On April 22, 2022, Reginald Turner, the President of the American Bar Association (ABA)—the largest voluntary association of attorneys and legal professionals in the world—wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Israel’s designation last fall of six leading Palestinian civil society organizations as terrorist organizations. In the letter, Turner suggested that the Israeli government should share any evidence it has with the accused organizations.
“Procedural rights guaranteed under international law would suggest that authorities should disclose to those organizations or their counsel the evidence on which the allegations are based to permit them to prepare a proper legal defense,” he wrote.
The letter cited widespread “concerns that these designations have been made on the basis of vague or uncorroborated allegations and target legitimate human rights activities,” and reiterated questions “about whether an impartial and independent administrative review of the military order against the six organizations is possible under the circumstances.”
The letter concluded with a request that Prime Minister Bennet “review the concerns some in the international community have expressed questioning whether the procedures utilized here inappropriately deprive persons or organizations of their rights.”
This letter comes on the heels of an April 2022 analysis by the American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights, The Impact of Foreign Sanctions Listings Under US, UK, and EU Law, which focused on Israel’s designation of the six Palestinian organizations and explained that “foreign sanctions listings in and of themselves have no effect under US, UK, or EU law.”