“Israel” Shuts Offices of Palestinian Rights Organizations

Early on Thursday, the IOF raided occupied Ramallah and broke into the offices of the organizations. The offices were ransacked and their equipment confiscated. Doors were welded shut, with an IOF order posted on them declaring the organizations “unlawful”.

The groups have decried the move as politically-motivated and baseless.

The apartheid “Israeli” entity has outlawed six of these NGOs, which were labeled as "terrorist" organizations in October 2021, and accused them of funneling donor aid to militants and had ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP], a Palestinian left-wing movement.

The organizations that have been outlawed by Israel are Addameer and Al-Haq, which document human rights violations by, and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, Bisan Center for Research, DCI Defense for Children International – Palestine, as well as the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. The seventh organization was the Union of Health Work Committees [UHWC].

The United Nations Human Rights Office has meanwhile expressed alarm at the entity’s arbitrary closure of organizations and called on Israel to immediately reverse these decisions, reiterating the High Commissioner’s call to revoke the designations of the organizations as terrorist and unlawful.

The apartheid “Israeli” regime has added to its illegal practices which aim to silence the Palestinian people. Today, not only does it continue to suppress Palestinian people, the regime also quells these organizations and human rights advocates.