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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.addameer.org/news/4472">addameer.org</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">UN Experts Call on Israel to End Campaign Targeting Palestinian HRDs in the oPt and within Its Borders</h1>
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<p><img src="https://www.addameer.org/sites/default/files/styles/scale_ima/public/upload/news/convers/OHCHR.png?itok=B4GhXc_N" alt="" width="367" height="137">
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<p>22-08-2021
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<div><p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>On 19 August 2021,<b> United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defender Mary Lawlor</b> </span></span></span><a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27375&LangID=E"><span><span><span>issued a statement</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span> concerning Israel’s escalating crackdown against human rights defenders across the occupied Palestinian territory.<a name="_ftnref1" title="" id="gmail-_ftnref1"><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span><span>[1]</span></span></span></span></span></span></a>
The statement addressed multiple prominent cases of arbitrary arrests,
harassment, criminalization, and threats against human rights defenders
in the oPt, and followed recent submissions to the working group by
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the
Palestinian Human Rights Council, on behalf of </span></span></span><a href="https://www.addameer.org/news/4440"><span><span><span>Salah Hammouri</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span> and </span></span></span><a href="https://www.addameer.org/news/4469"><span><span><span>Shatha Odeh</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Salah Hammouri, a
Palestinian-French human rights defender and lawyer at Addameer, risks
the revocation of his permanent residency in Jerusalem following Israeli
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked’s announcement to move forth with such
recommendations based on a “breach of allegiance.” The proposed
revocation, cited by Mary Lawlor, comes amid continued Israeli
harassment against Mr. Hammouri and his family, including previous
arbitrary arrests, a travel ban from entering the West Bank, and the
deportation of his wife, Elsa Lefort, a French national. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Ms. Lawlor further
denounced the arbitrary detention of Shatha Odeh, General Director of
the Health Work Committee (HWC), Juana Ruiz Sánchez, and Tayseer Abu
Sharbak, “I am shocked that members of the Health Work Committee, who
provide health services to Palestinians living in remote areas of the
West Bank, were arrested, interrogated and may be criminalized because
of their human rights work.” In the statement, she called for the
“release of all three human rights defenders immediately,” as well as an
investigation into allegations of ill-treatment.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Shatha Odeh’s health is
extremely compromised, wherein she suffers from numerous chronic
illnesses, has been subjected to ill-treatment, and denied access to
many of her medications. </span></span></span><a href="https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/ongoing-harassments-against-juana-ruiz-s%C3%A1nchez-health-work-committee"><span><span><span>Juana Ruiz Sánchez</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
has been detained since 13 April 2021 and was placed in solitary
confinement. The most recent detention of Shatha Odeh serves as the
latest escalation of attacks by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against
the HWC, and more broadly, Palestinian civil society and human rights
defenders.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>In outlining the
increasingly perilous conditions for human rights defenders, the
statement further cites the arbitrary arrest and detention of Farid
Al-Atrash, a human rights defender and lawyer at the Independent
Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), along with the arrest and
interrogation of human rights defenders Muna Al-Kurd, Mohammed Al-Kurd
and Zuhair Al Rajabi, who continue to protest the forced expulsion of
Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods of
Jerusalem.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Addameer reaffirms the
UN experts’ call against the harassment, targeting, and arrests of
Palestinian human rights defenders by the Israeli occupation regime,
including the call for the immediate release of detained human rights
defenders Shatha Odeh, Juana Ruiz Sánchez, and Tayseer Abu Sharbak. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Addameer further calls
for the cessation of all practices and policies intended to intimidate
and silence human rights defenders, in violation of their right to
freedom of expression, including through arbitrary detention, torture
and other ill-treatment, institutionalized hate speech and incitement,
residency revocation, deportations, and other coercive or punitive
measures.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><b><span lang="EN"><span><span><span>Read the full statement on the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner website </span></span></span></span></b><a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27375&LangID=E"><b><span><span><span><span>here</span></span></span></span></b></a><b><span lang="EN"><span><span><span>.</span></span></span></span></b></span></span></span></p>
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<p><span><span><span><a name="_ftn1" title="" id="gmail-_ftn1"><span><span lang="EN"><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>[1]</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></a> <span lang="EN"><span><span>The call was further endorsed by UN Human Rights experts including Michael Lynk, <i>Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967</i>; Melissa Upreti, Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, Elizabeth Broderick, Ivana Radačić, Meskerem Geset from the <i>Working Group on discrimination against women and girls</i>; Reem Alsalem, <i>Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences</i>; Tlaleng Mofokeng, <i>Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health</i>; and Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, <i>Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association</i>. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
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