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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.addameer.org/news/4748">addameer.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The Six Palestinian Civil Society Organizations Demand Concrete Action to Revoke Israel's Sinister Designation</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">April 6, 2022<br></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><p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>The Six prominent Palestinian civil society and human rights </span></span></span><a href="https://palcivilsociety.com/"><span><span><span>organizations</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
welcomed the meeting organized by the Carter Center in Ramallah today,
and emphasized on its importance to show solidarity and support to civil
society and human rights in Palestine. Panelists during the </span></span></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1017904845824192" target="_blank"><span><span><span>press conference</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
included Ms. Paige Alexander, Chief Executive Officer of the Carter
Center, Advocate Sahar Francis, the General Director of Addameer
Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and Mr. Shawan Jabarin,
the General Director of Al-Haq. Ms. Alexander highlighted the importance
of civil society for the protection of human rights and stressed that
Israel's acts such as the designation makes it harder for civil society
to carry out their vital work, and called on the International community
to continue to pressure Israel to rescind the designation against the
six Palestinian organizations. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Our joint statement distributed during the press conference reads as follows:</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Over five months have
passed since the Israeli occupation’s blanket criminalization of six
leading Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations (CSOs)
in</span></span></span><a href="https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/19179.html"> </a><a href="https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/19179.html"><span><span><span>a military order</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span> published on 3 November 2021, two weeks after their</span></span></span><a href="https://www.addameer.org/news/4541"> </a><a href="https://www.addameer.org/news/4541"><span><span><span>arbitrary designation</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
by Israel’s “Defense” Minister as “terror organizations” on 19 October
2021. This unprecedented and sinister move has been widely denounced by</span></span></span><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/22/israel/palestine-designation-palestinian-rights-groups-terrorists"> </a><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/22/israel/palestine-designation-palestinian-rights-groups-terrorists"><span><span><span>international human rights organizations</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span> and</span></span></span><a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27702&LangID=E"> </a><a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27702&LangID=E"><span><span><span>UN bodies</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
as a “frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement, and on
human rights everywhere.” State parties, including the EU, have
similarly denounced the move, though in regrettably weaker terms without
concrete action.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>The blanket
criminalization represents an unprecedented escalation of decades of the
Israeli occupation’s systematic harassment campaigns against the
Palestinian CSOs and another step in the </span></span></span><a href="https://docdro.id/KZzwauX"><span><span><span>formalizing annexation</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
of the West Bank through the application of Israeli law on Palestinian
Organizations and entrenching the Israeli control over Palestinian
Society through the reengineering of Palestinian Civic Space. The
imminent consequences of the latest move are especially grave, allowing
Israeli occupation authorities to raid the organizations’ offices, seize
all assets, arbitrarily arrest staff, and prohibit funding, and/or even
public support, for their activities.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Since then, our
organizations, represented by Adalah Legal Center and the offices of
Attorney Michael Sfard and Attorney Jawad Boulous, have undertaken
formal procedures challenging the evidentiary basis of the military
order. On 16 November 2021, our legal team</span></span></span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10504"> </a><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10504"><span><span><span>sent a letter</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
to Israeli security authorities demanding they reveal the entirety of
the evidence forming the basis of the designations, to which the Israeli
Military Attorney</span></span></span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10515"> </a><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10515"><span><span><span>responded</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>,
on 2 January 2021, that “the core of the declarations is based on
classified…information that cannot be disclosed.” Thereafter, we filed a</span></span></span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10544"> </a><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10544"><span><span><span>procedural objection</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
against the military order, noting the illegality of the declarations,
the absence of due process, and the lack of an evidentiary basis for the
declaration.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>The consequential
negative impact of these designations has been acutely felt by our
organizations. Most importantly, they’ve hampered the critical services
we provide to those most marginalized and at-risk in Palestinian
communities including women, children, agricultural workers, and
political prisoners. Notwithstanding, the weak responses and recent
actions of State parties and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) that
prominently claim to be supportive of democratic principles and human
rights only exacerbate the acute damaging consequences.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Three recent cases are worth noting: (1) the Dutch government's</span></span></span><a href="https://uawc-pal.org/Files/Funding2022.pdf"> </a><a href="https://uawc-pal.org/Files/Funding2022.pdf"><span><span><span>decision</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
on 5 January 2022 to end its funding for the Union of Agricultural Work
Committees (UAWC); (2) the European Commission’s extended and arbitrary</span></span></span><a href="https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/19424.html"> </a><a href="https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/19424.html"><span><span><span>funding suspension</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
of one of Al-Haq’s and one of UAWC’s projects funded by the European
Union (EU); and (3) an Israeli military judge at Ofer military court in
the occupied West Bank sentenced the President of the Union of
Palestinian Women’s Committees, Khitam Sa’afin, to 16 months
imprisonment after nearly 15 months of arbitrary detention.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>The practice of
withholding alleged “secret evidence” remains the modus operandi of the
Israeli occupation and apartheid regime. The latest designations,
however, mark a gross expansion of the practice in an attempt to cripple
any independent functioning Palestinian civil society. The Israeli
occupation’s criminalization of the six Palestinian organizations is</span></span></span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-the-ngos-israel-designated-as-terror-groups-remain-legal-in-the-west-bank-1.10345231"> </a><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-the-ngos-israel-designated-as-terror-groups-remain-legal-in-the-west-bank-1.10345231"><span><span><span>explicitly intended</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN"><span><span>
to have secondary and tertiary consequences for the capacity of the
human rights and civil society organizations to continue their vital
work, especially their work in holding Israel accountable for its crimes
and international law violations committed against the Palestinian
people.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>It is regrettable that
States, IGOs, and other actors have failed to move beyond verbal
denunciations of Israeli authorities’ criminalization of Palestinian
civil society; it is unacceptable that they instead take on decisions
that compound upon the persecution of the six Palestinian organizations,
without taking any concrete actions to hold the Israeli occupation and
apartheid regime accountable. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>As such, we call on
States, especially the US and Intergovernmental Organizations, and the
European States claiming to support the global protection of human
rights to: </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<ul><li><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span><span>Take concrete
action against the Israeli occupation authorities’ continued harassment
and criminalization of Palestinian human rights defenders and civil
society organizations; by calling for full revocation of the designation</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li><li><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span><span>States to publicly dismiss Israel’s designation of the six organizations </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li><li><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span><span>Immediately end the complicity and silence to the Israeli apartheid regime</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li><li><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span><span>Call on your State officials and relevant policymakers to meet with the six Palestinian organizations. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li></ul>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Further, we call on
individuals of consciousness from around the world to call attention to
this blanket attack on Palestinian civil society and human rights and to
immediately and urgently contact their elected officials and insist
they hold Israeli authorities accountable and protect human rights in
Palestine.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span lang="EN"><span><span>Watch the recording of the press conference </span></span></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1017904845824192" target="_blank"><span><span><span>here.</span></span></span></a></span></span></span></p>
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