On October 19, 2021, the Israeli government outlawed and criminalized six Palestinian human rights organizations by deeming them “terrorist organizations.” The Israeli government is using its “Anti-Terrorism Law” to delegitimize and shut down Palestinian civil society organizations doing vital human rights work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The six groups targeted last week – Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees (UPWC) – are leaders in the fight for human rights in Palestine, documenting abuses and working relentlessly to hold the Israeli government to account. This designation by the Israeli government essentially criminalizes these groups, allows the Israeli government to shut down the organizations’ offices, arrest staff members, and seize the organizations’ property. It also prohibits funding or even publicly supporting these groups.
UN human rights experts issued a statement, condemning the crackdown on civil society. “This designation is a frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement, and on human rights everywhere … These organisations speak the language of universal human rights ... They use a rights-based approach to their work, including a gendered analysis, to document human rights abuses of all kinds in Palestine, including business-related human rights abuses.”
Al-Haq, one of the organizations targeted by the crackdown, is an international leader in the corporate accountability field and focuses on holding multinational companies accountable for human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Al-Haq has been awarded countless awards, including the Human Rights and Business Award at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in 2019 and the Gwynne Skinner Human Rights Award in 2020. During his remarks at the Gwynne Skinner award ceremony, Al-Haq’s General Director stated: “[C]orporations have historically been used to achieve colonial conquest, but what makes Israel’s actions unique, is that it has made its conquest multinational in nature with corporations from around the world participating.”
As Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch explained in a joint statement, “For decades, Israeli authorities have systematically sought to muzzle human rights monitoring and punish those who criticize its repressive rule over Palestinians … The decades-long failure of the international community to challenge grave Israeli human rights abuses and impose meaningful consequences for them has emboldened Israeli authorities to act in this brazen manner.”
Corporate Accountability Lab stands in solidarity with these six human rights organizations and joins human rights organizations in the United States and world in denouncing the Israeli government’s civil society crackdown.
Criminalization of civil society and human rights organizations is a dangerous trend occurring around the world. From Palestine to India to Hong Kong, CAL stands with human rights organizations globally and will continue to fight with them to hold the powerful to account.
Allie Brudney and Avery Kelly are Staff Attorneys at Corporate Accountability Lab.
