| Friday webinar with the Human Rights activists designated as "terrorists" | | The Middle East Institute (MEI), Foundation for Middle East Peace
(FMEP), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Democracy for the
Arab World Now (DAWN), Century International, and the International
Crisis Group (ICG) invite you to a special webinar on Friday, October
29, 2021 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET (5:30-7:00 PM Jerusalem time) featuring
representatives from the following organizations:
Shawan Jabarin, General Director, Al-Haq Law in the Service of Man
Sahar Francis, Director, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights
Association
Khaled Quzmar, General Director, Defense for Children-International
Ubai al-Aboudi, Executive Director, Bisan Center for Research and
Development
Fuad Abu Saif, General Director, Union of Agricultural Work Committees
(UAWC)
Tahreer Jaber, Executive Director of the Union of Palestinian Women’s
Committees (UPWC)
Moderated by:
Khaled Elgindy (MEI) and Lara Friedman (FMEP).
Last Friday’s decision by Israel’s Ministry of Defense to designate six
prominent Palestinian human rights organizations as “terrorist
organizations” has sent shockwaves across Palestinian civil society and
raised alarm bells throughout the international donor community.
An Israeli delegation is scheduled to be in Washington on Thursday,
October 28, 2021, to brief the Biden administration on the alleged
secret evidence behind these designations. As of now, however, the
administration has not indicated whether it also intends to hear
directly from the six targeted groups, all of which are recipients of
international donor funds.
Given the grave implications of this decision for the affected
organizations as well as for Palestinian civil society more generally,
including the possibility of increased repression at the hands of both
Israel and the Palestinian Authority, it is critical that American
decision-makers and the broader policy community in Washington have an
opportunity to hear directly from the organizations themselves.
This event is sponsored by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Center for
Constitutional Rights (CCR), and the Carter Center.
Zoom Registration: https://tinyurl.com/xeu9rfrr | 28/10/2021 |
| ‘They targeted us for one reason: We’re succeeding in changing the paradigm’ | | Yuval Abraham - +972 Magazine - When Israeli Defense Minister Benny
Gantz signed an executive order last week declaring six Palestinian
human rights groups as “terrorist organizations,” the government did not
even bother with putting on a facade of due process. With the swift
stroke of a pen, the NGOs — Al-Haq, Addameer, Bisan Center, Defense for
Children International-Palestine, the Union for Agricultural Work
Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees — were
instantly outlawed with neither a trial nor the opportunity to respond
to the accusations against them.
Yet rather than question the dubious nature of this move, the vast
majority of Israeli media outlets simply cribbed the Defense Ministry’s
official statement on the matter, which accused the six organizations of
serving as “arms” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) — a secular, Marxist-Leninist party and movement deemed a
terrorist group by Israel. [ak] | 26/10/2021 |
