Description

Graphic:
Statement by 46 Israel organizations.
Source: HaMoked via Twitter
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ג'סיקה - جيسيكا - Jessica
@JessicaMontell
Any expression of support for a "terror group" is a criminal offense in Israel. Signing this statement means being willing to take a real risk.
So it is doubly heartening that 46 Israeli organizations chose to #StandWithThe6, in solidarity with Palestinian civil society

@HaMokedRights
· 12h

Along with 46 civil society organizations in Israel, we are proud to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues who have been criminalized, and subjected to raids & interrogations.
We call on the international community to #StandWithThe6:

[Text of graphic:]

Human Rights Are Not Terrorism

Israel is persisting in its declaration of prominent Palestinian civil society organizations as terrorist groups. Recently, the military put words into action by raiding their offices and shutting them down.

These declarions are baseless. Indeed, the U.S. administration, the European Union and other allies of Israel found Israel's allegations unconvincing. After throughly examining the material Israel provided them, all of the European countries that are donors to these organizations decided to continue their support.

Documentation, advocacy and legal aid are the core of human rights work around the world. Criminalizing such activity is a deplorable act characteristic of repressive regimes.

We stand in solidarity with our fellow human rights defenders in Palestinian society. We repudiate these baseless declarations and call on the international community to pressure Israel to revoke its decision.

[Signatories]

The Association of Civil Rights in Israel
Itach Ma'aki - Women Lawyers for Social
Justice
Mothers Against Violence
Isha L'Isha
The School for Peace
Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights
B'Tselem
Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
Gun Free Kitchen Tables
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
Parents against Child Detention
Social TV
The Joint Democratic Initiative
HaMokey: Center for the Defence of the
Individual
New Israel Fund
Human Rights Defenders Fund
Zochrot
Zazim - Community action
Haqel in Defense of Human Rights
The Abraham Initiatives
Yesh Din - Volunteers for Human Rights
Combatants for Peace
Mahapach - Taghir
Mehazkim
Machsom Watch
Akevot Institute
Looking the Occupation in the Eye
Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority
Rights in Israel
Sikkuy - Aufoq
Oz Veshalom Israel's Jewish Religious Peace
Movement
Ir Amim
Women Against Violence
Emek Shaveh
Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equity
Recognition Forum
The Parents Circle - Families Forum
Psychoactive
Harvest Coalition
Coalition of Women Against Weapons
Rabbis for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights Israel
Breaking the Silence
Peace Now
Torat Tzedek - Torah of Justice
J Street
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Directors of Palestinian NGOs Say Shin Bet Threatened Them

by Hagar Shezaf for Haaretz
Aug 21, 2022

The directors of two Palestinian civil society organizations that have been blacklisted by Israel received warnings from Israel's Shin Bet security service on Sunday urging them to end their work with the NGOs, the directors told Haaretz.

These warnings from the Shin Bet follow Israel's raids and closures of the West Bank offices of seven Palestinian civil society groups on Thursday. The Defense Ministry has declared these groups illegal, and claims that they are part of a funding network operated by the largely-defunct Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a charge that all six groups deny.

Khaled Quzmar, general director for Defense for Children International – Palestine, said that he received a call on Sunday afternoon from a man who identified himself as a Shin Bet investigator and called him in for an interrogation. He arrived at a Shin Bet facility in the West Bank, Quzmar said, and was met not with an interrogation, but a warning.

"They told me that I need to know that the organization that I work for is illegal, and that it is illegal for me to keep working there either in or out of the country, and that if I continue, they will act against me," he recalled. "They said it was the last warning they would give me."

He said that he told them that the claims about the organization are untrue. "I said that I know my organization 100 percent and that it's a lie, and that if they have evidence that they can take me to court. They said that if I continue to work at the organization, they will bring me to court."

Quzmar described the conversation as almost threatening. "It was seemingly said gently, but at the end of the day, it was clear that it's a threat," he said.

Shawan Jabarin, director of Al-Haq, received a call from a man who called himself Fahed and said he was from the Shin Bet on Sunday. This caller also called him in for an interrogation.

Jabarin said that he told the man that he does not know if he is in fact a Shin Bet member or someone posing as one, and the man offered to send him something over WhatsApp. "I told him that I am a man of the law, and that if he wants to, he needs to send me an official letter via a lawyer or to come to my home."

He went on to say that the Shin Bet agent warned him in a way similar to Quzmar. "He told me that continuing to work at Al-Haq and opening its offices is terrorism, and that I'm a member of the PFLP. I told him that I'm not, and that he is a liar who represents the force of the occupation," Jabarin said.

"He told me that I will pay a high price and that I will be detained and investigated," he said. "I asked him if this is a threat, and he said yes."

In October, Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed an order declaring Addameer, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research & Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees as terrorist organizations. Several European Union countries and the U.S. State Department have expressed concern over the designation and the raids of the organizations' offices, saying that the information provided by Israel is not sufficient to justify them.

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