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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">US lawmakers denounce Israel’s outlawing of Palestinian NGOs</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">QudsN - July 20, 2022<br></div>
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<p>Washington (QNN)- A group of United States lawmakers has called on
the Biden administration to publicly reject Israel’s outlawing of six
Palestinian human rights organisations.</p>
<p>In a letter sent on Monday to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, 21 members of
Congress – all Democrats and led by Ayanna Pressley – slammed the
absence of available evidence backing the Israeli allegations against
the Palestinian organisations.</p>
<p>“A reported lack of evidence to support this decision raises concerns
that it may be a deeply repressive measure, designed to criminalize and
silence prominent and essential Palestinian human rights
organizations,” the 21 Democrtas wrote.</p>
<p>They added, “These groups work directly with Palestinian women and
girls, children, low-income families, prisoners, and civil society
activists, providing direct services and monitoring human rights abuses
by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities.”</p>
<p>The US lawmakers noted that the Israeli occupation government has not
“produced any evidence publicly, only general allegations.”</p>
<p>“The criminalization of these Palestinian human rights and civil
society organizations also prompted the American Bar Association, the
world’s largest voluntary association of attorneys and legal
professionals, to send a letter to Israeli officials raising concerns
that Israeli authorities have failed to guarantee the civil society
organizations procedural rights under international law.”</p>
<p>“The government of Israel’s actions should be understood in their
broader context: Over the past several years, Israeli, Palestinian, and
international human rights and humanitarian organizations<br>
have faced an increasingly difficult operating environment and shrinking
civic space in Israel and the occupied West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.”</p>
<p>“This negatively impacts their ability to deliver assistance and advocate for human rights.”</p>
<p>“With this designation, there is now a legitimate fear that these
tactics will be used to criminalize Israeli and international NGOs as
well, leading to a possible shutdown of essential services, as well as
human rights monitoring and reporting inside Israel and the occupied
West Bank,” the US legislators said in the letter.</p>
<p>The letter requested a briefing from Biden administration officials
with the signatories to discuss the designation and the purported
evidence that ‘Israel’ said it provided to Washington to justify the
blacklisting of the groups.</p>
<p>“Evidence justifying this designation has not been provided publicly or to all Members of Congress, despite multiple requests.”</p>
<p>“We urge you to publicly reject this decision, call on the Israeli
government to reverse course, confirm a date for an inter-agency
briefing with the signatories below, and provide a report to Congress on
your efforts within 30 days,” the Democrats concluded in their letter.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The US must condemn any effort, anywhere to undermine life-saving humanitarian work.</p>
<p>That's why I led 21 colleagues in a letter to the <a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StateDept</a>
regarding Israel's criminalization of 6 Palestinian human rights orgs
supporting low-income folks, women & girls, clean water & more. <a href="https://t.co/e7d9MOjjxL">pic.twitter.com/e7d9MOjjxL</a></p>
<p>— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepPressley/status/1549106732508405765?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 18, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>The Israeli military commander also outlawed all six groups under the
1945 Emergency (Defense) Regulations, declaring them “unlawful
associations”.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>On July 12, in a<a href="https://qudsnen.co/european-countries-rejects-israels-outlawing-of-six-palestinian-ngos/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"> joint statement</a>,
the Spokespersons of the Foreign Ministries of Belgium, Denmark,
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden
expressed their opposition to the Israeli designation of the six
Palestinian civil society organisations as “terrorist organisations.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>“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’.”</p>
<p>“Should evidence be made available to the contrary, we would act accordingly,” the states stressed.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>The EU Commission has recently overturned a funding ban on two of the
groups — Al-Haq and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.</p>
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