f2ec249990&e=08c14cf485>.
Twitter
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=5ddc8d458e&e=08c14cf485>
Facebook
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=6d2486bad8&e=08c14cf485>
Website
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=3c8e552205&e=08c14cf485>
/Copyright © 2022 Al-Haq Organization, All rights reserved./
Contacts Al Haq
*Our mailing address is:*
Al-Haq Organization
54 Main Street
Ramallah P6008148
Palestine
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