[News] ‘It won’t end with us’: Addameer director warns of repercussions of Israeli ‘terror’ designation

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mondoweiss.net
<https://mondoweiss.net/2022/01/it-wont-end-with-us-addameer-director-warns-of-repercussions-of-israeli-terror-designation/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-email-mailpoet>
‘It
won’t end with us’: Addameer director warns of repercussions of Israeli
‘terror’ designation
By Yumna Patel - January 7, 2022
------------------------------

In a small office near downtown Ramallah, a melting pot of staff members,
of all ages, genders, and backgrounds, flow in and out of their workspaces.
Some of the staff chat while they have lunch, while others sit at their
computers, or comb over files at their desks.

It’s a typical office scene that can be found most anywhere in the world —
books line the shelves, while art posters and the faces of the clients they
have helped cover the walls.

Any stranger who might enter the office, belonging to Addameer, the
premiere Palestinian prisoners rights group, would be surprised to find out
that the staff members in front of them are at risk of being arrested at
any moment by Israel, which considers the organization they work for the be
a “terrorist institution.”

Addameer, along with five other Palestinian civil society organizations, was
designated by Israel as a “terrorist institution”
<https://mondoweiss.net/2021/11/palestinian-human-rights-activists-target-of-israeli-spyware-hack/>
in October, with the government claiming the groups had ties to and were
channeling money to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP). The PFLP, a Marxist-Leninist group, which, like several other
Palestinian political factions, is considered by Israel to be a “terrorist
organization.”

The move, aimed at criminalizing the work of the six organizations and
cutting their international funding, sparked widespread condemnation from
human rights groups across the globe.

Despite the pushback against the decision, Israel has refused to provide
concrete evidence of its claims
<https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10515>. In November, Israel’s
military commander in the West Bank issued five separate military orders
outlawing the work of the organization in the occupied territory,
effectively allowing for their imminent shut down, the seizure of their
assets, and the detention of their staff.

“It has been a very stressful time here,” Sahar Francis, the Director of
Addameer told *Mondoweiss* from her office in Ramallah. “It is all very
scary, and has definitely affected the spirit of the staff,” she said.

“But this is what Israel wants,” she said. “They are doing all this to shut
us down and silence us, and bring us to the point where we will give up and
say ‘it’s not worth it’.”
*Why now?*

Francis and her staff are part of a network of Palestinian human rights
advocates working to defend the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
jails, which today, number 5,000.

When it was established in 1991, Addameer was one of the few groups
offering pro bono legal aid to Palestinian prisoners in both the Israeli
military and civil courts. Once the Palestinian Authority  was established,
the group extended those same services to political prisoners held by the
PA.

At its core, Addameer works to serve Palestinian prisoners, who have been
imprisoned by a military system that has over a 99% conviction rate. The
group conducts visitations and legal consultations for prisoners, monitors
and documents violations by the Israeli Prison Service, specifically the
torture and mistreatment of prisoners, and advocates for the rights of
Palestinian prisoners on the international stage.

The group also conducts training and awareness programs for the local
community, students, and children — anyone who might be subject to arrest
and imprisonment by Israel.

For 30 years, the group has been advocating for prisoners rights under
occupation, and has become a pillar of the local community, and of the
international human rights community in the process.

So, why, after 30 years of work, would Israel want to criminalize the group?

“The attacks on our organization did not just start with the designation,”
Francis said, adding that October’s ruling was the last step in a long
journey of targeted harassment by the state against Addameer and other
Palestinian NGOs.

“The campaign against us has been ongoing for many years: harassment, smear
campaigns, defamation, the distribution of false information about us by
different groups like NGO monitor, UK Lawyers for Israel, and other right
wing Israeli groups,” Francis said.

The key goal of previous smear campaigns and the recent criminalization of
the group, Francis said, is to “affect our work by affecting our
reputation.”

The main target of such campaigns, she said, are the international donors
and partners who fund and support groups like Addameer.

“The policy behind all these attacks is actually to terrify the donors, and
to terrify those who were investing in civil society in Palestine.”
Sahar Francis

“By attacking our donors, they hope that the donors would be terrified and
cut our funds, and through this, they could stop us from doing our daily
work,” Francis said, adding that the latest designation of the group as a
“terrorist organization” was the culmination of previous failed attempts to
cut the groups’ international funding.

“Since all their campaigns didn’t work before, they came up with the
designation,” she said. “The policy behind all these attacks is actually to
terrify the donors, and to terrify those who were investing in civil
society in Palestine.”

“Israel’s message to the international community that supports the
Palestinian people is: don’t you dare come and implement your projects
here.”
*Why Addameer, and ‘the 6’?*

Joining Addameer on the list of banned organizations, are other prominent
institutions like Al-Haq, Defense for Children International – Palestine,
the Bisan Centre for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian
Women’s Committees, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees.

For Francis, the reason why Israel has chosen to target the six
organizations is clear: by criminalizing Palestinian civil society, Israel
can continue to change facts on the ground, without facing accountability
for its violations of international law.

“Organizations like the agricultural works committee, for example, deal
with land construction and supporting Palestinian farmers, especially in
areas where Israel is looking to confiscate and annex land, like the
Jordanian Valley and Area C,” Francis said.

“These are very sensitive areas that Israel wants to control, so of course
this organization would be attacked.”

“Israel does not want anyone to say no to their plans, or document their
violations and submit it to the ICC so they can be held accountable for the
war crimes they are committing on a daily basis. The fact that they are
trying to silence us is connected to all of this.”
Sahar Francis

Addameer, Al-Haq, and DCIP, have placed an important focus on international
advocacy, and provide reports and documentation of Israeli violations to
the ICC and other international bodies, in order to hold Israel accountable
for its crimes in the occupied territory.

“We insist on accountability, and that we must use every tool offered by
the international law on the UN level and other platforms in order to
guarantee accountability,” Francis said. “So of course, we would be
attacked for this work.”

“Israel does not want anyone to say no to their plans, or document their
violations and submit it to the ICC so they can be held accountable for the
war crimes they are committing on a daily basis,” Francis continued.

“The fact that they are trying to silence us is connected to all of this.”
*What happens now?*

In the wake of the attack on the six organizations, the groups have
launched a campaign to #StandWithThe6, calling on supporters to express
solidarity with the six Palestinian human rights organizations and demand a
reversal of the Israeli decision.

Despite a strong response from fellow human rights organizations and civil
society groups, the organizations have been left disappointed by the
reaction, or lack thereof, of major players like the United States and the
EU.

While the EU reinforced its support for Palestinian civil society,
individual states have failed to decry the designation outright, and the US
has remained relatively silent on the matter, refusing to take a stance.

“I think this silence is very bad and dangerous, not just against
Palestinian civil society but against the entire human rights movement in
the world,” she said.

“Is the US interested in dismantling entirely the whole Palestinian civil
society system? If yes, then silence would be the answer. But if not, it’s
very important they take a position.”
Sahar Francis

“The U.S. has a very important role in this issue. If the U.S. is not going
to take a very clear position in rejecting this decision, this is a silent
message to, in the least, the banking system that ‘you can do whatever you
want, you can freeze the accounts, it’s not our business’,” Francis said.

Francis warned that while the “terrorist” designation has started with the
six organizations, it will not end with them.

“It will start with us, but it’s not going to be just us in the end. This
is going to effect the whole Palestinian human rights and civil society
sector,” she said. “Is the US interested in dismantling entirely the whole
Palestinian civil society system? If yes, then silence would be the answer.
But if not, it’s very important they take a position.”

In spite of the ongoing pressure being faced by the organizations, and the
imminent threat of their closure and potential arrest, Francis said that
she and the staff at Addameer will continue to push on.

“We don’t have any other choice but to keep going, to continue,” she said.
“It is worth it.”

“Not just because of the prisoners, but because of the self determination
of our people. Our struggle for justice and dignity is worth the high price
that we might pay as individuals,” she continued.

“At the end of the day we are not alone. The support from our friends
around the world, and from grassroots organizations everywhere, is also
giving us hope that one day justice will really come. It can’t be that the
occupation will last forever. No, it will end.”
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