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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210729-israeli-forces-raid-dcip-office-confiscate-computers-and-client-files/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel raids office of children's rights group, confiscates computers, files</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">July 29, 2021</div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div id="gmail-post-content"> <p>Israeli
forces raided Defense for Children International – Palestine's
headquarters in the central occupied West Bank, confiscating computers
and client files, early Thursday morning.</p> <p>Israeli paramilitary
border police forces raided DCIP's headquarters located in Al-Bireh's
Sateh Marhaba neighborhood, located just south of Ramallah around 5:15
a.m. on July 29. More than a dozen Israeli soldiers forced open the
office's locked front door and confiscated six desktop computers, two
laptops, hard drives, and client files related to Palestinian child
detainees represented by DCIP's lawyers in Israel's military courts. No
documents were left in the office to give any indication of the reason
for the raid, and they did not leave behind any receipt of materials
seized.</p> <p>"This latest act by Israeli authorities pushes forward an
ongoing campaign to silence and eliminate Palestinian civil society and
human rights organizations like DCIP," said Khaled Quzmar, general
director at DCIP. "Israeli authorities must immediately end efforts
aimed at delegitimizing and criminalizing Palestinian human rights
defenders and civil society organizations, and the international
community must hold Israeli authorities accountable."</p> <p>Video
surveillance footage from inside the DCIP office shows Israeli forces
entering the premises at 5:15 a.m. The Israeli soldiers move through the
DCIP office gathering computers, laptops, and files, and then cut the
closed-circuit television camera feed at 5:27 a.m.</p> <p>Israeli,
Palestinian, and international human rights and humanitarian
organizations face an increasingly difficult operating environment and
shrinking civic space in Israel and the occupied West Bank, including
East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Recent attempts to delegitimize
humanitarian and human rights organizations operating in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, in particular, have been on the rise in recent
years, negatively impacting their ability to deliver assistance and
advocate on behalf of Palestinian human rights.</p> <p>Delegitimization attempts and disinformation have been advanced by a <a href="https://www.swp-berlin.org/en/publication/israel-the-rise-of-bad-civil-society" target="_blank">network of rising nationalist</a>
Israeli civil society organizations and associated organizations
elsewhere, with the support of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
These efforts take the form of targeted and organized defamation
campaigns based on a range of allegations related to the violation of
counter-terrorism legislation and international law. In most cases, if
not all, these allegations are erroneous, misrepresent, and distort
critical factual or legal elements.</p> <p>In February 2020, following a
defamation campaign waged by Israeli officials and right-wing
organizations, the Government of Belgium effectively <a href="https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-children-security-council/" target="_blank">rescinded</a>
its invitation to Brad Parker, DCIP's senior adviser for policy and
advocacy, to address the UN Security Council. Parker had been invited to
brief Security Council members on violations of children's rights in
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.</p> <p>In June 2019,
DCIP, represented by Bindmans LLP, issued libel proceedings against the
U.K.-based group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) in London at the High
Court of Justice for publishing blog posts on their website and sending
letters to institutional donors alleging DCIP had strong "links" to a
designated terrorist group. UKLFI alleged that "donations to DCIP have
encouraged and/or facilitated acts of terrorism" and threatened to
report donors to relevant authorities if they did not cease providing
DCIP with financial support. In March 2020, DCIP <a href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/uk_lawyers_for_israel_recants_allegations_of_dcip_material_support_to_terror_group" target="_blank">reached a settlement</a> in its defamation case in which UKLFI recanted allegations that DCIP provides support to terrorist organizations.</p> <p>"Rather
than demand Israeli forces end serious breaches of international law or
that Israeli authorities hold perpetrators accountable, rising
conservative nationalist social forces in Israel, including government
ministries and agencies, aim to silence and eliminate legitimate human
rights work that exposes widespread human rights violations inherent in
Israel's military occupation of Palestinians," Quzmar said.</p> <p>DCIP
is an independent, local Palestinian child rights organization dedicated
to defending and promoting the rights of children living in the West
Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. For 30 years, DCIP
has investigated, documented, and exposed grave human rights violations
against Palestinian children; provided legal services to children in
urgent need; held Israeli and Palestinian authorities accountable to
universal human rights principles; and advocated at the international
and national levels to advance access to justice and protection for
children.</p> <p>DCIP passes all international and rigorous financial
and due diligence vetting mechanisms, including checking information
against banking, law enforcement, and US Department of Treasury Office
of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) watchlists. DCIP is vetted and supported
by various international, regional, and national institutions and
government partners and donors. All DCIP programming, including
monitoring and documentation work and evidence-based output, remains
independent and strictly based on international human rights law and
international humanitarian law.</p> <p>"As the Israeli government
becomes increasingly emboldened and acts to criminalize legitimate human
rights and humanitarian work carried out by Palestinian human rights
and civil society organizations, I am deeply concerned that politically
motivated prosecutions in Israel's military court system will become the
norm," Quzmar said.</p> <p><strong>READ: </strong><strong><a title="US congressmen seek to introduce bill banning UNRWA donations" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210729-us-congressmen-seek-to-introduce-bill-banning-unrwa-donations/">US congressmen seek to introduce bill banning UNRWA donations</a></strong></p>
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