Washington, D.C., July 29, 2021 — In response to the Israeli government’s most recent raid on July 29 on the office of a Palestinian civil society organization, the Defense for Children International (DCI) – Palestine, Paul Carroll, Director of the Charity and Security Network, released the following statement:
“This Israeli government raid on a legitimate civil society organization in Palestine, the second such raid this month alone, marks an escalation in a broader campaign to silence and criminalize Palestinian civil society. In confiscating case files of lawyers defending Palestinian children facing trials in Israeli military courts, Israel is demonstrating both its disregard for the due process rights of Palestinian children and its determination to upend the work of nonprofits working in Palestine.
“These tactics can’t be viewed in isolation. They are merely one prong in a multi-faceted assault on organizations seeking to defend Palestinian human rights and address the humanitarian needs of people living in Palestine. With the support of the Israeli government, a coalition of disinformation groups, lawyers, and faux think tanks is carrying out a coordinated campaign to distract, defund, and delegitimize civil society organizations working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This campaign against Palestinian civil society is not a response to legitimate threats—it is a politically motivated assault on organizations working to defend the rights of Palestinians in the face of an occupation that systematically denies those rights.
“As a chief sponsor of the Israeli military, the U.S. is in a unique position to pressure the Israeli government to end this unjustified assault on Palestinian civil society. If the Biden administration hopes to live up to its rhetoric around a foreign policy centered in human rights, it has to respond to human rights abuses wherever they occur.”
Background:
On July 29, 2021, Israeli forces raided the Al-Bireh office of the Defense for Children International (DCI) – Palestine, an organization dedicated to defending the rights of Palestinian children, breaking down the door, confiscating computers and case files, and failing to offer any reason for doing so. Read DCI – Palestine’s statement.
On July 7, 2021, Israeli forces raided the office of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in Al-Bireh. Read the UAWC’s statement on the raid.
In April 2021, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders released a report detailing an extensive campaign by the Israeli Ministry Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy (MSA) and a coalition of non-state actors to silence and discredit Palestinian civil society organizations.
###
The Charity & Security Network is a resource and advocacy center working to promote and protect the ability of nonprofit organizations to carry out peacebuilding, humanitarian, and human rights missions and to advance national security frameworks that support rather than impede this work. Learn more about the Charity & Security Network’s work at www.CharityAndSecurity.org, and follow us on Twitter: @CharitySecurity.