It’s been six months since the Israeli government designated multiple Palestinian civil society organizations as “terrorist institutions,” but despite repeated calls for action, the U.S. government has still not challenged the designations in any way.
In October 2021 Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced that six human rights groups (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) had ties to terrorists. Gantz claimed that the organizations “constitute an arm” of the Popular Front and their “main activity..is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel.” The Israeli government has still not provided any evidence linking the groups with terrorism.
Israel has still not provided any public evidence linking the groups with terrorism and classified documents obtained by +972, Local Call, and The Intercept reveal that the accusations are probably dubious.
Israel’s move was widely criticized. “This designation is a frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement, and on human rights everywhere,” declared the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Silencing their voices is not what a democracy adhering to well-accepted human rights and humanitarian standards would do. We call upon the international community to defend the defenders.”
“This appalling and unjust decision is an attack by the Israeli government on the international human rights movement,” read a joint statement put out by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. “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.
Israel sent a delegation to The White House to provide the Biden administration with what they claimed was “unequivocal” evidence against the human rights groups. “We receive detailed information from the Israeli government. We appreciated the consultation,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at the time. “We’re reviewing the information that they [Israel] provided us.”
Multiple lawmakers called for swift action from the President. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) introduced a resolution condemning the designations. It called on the Biden administration to denounce the move, pressure Israeli officials to rescind the decision, and publicly recognize the important work of Palestinian civil society groups. Eleven House members cosponsored the bill, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Cori Bush (D-MO.) Mondoweiss reached out to multiple cosponsors of the bill to ask about Biden’s lack of progress, but none had responded with comment before publication.
In November 2021 Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) sent a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken asking Biden to take action. “Mr. Secretary, it is not enough to have expressed an initial leeriness regarding Israel’s decision to designate these six organizations as terrorist groups,” it reads. “It is now time to firmly and unambiguously denounce the actions taken and urge the Israeli government to reverse its decisions.”
Six months later Biden still hasn’t take action. In fact, the administration claims it’s still looking at the evidence Israel provided last year. “We have received detailed information on that very question from our Israeli partners, and it’s something that we’re continuing to review,” said Ned Price at a State Department press briefing last week. “We received detailed information from our Israeli partners on the basis for their designation. We’re taking a very close look at that ourselves.”
Earlier this month the six Palestinian groups issued a joint statement calling on the United States, the European Union, and intergovernmental organizations to “take concrete action against the Israeli occupation authorities’ continued harassment” and demand a “full revocation of the designation.”
“The Israeli occupation’s criminalization of the six Palestinian organizations is explicitly intended 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,” reads the statement.
The groups note that these consequences are already being felt. In January 2022 the Dutch government cut funding to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), the European Commission suspended one of Al-Haq’s and one of UAWC’s projects, and a military court in the occupied West Bank sentenced the President of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, Khitam Sa’afin, to 16 months in prison.
“The Israeli government’s designation of DCIP as a terrorist organization is a blatant attempt to outlaw and eliminate our work documenting human rights violations against Palestinian children,” Defense for Children International – Palestine’s Miranda Cleland told Mondoweiss. “Just this week, our team has documented three cases where Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian children with live ammunition. Last year was the deadliest year for Palestinian children since 2014, and despite the Israeli government targeting our lawful human rights work, we’re committed to protecting and defending Palestinian children’s rights, regardless of how long the U.S. takes to review unfounded accusations by the Israeli government that has already been rejected by other states and UN experts.”
Al-Haq Legal Research and Advocacy Officer Ahmed Abofoul addressed the six-month anniversary on Twitter. “Today marks 6 months since Israel’s apartheid regime brazenly and calumny designated 6 Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations as ‘terrorist organizations’ without presenting a shred of evidence to states, let alone the organizations,” tweeted Abofoul. “These designations will have a lasting damaging effect on the organisations and their staff. Western states are still seeking ‘information’ and Israel refuses to present any. These states haven’t condemned the move yet and continue waiting endlessly!”
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“We emphasize that this policy was passed democratically & with a supermajority. This win is a demonstration of the popular power of students that has been built over time & will not be deterred by threats to democratic decision-making. To deny the legitimacy of the motion is to deny the will of the student body. We challenge the Deputy Provost’s portrayal of deep divisions among the campus community over initiatives for human rights. The most significant division on campus that we see—as has also been emphasized by the last three weeks of #OccupyMcGill actions—is the long standing divide between the actions of the administration & the voice of the student body.
“We are concerned that Deputy Provost Labeau brought up the upcoming initiative to prevent antisemitism & Islamophobia as a way of discrediting this democratic motion. Conflating criticism of the settler-colonial state of Israel with antisemitism is both incorrect & a dangerous distraction from real instances of antisemitism.
“Some Jewish organizations on McGill campus & beyond have condemned the policy, but these organizations do not represent all of the Jews in the McGill community, and do not have the right to speak for all of us. There is a significant diversity of perspectives within the Jewish community, as within any community. For many years, there has been a strong Jewish presence at McGill in solidarity with Palestinian human rights.
“So, to Jewish students on campus, we want to remind you that your Jewishness & solidarity with Palestinian human rights are not mutually exclusive. Rather, these two truths can, and should, be complementary. And to Palestinian students, please know that we are with you now as firmly than ever. We will always continue to fight for the future we believe in: One with justice, freedom, & dignity for all, which includes a free Palestine as well as the democratization of this campus.
Sincerely, Jewish Members of the McGill Community in Support of the Palestine Solidarity Policy.
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From a Canadian friend:
Open Letter from Jewish students on the Palestinian Solidarity Policy – The McGill Tribune
“Open Letter from Jewish students on the Palestinian Solidarity Policy”
by Jewish Members of the McGill Community in Support of the Palestine Solidarity Policy on March 31, 2022
To the McGill Community, Deputy Provost Fabrice Labeau, & the McGill Administration,
“As a group of Jewish students within the McGill community, we are writing to reaffirm our support for the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Palestine Solidarity Policy in the wake of Deputy Provost Fabrice Labeau’s response to its approval.
“On March 24, Labeau threatened to terminate the university’s Memorandum of Agreement with SSMU in objection to the Palestine Solidarity Policy passed less than 24 hours prior. The policy passed with an overwhelming majority of 71 per cent support during the SSMU’s Winter 2022 referendum, along with several other new fees. It marks a historic win for Palestinian students & their allies at McGill. For two decades, Palestinian students at McGill have worked tirelessly to educate their peers about the complicity of this institution in settler-colonial apartheid. Time & time again, their activism has been met with censorship, doxing, & repression from an openly hostile administration.
“In his letter, Deputy Provost Labeau claims that the policy causes ‘division’ within our campus community & violates the university’s principles of inclusion, diversity, & respect. This assertion is blatantly false. The policy is a project of solidarity & community, promoting the well-being of Palestinian students on campus & defending of Palestinian human rights abroad. We see the defense of human rights— & effectively the defense of this motion––as an enactment of our Jewish values.
“We, as Jewish McGillians, do not feel ‘unwelcome or rejected’ because of actions like the Palestine Solidarity Policy. We believe that this policy is a necessary, important step in the fight against McGill’s complicity in the violence of colonialism, racism, imperialism, militarism, & capitalism—from Turtle Island to Palestine.” (cont’d)
The whole WORLD fully knows that there is only “ONE TERRORIST ENTITY” in the Middle East.
It is not difficult to make this assessment.