On October 22, Israel designated six Palestinian human rights organisations as terrorist groups alleging that these NGOs, under the cover of civil society organisations, belonged and constituted an arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP] leadership, a leftist political faction with an armed group, in a statement issued by the country’s Defense Ministry. The designation two weeks later was extended to the West Bank. The move was widely criticised by human rights groups and caught some of Tel Aviv’s allies off-guard, with the United States saying that it wasn’t notified about the decision in advance.
“We will be engaging our Israeli partners for more information regarding the basis for the designation,” US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price had said during a telephonic briefing with reporters in Washington on the step, adding that “we believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance.”
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations condemned the move with the UN affirming that the decision was a frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement, and on human rights everywhere. “Silencing their voices is not what a democracy adhering to well-accepted human rights and humanitarian standards would do,” the UN experts said. Amnesty and HRW called the decision “appalling and unjust” and an attack by the Israeli government on the global human rights campaign.
The designation further “effectively outlaws the activities of these civil society groups and authorises Israeli authorities to close their offices, seize their assets and arrest and jail their staff members, while prohibiting funding or even publicly expressing support for their activities,” according to a statement issued by Amnesty International.
Some members of the US Congress too opposed the move with Representative Betty McCollum stating that Israel's actions were “anti-democratic and contrary to the values expected of a US ally”, urging the Biden administration to call upon Tel Aviv to reverse the decision and let the organisations do important work.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American Democrat, said that the apartheid regime’s labeling of award-winning human rights groups as terrorist organisations —just because they speak truths about Israel’s violence and its human impact — is grossly antidemocratic and dangerous, asking the US to end funding for human rights abuses.”
Calling the measure a brazen act, Rep. Ilhan Omar said that labelling effective NGOs “terrorists” was an attempt “to evade accountability for human rights violations—and an affront to everyone who cares about peace.”
Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter that Israel should rescind their blanket decision to label Palestinian civil rights organizations as terrorist groups. “Many of these organizations are working to bring peace in the region and are vocal critics of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority,” he added.
‘Stifled for doing job’
These civil society groups are Addameer, a Ramallah-based NGO working for Palestinian priosners rights; Al-Haq, founded in 1979; Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCI-P), the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Bisan Center for Research and Development and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees (UPWC), a feminist organisation. Activists from these six Palestinian organisations deny allegations of them being a front for a militant faction of the PFLP, that has carried out attacks against Israelis. The NGOs say they are being stifled and punished for highlighting Israel’s rights violations and atrocities in the occupied territories.
“The issue of [atrocities against] Palestinian children and Israeli violations were beginning to be discussed worldwide, particularly in the US Congress and this was considered as ‘crossing the red lines,’” says Shawan Jabarin from Al Haq on why his organisation was being targeted, stating that Israeli authorities raided their office on 29th July without any notification or information. “The decision shocked us because there are no legal reasons behind it,” he continues, adding that the step is politically motivated.
Sahar Francis, Director Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, says they are being targeted because they are succeeding in changing the paradigm on an international level; in highlighting the fact that the Israeli regime is “more of an apartheid and colonialist and not just an occupation.”
“It is because of the success of the NGOs on the accountability level...we are disclosing how Israeli occupation is using the justice system in order to oppress the Palestinians, to arrest more and more people and control our daily lives and affect our right to self-determination,” she contends, adding that this is a kind of legal annexation that they are trying to present on the international level as a war crime that the occupation should be held accountable for, and hence are being targeted for it.
Francis adds that her organisation has been raided several times in the past, first in 2001 during the Second Intifada, then in 2012 and also in 2019. “They failed in affecting our daily work on an international level and are now trying to illegalise us to make the international community hesitant to work with us.”
Consequences of ‘unordinary occupation’
Khaled Quzmar from DCI-P, much in agreement with Jabarin and Francis, says it is the nature of their work and a common narrative between all the international human rights organisations, which are educating the people about the nature of the occupation, which is leading the Israeli government to take these steps. “This is an unordinary occupation. It has a nature of apartheid and colonialism,” he states, contending that this is another reason, besides rights groups highlighting those complicit in war crimes, to brand NGOs as ‘terrorist organisations’. “I challenge them to prove what they say.”
Faud Abu Saif from UAWC says Israeli authorities have been after the organisation for 15 years and more restrictions were placed from 2014 and till now. “UAWC is doing different work, more or less, than the other five organisations; we are supporting farmers in reclaiming land on the ground. When it comes to land and you do development on it, it means you are under attack on a daily basis,” he affirms, adding that Israeli authorities tried to stop them “many times” from continuing their agricultural work and arrested staff members.
Continuation of rightwing agenda
In June 2021, Israel elected its new prime minister Naftali Bennett, a rightwing theocrat with a hardline towards the Palestinians, in another setback for the latter’s stupendous struggle for greater autonomy. The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry in Ramallah said it expected to see “no difference, or perhaps even worse” policies under the new Israeli government.
Professor Moonis Ahmar from Department of International Relations at University of Karachi contends that the new measures, such as this step of banning NGOs, is merely a continuation of rightwing attempts initaited by former prime mininster Benjamin Netanyahu to further isolate the Palestinians.
Ahmar says the seemingly transition from 1993-1998 — through Oslo Accords when Israel recognised the PLO as the legitimate representative for Palestinians (though it still did not then accept the Palestinians’ right to self-determination in a sovereign state of their own)— did not sustain and was eventually reversed and replaced by rightwing agendas that continued to thrive in the form of Zionist ultranationalism under Netanyahu.
“What we see is a mindset and a systematic growth of populism centered towards the marginalisation of the Palestinians. With the failure of the international community standing up to the occupation, the Israeli leadership is encouraged in many ways to continue with violence and these discriminatory, genocidal policies,” says Ahmar.
He adds that in away Israel thinks it is now capable of finishing the Palestinian cause as evident from its ‘illegal’ actions and a lack of serious accountability.
Ahmar is further of the view that the divisions within Palestine — as West Bank and Gaza remain divided between Hamas and the PLO — and a crisis of leadership has a crucial role in exacerbating problems for the Palestinians.
‘Shrinking space for civil society’
Calling it a part of a global phenomenon where space for civil society is shrinking, Ubai Al-Aboudi, Executive Director, Bisan Centre for Research and Development, says Israeli occupation forces for quite some time have been ‘worried’ because of the discourse and work of civil society organisations, local as well international, in the Palestinian territories.
He underscores that despite an arrangement supporting the occupier, the military controlled system could not bring any real and actual charges against their organisations.
“A couple of years ago, they started going after the funding of the NGOs by creating right-wing groups that target us with smear campaigns,” Al-Aboudi contends, affirming that these rightwing groups made ‘abosultely ridiculous’ claims aimed at halting funding from partners, predominantly in the European Union.
“Evidence wise, they have nothing,” he continues. “The previous attempts at smear campaigns have reached their conclusion.”
Tahreer Jaber from UPWC says this isn’t a new step taken against the Palestinian NGOs, rather is a continuation of Israeli authorities’ arbitrary decisions and terrorism against the Palestinian people to prevent crimes against them from getting exposed to the world.
“We are not deriving our legitimacy from the Israeli occupation, we are deriving our legitimacy from our Palestinian masses and from the support of the people who believe in human rights and right to independent state for the Palestinian people,” Jaber concludes, asserting that their work is in compliance with international laws and does not contradict with any conventions or agreements.
Cyber-surveillance
Almost two weeks after the designation, an investigation by Front Line Defenders (FLD), a Dublin-based human rights group, published by the University of Toronto and Amnesty International, disclosed that spyware from the notorious Israeli hacker-for-hire company NSO Group was detected on the cellphones of six Palestinian human rights activists, including those Israel claimed were involved in terrorism. The hacking began in July 2020, according to researchers, as reported by to the Associate Press.
The rights groups now demand a fair investigation by the international community and bemoan that this goes on to show that you can be targeted, as long as you're a Palestinian.