"Stand Strong with Palestinian Civil Society", 27 October 2021

I stand in full solidarity with the six Palestinian civil society organisations - Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International - Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Union of Palestinian Women's Committees - subjected to an escalated Israeli attack as a part of its settler-colonial and apartheid regime...

This attack comes as part of an Israeli campaign against the Palestinian people and civil society to delegitimize, eliminate, and smear their human rights, gender, and social and environmental justice work. The organizations are targeted because of their powerful and professional work in documenting human rights violations and conducting advocacy to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Palestinian civil society has been tirelessly documenting human rights violations, advocating for protection and justice, and offering legal and social support to the Palestinian people.The work of civil society is fundamental to upholding democratic practices and the protection of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, especially the right of self-determination and the right of Palestinian refugees to return...

Palestinian civil society should not be left alone in their fight for dignity, freedom, and self-determination. We cannot allow Palestinians to be silenced, and human rights defenders criminalised and targeted, neither in Palestine nor anywhere else in the world.

An attack on Palestinian civil society is an attack on universal struggles against oppression and colonisation.