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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/2018/12/21/donorbox-suspends-bds-account">https://palestinelegal.org/news/2018/12/21/donorbox-suspends-bds-account</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Donorbox Suspends BDS National
Committee’s Account After Threats from Israeli Legal Group</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">December 21, 2018</div>
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<p><strong>Media Contact: </strong><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:media@palestinelegal.org">media@palestinelegal.org</a></p>
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<p>After legal threats and false allegations from
Shurat HaDin-The Israel Law Center, the donation
platform Donorbox has temporarily <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/fundraising-site-suspends-bds-campaign-account-181221094816207.html"
target="_blank">suspended</a> the BDS National
Committee’s account, disabling its ability to
fundraise for its human rights advocacy at the
height of the charity season.</p>
<p>WikiLeaks revealed in 2013 that Shurat HaDin works
in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-law-center-shurat-hadin-admits-mossad-ties"
target="_blank">close coordination with the
Israeli intelligence agency</a> to pursue legal
action against Israel’s critics. The group regularly
uses litigation to harass individuals and groups
worldwide who challenge Israel’s oppression of
Palestinians or endorse boycott and divestment
campaigns for Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>Said Palestine Legal Director Dima Khalidi, “The
accusations from Shurat HaDin are false and based on
flimsy legal theories. Shurat HaDin are themselves
engaging in unlawful interference with the BNC’s
peaceful grassroots advocacy to achieve freedom and
equality for Palestinians. We call on Donorbox to
complete its investigation rapidly and reinstate
BNC's account.”</p>
<p>Said CCR Deputy Legal Director <a
href="https://ccrjustice.org/home/who-we-are/staff/lahood-maria"
target="_blank">Maria LaHood</a>, “This is one
more example of a widespread effort to punish
Palestinian existence and thwart advocacy for
Palestinian rights. These baseless threats to
intimidate and chill the growing movement for
Palestinian freedom will only strengthen it.”</p>
<p>Accusations that the BNC’s fundraising in any way
constitutes “material support for terrorism,” as
Shurat HaDin has insinuated, rely on unsupported and
false claims that funds raised by the BNC “may” go
to groups designated as terrorist organizations by
the U.S. government.</p>
<p>Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of the BDS
movement, <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/fundraising-site-suspends-bds-campaign-account-181221094816207.html"
target="_blank">stated</a>, "They are making
categorically false allegations, threatening and
bullying our partners and service providers in a
desperate attempt to undermine our ability to
challenge Israel's regime of apartheid and
oppression."</p>
<p>Shurat HaDin has been behind a number of other
attempts to stamp down advocacy for Palestinian
rights around the world, often with harassing
lawsuits that have no legal merit, that ignore a
host of state and federal laws as well as the First
Amendment protections of the U.S. Constitution. It
has repeatedly threatened legal action against
groups that have endorsed boycotts for Palestinian
rights, including <a
href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/2015/9/10/palestine-legals-statement-on-shurat-hadins-claim-against-ge?rq=shurat%20hadin"
target="_blank">General Electric</a> when the
Union of Electrical Workers endorsed BDS, the
Presbyterian Church, the Park Slope Food Co-op, <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-zealand-activists-dismiss-israeli-courts-damages-order-over-lorde-concert/"
target="_blank">young women in New Zealand</a> who
urged the pop star Lorde not to play in Israel, and,
most recently, it filed a lawsuit against Airbnb for
its decision to delist properties located in illegal
Israeli settlements. </p>
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415 863.9977
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