These are , indeed, the darkest of times for human rights in Palestine. On October 19th, the Israeli defense ministry issued a military order designating six prominent and well-respected Palestinian human rights groups as “terrorist organisations”. These organisations do vital work defending Palestinians, children, political prisoners (child prisoners among them), women and girls, agricultural workers and civil society in general. This unprecedented attack, if allowed stand, will mean governments anywhere can outlaw people defending their citizens, and imprison them on no evidence. The world will become a much more dangerous place.
This designation has the effect of outlawing much of the work done by these human rights organisations as it permits the Israeli military to arbitrarily arrest staff, shut down offices and seize assets. It further puts them at risk of closure or defunding, and criminalises public expressions of support for their work. That the evidence presented by the Israeli government against the organisations remains a secret from them demonstrates that international standards of due process and fair trial are absent.
The secret document prepared by the Israeli authorities to justify their designation contains no concrete evidence of participation in any such activities by any of the six organisations and failed to convince the European governments it was sent to.
Many, including Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, said no concrete evidence was presented, and declined to remove their funding. On November 3rd, an Israeli military order was issued extending the outlawing of the civil society groups to the West Bank, where people live under Israeli military law, further endangering their employees there.
Pegasus spyware
Shockingly, this week Front Line Defenders revealed that the Pegasus spyware made by the Israeli-based NSO Group has been used to spy on human rights defenders and lawyers , with six of the targeted people coming from the organisations labelled “terrorist”.
Each sale of Pegasus to a client only happens with the approval of the Israeli government. It means that not only the human rights workers, but all the people they’ve been talking to, have been spied on and listened to. This includes EU government ministers and their officials, in a dangerous attack on international democracies.
On November 3rd the US put the NSO Group on its “entity list”. It banned business dealings with it based on evidence that such tools enabled repressive governments to maliciously target people, and presented a threat to the “rules-based international order”.
This week a Washington Post investigation revealed that the Israeli military is using facial recognition software called Blue Wolf to spy on Palestinians, even tracking some in their homes. Such egregious acts show that there are few aspects of Palestinian life that Israel does not monitor.
Israel’s designation of the six human rights organisations has been unequivocally condemned by United Nations human rights experts, including the High Commissioner for Human Rights, international and Israeli human rights advocates, EU officials and states.
The decision is an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organisations. In addition to their grassroots work on the ground in Palestine, the six organisations are active in international forums such as the International Criminal Court and the UN, where they demand accountability for Israel. Indeed the organisations’ importance in the investigation by the International Criminal Court of Israel for alleged war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza suggests this is a political attack intended to jettison any such accountability.
Cultural boycott
It is unconscionable to think that an occupying state should criminalise organisations defending the very people it has rendered victims through its actions.
It is in this context of the stifling of our rights and self-expression, as well as the decades-long occupation, that the Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) operates.The movement takes inspiration from the South African anti-apartheid struggle and the cultural boycott call asks international artists and cultural figures to refuse complicity with Israeli apartheid by boycotting Israeli institutions unless they recognise the comprehensive rights of the Palestinian people.
The demands of the movement are clear: the recognition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people under international law; the end of the military occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands (including the Syrian Golan) since 1967, recognising the fundamental rights of the Palestinian citizens of Israel to equality, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees as stipulated by UN Resolution 194.
The BDS Movement is thus completely in line with international law, moreover the right to boycott has been enshrined as a legal political tool many times. Crucially, BDS targets complicity, not identity. As Palestinian civil society, from human rights defenders to farmers to families simply trying to exist, comes under escalated attack by the Israeli state, and in the face of impunity and a lack of international intervention, the boycott provides our international allies and friends with a way to support the Palestinian struggle from the grassroots. We ask you to stand with us.
Fatin al Tamimi is chairperson of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign