"Al-Haq Calls on Third States to Publicly Condemn and Call for the Full Rescinding of Israel’s Designation of Palestinian Human Rights NGOs as ‘Terrorist Organisations’", 24 October 2021

Today, Al-Haq sent letters to European Union and Third States calling on them to publicly condemn and call for the full rescinding of Israel’s designation of Palestinian human rights NGOs as “terrorist organisations”...

The designations are a further step in Israel’s orchestrated smear campaign against the organisations, aiming to delegitimize their essential human rights work, and detract any (international) financial support by methods of intimidation, in order to silence their independent monitoring and documentation of Israel’s human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). As such, the designation puts the staff and resources of these organisations at immediate risk by practically equating their essential, independent and nonpartisan human rights work with that of terrorist organisations. Israel’s Anti-Terrorism Law, 2016 provides for a sweeping catalogue of extraordinary and mandatory penalties for leadership, management and membership of a designated terrorist organisation, placing the lives of Palestinian human rights defenders in the six organisations at immediate risk, of arbitrary arrests and prosecution for their human rights work...

... [W]e urge Third States to publicly condemn Israel’s acts and to take a strong stance in directly calling on Israel’s Minister of Defence to formally and immediately rescind the designations... Al-Haq calls on Third States to:

1. Publicly condemn in an official statement Israel’s designation of Palestinian human rights and civil society organisations as “terrorist organisations” as an internationally wrongful act;
2. Use their good offices to demand that Israel fully rescind the “terrorist” designation of the six Palestinian human rights and civil society organisations, with immediate effect;
3. Ensure that banks and financial institutions located in their territories and under their jurisdiction, are put on notice to dismiss as inapplicable, Israel’s terrorist designation of the six Palestinian organisations;
4. To intervene to pressure Israel to revoke its Anti-Terrorism Law, 2016, as incompatible with basic human rights standards.