In its latest attack on Palestinian civil society organizations, Israel labeled a number of Palestinian human rights groups, including Al-Haq and Defense for Children International – Palestine, as “terrorist institutions.”
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced on Friday that the list included six organizations, which he claimed has links to militant “terror” groups.
On the list were prominent institutions like Addameer, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Bisan Centre for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees.
Gantz’s office accused the groups of “operating under cover in the international arena” on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist resistance group which, like several other Palestinian political factions, Israel considers to be a “terrorist organization.”
The groups were also accused of working to “promote the goals of the terror organization , including the armed struggle [sic] destruction of Israel.”
According to Human Rights Watch, the designation”effectively outlaws” the activities of these civil society groups, and allows Israeli authorities to take a number of measures against them, including closing down their offices, seizing their assets, and arresting and jailing staff members.
It also criminalizes the funding or public expression of support for the organizations and their activities.
In response to the announcement, Khaled Quzmar, General Director of Defense for Children International – Palestine said the group rejected the designation “as another unjust action by Israeli authorities to criminalize and eliminate our lawful human rights and child protection work.”
“When years of delegitimization and disinformation campaigns against us have failed to silence our work, Israeli authorities choose to now escalate repressive tactics by labeling civil society organizations as terrorists.”
Khaled Quzmar, General Director of Defense for Children International – Palestine
“We defend Palestinian children in the Israeli military courts and expose grave violations against Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli forces,” the statement continued.
“When years of delegitimization and disinformation campaigns against us have failed to silence our work, Israeli authorities choose to now escalate repressive tactics by labeling civil society organizations as terrorists. The international community must use all available means to hold Israeli authorities accountable for targeted attacks and repression of Palestinian civil society organizations,” Quzmar said.
“An act characteristic of totalitarian regimes”
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released a joint statement, calling the decision “appalling and unjust.”
“For decades, Israeli authorities have systematically sought to muzzle human rights monitoring and punish those who criticize its repressive rule over Palestinians. While staff members of our organizations have faced deportation and travel bans, Palestinian human rights defenders have always borne the brunt of the repression,” the statement said.
“This decision is an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organizations. The decades-long failure of the international community to challenge grave Israeli human rights abuses and impose meaningful consequences for them has emboldened Israeli authorities to act in this brazen manner.”
The groups went on to express their pride in working with Palestinian civil society organizations, saying “we stand with them in challenging this outrageous decision.”
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, which has also been targeted by the Israeli government for its work, called the decision “an act characteristic of totalitarian regimes, with the clear purpose of shutting down these organizations.”
“B’Tselem stands in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues, is proud of our joint work over the years – and is steadfast to continue so,” the group said.
U.S. lawmakers react
A number of U.S. lawmakers reacted to the decision, with congresswoman Ilhan Omar calling the designation a “textbook way to evade accountability for human rights violations” and an “affront to everyone who cares about peace.”
“There must be immediate consequences from the US and the international community for this brazen act,” she said.
Congressman Mark Pocan called on Israel to rescind the “blanket” decision, highlighting “many of these organizations are working to bring peace in the region and are vocal critics [sic] Hamas & the PA.”
Reports late Friday stated that State Department Spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. will “ask Israel for clarifications” about the basis for designating the organizations as “terror” groups, saying “Israel didn’t give us prior warning about this designation.”
Years of attacks
Israel has a long history of targeting Palestinian civil society organizations by deeming them as “terror” organizations. In 2019, Al-Haq was one of several groups targeted in a smear campaign by then Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan, who accused the groups of “terrorism.”
The year before that, Erdan called on the European Union (EU) and European states to halt their financial support and funding to Al-Haq and a number of other human rights institutions that “have ties to terror and promote boycotts against Israel.”
Al-Haq is a pillar of Palestinian civil society, and for decades has documented human rights violations in Palestine and brought it forward to the international stage. In recent years, the group has been instrumental in efforts to get the ICC to open investigations into potential war crimes committed in the occupied territory.
Addameer, a prisoners rights group which provides free representation to Palestinian political prisoners imprisoned in Israeli jails, is a household name in Palestine, and has also been the subject of frequent Israel attacks.
In 2019, the group’s offices in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah were raided by the Israeli military, who seized computers, hard drives, files and equipment. It was the third time the army had raided Addameer’s offices since the early 2000s.
Earlier this year, DCIP, which documents Israeli violations against Palestinian children, including the unlawful arrest and detention of minors, was also targeted in a military raid, during which computers and client files were confiscated.
While Israeli authorities have largely failed to provide any evidence that these groups themselves have funded any of the PFLP’s activities, the groups are still targeted in large part due to the mere affiliation some of their staff have with the political faction.
This is all a mirror to what’s happening inside Israeli society – from Sylvain Cypel’s “The State of Israel Vs The Jews”, page 168:
“For a long time I used to walk around Tel Aviv with a t-shirt that read FREE GAZA”, the psychologist Kim Yuval told me. “I got some nasty remarks, but nothing happened. Today, that’s all over. If I wore that shirt now, I’d be lynched.” Yuval works with African immigrants these days, but he used to work for Palestinian rights. “Fifteen years ago, Israeli Jews would deliberately mix with the Palestinians during demonstrations, to protect them. The army wouldn’t dare shoot. Nowadays, that’s all over. The army doesn’t give a damn.”
“Israel labels leading Palestinian human rights groups ‘terrorist institutions’”
More proof that the Zionist leadership is becoming increasingly concerned about the pro-Palestinian shift taking place around the world, especially in the U.S.
This is what totalitarian regimes do when they don’t want the ugly truth of their crimes out in the open. It’s also what Israel does when it wants the US to blindly follow suit and also label them as terrorist organizations in an attempt to delegitimize all of the awful findings of human rights organizations that point out Israel’s crimes of Apartheid.
Israel has hacked and hijacked the minds of America in the wake of 9/11 and weaponized it to its advantage. Israel knows that simply labeling any organization as a “terrorist” organization is the equivalent to placing the Mark of Cain on them in terms of American public and political backlash.
This is an effort to silence human rights, cut off the sources that report on Israel’s crimes, and the plight of the suffering victims, and it is basically discriminatory, and certainly not what “the only democracy in the Middle East” should be doing. Will America pretend to be shocked and admonish their dear ally as usual, and let it do what the hell they want anyway? Even in the US labeling some outfit as “terrorists” goes through some process. So what procedure did Israel use, and what is the criteria they followed? Will they use the same criteria and label the illegal settler thugs, who attack, harass, injure, and kill unarmed civilians too? Now those terrorists also use weapons to attack Palestinians, and burn their homes, and should rightfully be labelled “terrorists”.
WOW! Breaking news:
In rebuke, US demands Israel explain terror listing for Palestinian NGOs | The Times of Israel
“In rebuke, US demands Israel explain terror listing for Palestinian NGOs” The Times of Israel, Oct. 22/21, by Jacob Magid
EXCERPT:
“State Department says it was not informed of move ahead of time, appears to join others casting doubt on Jerusalem’s stance that rights organizations served as fronts for terror.””The US will seek Israel’s explanation as to why it decided to brand six Palestinian rights organizations as terror groups, a State Department spokesman said Friday, after others questioned Jerusalem’s justification for the move in its immediate aftermath.
“Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced earlier Friday that half a dozen civil society groups were being designated as terror organizations, saying that they had effectively operated as an arm for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group. The move sparked a swift backlash around the globe, with the European Union, the Palestinian Authority, progressive Democrats, US Jewish groups, and international human rights organizations expressing criticism.
“The US will ‘be engaging our Israeli partners for more information regarding the basis for these designations,’ Ned Price said during a telephone briefing with reporters.
“’The Israeli government did not give us advance warning’ that the Palestinian groups would be blacklisted, he added.
“’We believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance,’ Price said.
“The State Department spokesman also condemned Israel for its recently published plans to advance plans for thousands of settlement units to be built throughout the West Bank.
“Earlier, the UN and European Union had separately raised doubts about Israel’s reasoning for the black listings.
“’The designation decisions published by the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel list extremely vague or irrelevant reasons, including entirely peaceful and legitimate activities such as provision of legal aid and ‘promotion of steps against Israel in the international arena,’ the UN Human Rights Office in Ramallah charged.
“An EU statement noted that ‘Past allegations of the misuse of EU funds in relation to some of our Palestinian [civil society organization] partners have not been substantiated.'”