[News] European countries reject Israel’s outlawing of six Palestinian NGOs

[Anti-Imperialist News]

qudsnen.co
<https://qudsnen.co/european-countries-rejects-israels-outlawing-of-six-palestinian-ngos/>
European countries rejects Israel’s outlawing of six Palestinian NGOsJuly
13, 2022
------------------------------

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- A number of European countries have rejected
Israel’s last year designation of six Palestinian civil society
organisations as terrorist groups, stressing they “will continue our
cooperation and strong support for the civil society in the oPT.”

In a joint statement
<https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/-/2542052>issued on
Tuesday, the Spokespersons of the Foreign Ministries of Belgium, Denmark,
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden have
expressed their opposition to the Israeli designation of six Palestinian
civil society organisations as “terrorist organisations.”

In a move met with widespread condemnation, on 19 October 2021, Israeli War
Minister, Benny Gantz, designated six leading Palestinian human rights and
civil society groups as “terrorist organizations” under Israel’s domestic
Counter-Terrorism (Anti-Terror) Law (2016).

The Israeli War Minister office claimed that the six groups were “part of a
network of organisations operating undercover in the international arena”
on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a
Marxist-Leninist Palestinian resistance group, which was listed as a
Foreign Terrorist Organisation in 1997 by the US State Department.

The six groups are: Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and
Development, Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), the
Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian
Women’s Committees (UPWC).

The Israeli military commander also outlawed all six groups under the 1945
Emergency (Defense) Regulations, declaring them “unlawful associations”.

Several UN human rights experts, civil society and development
organizations, academics and more from around the world condemned, over the
past months, Israel’s designations, standing in solidarity with the six
Palestinian groups and increasing their support for the Palestinian cause.

The European states said in the statement, “Accusations of terrorism or
links to terrorist groups must always be treated with the utmost
seriousness. The designations needed therefore to be assessed carefully and
extensively.”

“No substantial information was received from Israel that would justify
reviewing our policy towards the six Palestinian NGOs on the basis of the
Israeli decision to designate these NGOs as ‘terrorist organizations’.”

“Should evidence be made available to the contrary, we would act
accordingly,” the states stressed.

“In the absence of such evidence, we will continue our cooperation and
strong support for the civil society in the oPT. A free and strong civil
society is indispensable for promoting democratic values and for the
two-state solution,” the states concluded the statement.

The EU Commission recently also overturned a funding ban on two of the
groups — Al-Haq and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20220713/e4685f03/attachment.htm>