Call for protection of human rights defenders working on issues related to Palestine
9 December 2016 – In marking International Human Rights Defenders Day, the undersigned organizations commend the work of all human rights defenders working for justice globally, stand in solidarity with them, and highlight the case of individuals and organizations focused on Palestine. Human rights defenders advocating and working on Palestinian human rights around the world are facing intensifying threats and are increasingly targeted for their work.
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Human rights defenders operating in Palestine use a variety of non-violent methods to call attention to Israeli human rights violations and to seek accountability. Each of these methods, however, is met with acts of suppression and intimidation by Israel. Weekly peaceful protests throughout the West Bank are routinely met with force by the Israeli military. Hashem Khader Abu Maria, 45, coordinator of Defence for Children International – Palestine’s community mobilization unit, was shot dead by Israeli forces while peacefully participating in a weekly protest in July 2014. Human rights defenders seeking to monitor and document human rights violations, including lawyers seeking to represent their clients, have their freedom of movement and access obstructed, and are further at risk of arrest and detention because of their work. Palestinian human rights organizations providing submissions to the International Criminal Court (ICC) during its preliminary examination have faced even more extreme targeting. Palestinian organizations Al-Haq and Al-Mezan have had staff members receive death threats, and have also been the targets of a wider campaign that attempts to discredit and destabilize the organizations. These campaigns have included the hacking of emails, intimidating phone calls to staff, and efforts to alarm donors; all of which seek to distract organizations from their primary human rights work. While the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor and other authorities have recognized these threats, acts of intimidation have persisted.
Human rights defenders advocating on issues related to Palestine in the United States and Europe are also facing intensifying pressure for bringing attention to Israeli human rights violations. Israel has treated the Palestinian call to engage in nonviolent boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns, given the absence of accountability for Israel’s violations of international law, as a “strategic threat,” and has countered it with increasingly coercive and punitive measures, both in Palestine and globally. In the United States, individuals and institutions engaged in advocacy for Palestinian rights, including BDS campaigns, have been targeted with online harassment, surveillance, threats to their physical safety, frivolous lawsuits, intimidation campaigns maligning them as terrorist supporters and antisemitic, and even disciplinary and criminal investigations and sanctions for their protest activities. Legislative measures in the US aim to penalize advocacy for Palestinian rights and engagement in BDS.
These attacks in total aim to silence and undermine any resistance to Israel’s unlawful policies and should not be viewed in isolation. They should rather be examined within the broader context of impunity in Israel itself, as well as the failure of states to hold Israel accountable for its commission of internationally recognized crimes.
Citizens and organizations have internationally and domestically recognized rights to engage in alternative means for accountability and advocate for justice for Palestinians. Our organizations underscore the universality of human rights, including the right to “participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” and we call upon states to protect human rights defenders working on issues related to Palestine.
Signed by:
• Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
• Addameer
• Al-Haq
• Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
• American Friends Service Committee
• American Muslims for Palestine
• Arab American Institute
• Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
• Bill of Rights Defense Committee & Defending Dissent Foundation
• Center for Constitutional Rights
• Defense for Children International-Palestine Section
• Interfaith Peace-Builders
• Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights
• International Committee of the National Lawyers Guild
• Palestine Legal
• Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies
• US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
