‘Not going anywhere’: The Palestinian NGOs shut down by Israel

Israel shut down seven Palestinian NGOs on Thursday, however they’ve defiantly mentioned they are going to proceed their operations.

Israeli forces welded shut doorways and confiscated gear from the Palestinian organisations raided on Thursday, August 18, 2022 [Abbas Momani/AFP]

Ramallah, occupied West Financial institution – For the seven Palestinian civil society and human rights organisations forcibly shut by Israeli raids on Thursday, the explanations are fairly clear.

In keeping with Mazen Rantisi, head of the board of administrators of the Well being Work Committees, (HWC), which runs hospitals and clinics, and was among the many teams raided, the closures had been aimed toward “destroying Palestinian society”.

Throughout the daybreak army raids, which happened in Ramallah, places of work had been ransacked and gear confiscated, with doorways welded shut and a army order declaring the organisations “illegal” posted on them.

Six of the organisations raided had been criminalised as “terrorist” organisations in October 2021 by Israel, which claimed they had been affiliated with the Common Entrance for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Since 1967, Israel has banned greater than 400 native and worldwide organisations, together with all main Palestinian political events. Fatah, which governs the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian Liberation Group (PLO), which Israel itself signed the 1993 Oslo Accords with, are amongst them.

The organisations focused on Thursday work in fields akin to human rights, prisoner assist, youngsters’s rights, and healthcare. Right here’s a deeper have a look at the teams, and their response to the makes an attempt to cease their work.

 

Addameer

• Established in 1991, Addameer gives free authorized illustration to Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) prisons, and provides steering to a whole lot of Palestinian detainees and their households annually.
• Displays the residing circumstances of detainees by common jail visits and publishes analysis and advocacy materials.
• “Following the baseless criminalization of our organizations final 12 months, the worldwide neighborhood failed to carry Israel accountable. This has inspired, if not provoked, as we speak’s assaults,” Addameer mentioned in a Twitter assertion on Thursday. “Our companions & funders know properly the integrity of our work. Most significantly, we work for and with the assist of our communities,” Addameer added.

Al-Haq

• Based in 1979, Al-Haq is without doubt one of the main Palestinian human rights organisations working within the Palestinian territories illegally occupied by Israel in 1967.
• Al-Haq works with native and worldwide rights teams in Palestine and pushes for Israeli accountability on the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC).
• Al-Haq mentioned the closures are the “newest in a sample of repressive assaults by Israel, concentrating on Palestinian civil society organisations who advocate for human rights and worldwide rule of regulation, and name for an finish to Israel’s aggressive 74-year colonial and apartheid regime, that denies the collective proper to self-determination of the Palestinian individuals and the rights of refugees to return”.

Protection for Youngsters Worldwide – Palestine

• The Geneva-based organisation’s Palestine chapter is a youngsters’s rights group that gives free authorized help to Palestinian youngsters detained and prosecuted within the Israeli juvenile army court docket system.
• The group has developed a popularity for efficiently limiting the time youngsters spend in jail, and publishes key stories and data on the problem of kid prisoners.
• DCI-Palestine shared on Twitter surveillance digital camera footage of the second Israeli forces raided their places of work and confiscated supplies.
• The group mentioned that Israel had referred to as its members “terrorists” for “defending and defending Palestinian youngsters’s rights”. “This work isn’t getting simpler – however we aren’t going anyplace,” DCI-Palestine added.

Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)

• The UAWC was established in 1986 as a response to the troublesome sociopolitical circumstances going through Palestinian farmers because of the Israeli occupation’s restrictions on entry to pure assets.
• It gives hands-on help to Palestinians, together with by rehabilitating land prone to confiscation and serving to tens of 1000's of farmers in Space C – the greater than 60 % of the occupied West Financial institution below direct Israeli army management, and the place all unlawful Israeli settlements and settlement infrastructure are situated.
• In a Twitter assertion, the UAWC mentioned it “calls for the worldwide neighborhood to take critical motion in opposition to the absurd concentrating on of human rights organizations. Actions ought to transcend statements!”

Well being Work Committees (HWC)

• A neighborhood healthcare organisation based in 1985, the HWC runs two Palestinian hospitals within the occupied West Financial institution in addition to dozens of clinics.
• The group says it goals to construct sustainable well being infrastructure for all segments of society, notably the poor and marginalised.
• Although not one of many six organisations designated by Israel as a “terrorist” group final 12 months, the HWC was nonetheless shut down with a army order banning its operation.
• Mazen Rantisi, the pinnacle of the board of administrators, informed Al Jazeera on Thursday that the purpose of the closures was to “put obstacles in the way in which of civil society in order that it doesn’t develop, it's a part of destroying Palestinian society”. Rantisi promised that the HWC would discover a technique to proceed its work.

Union of Palestinian Ladies’s Committees (UPWC)

• Established in 1980, the UPWC works to “empower Palestinian ladies on all ranges” and to contribute to the “Palestinian nationwide battle in opposition to the Israeli army’s unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territories”.
• In a press release, the group mentioned Israel’s “barbaric habits is available in an oppressive colonial context in opposition to the reliable rights of Palestinian ladies and their pure proper to defend their nationwide, social, cultural, authorized and political rights”.

Bisan Heart for Analysis and Growth

• A civil society and rights organisation shaped in 1989, which works with youth, labour staff, impoverished communities and girls to attain “socioeconomic rights within the context of nationwide liberation”.
• Whereas Bisan didn't difficulty their very own unbiased assertion, the group has repeatedly condemned Israel’s criminalisation of its work as “arbitrary and baseless”, referred to as on states to stress Israel to rescind the designation, and affirmed its dedication to persevering with its work of “advocating and defending the actualisation of the dignity and rights of the Palestinian individuals”.