The Recent Criminalisation of 6 NGOs - What Palestinians have to say about it.

On 19 October 2021, Israeli Minister of Defence, Benny Gantz, announced outlawing six prominent Palestinian civil society organisations under Israel’s “Anti-Terrorism” law of 2016. This is a dangerous escalation of Israel’s existing systemic efforts to silence Palestinian voices, and to limit their international support and funding based on unfounded accusations. The six targeted Palestinian human rights organisations are Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Al-Haq Organization; Bisan Center for Research and Development; Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P); the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC); and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC). 

Below are Palestinian takes following the criminalisation: 

Increasing shrinking space under the Israeli regime:

• In an important joint webinar with the heads of the 6 NGOs, Sahar Francis, head of Addameer, explained that since 1948 Israel has been using various “counter-terrorism” laws and legal arsenal to repress Palestinian civil society (unions, student groups etc.), first using the remaining colonial British laws, and later using Israeli military orders in the occupied Palestinian territory.   
• Addameer’s officers explain how the criminalisation allows Israel to confiscate assets, close down offices, arrest staff, revoke their residency and intentionally discourage funding of and solidarity with the organisations. 
• In July, the Israeli military raided and broke into the offices of DCI-Palestine, and footage shows Israeli soldiers confiscating computers and files related to detained Palestinian children cases. DCI-Palestine works for the protection of human rights of Palestinian children detained by the military.
• As Yousef Munayyer explained in the Washington Post, the Israeli authorities have intensified their attacks through enforcing new laws scrutinising the work of human rights groups, and a dedicated ministry of “Strategic Affairs” internationalising Israel's intimidation efforts. 

• Israel’s repression of civil society to escape accountability and ensure impunity:

• "The effective criminalisation of Palestinian insitutions and expansion of settlements are two sides of the same coin” Zena Agha writes in the NYT. She further explains how Israel’s ultimate goal is to repress dissent against exposing its human rights violations, obstructing its illegal settlement expansion and pushing for international accountability.
• Raja Shehadah, one of Al-Haq founders, argues that with outlawing the NGOs, Israel has entered a new era of impunity. Al-Haq’s most important work in the past few years has been providing assistance to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its investigation of Israeli crimes.
• Israel’s unwavering attacks to defame and discredit Palestinian human rights defenders “is not happening because Israel is becoming more totalitarian and more oppressive. Rather, this is happening because of decades of Israeli impunity,” Yara Hawari explains in Al Jazeera.

Israel’s repression of civil society to escape accountability and ensure impunity:

• "The effective criminalisation of Palestinian insitutions and expansion of settlements are two sides of the same coin” Zena Agha writes in the NYT. She further explains how Israel’s ultimate goal is to repress dissent against exposing its human rights violations, obstructing its illegal settlement expansion and pushing for international accountability.
• Raja Shehadah, one of Al-Haq founders, argues that with outlawing the NGOs, Israel has entered a new era of impunity. Al-Haq’s most important work in the past few years has been providing assistance to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its investigation of Israeli crimes.
• Israel’s unwavering attacks to defame and discredit Palestinian human rights defenders “is not happening because Israel is becoming more totalitarian and more oppressive. Rather, this is happening because of decades of Israeli impunity,” Yara Hawari explains in Al Jazeera.

Gaslighting: Revising facts and failing to provide evidence:

• A secret dossier by the Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency, was provided to European governments in hopes of persuading them to stop funding the NGOs, but failing to provide along any evidence, directly or indirectly, that would substantiate a terror designation. 
• Nearly a month after the criminalisation, Israel modified its original designation of the 6 NGOs, stating a different reason for the criminalisation that is not related directly to their activities. This served as demonstration of what Rami Younis has explained as collective gaslighting by Israel: making Palestinians question our own reality and manipulating the facts in order to control us. 

“This is more than just eavesdropping, it’s terrifying. The spyware takes complete control over the phone. It can make calls to anybody, send messages and it can download content“ says Ubai Aboudi, the Director of Bisan

The extent of Israel’s mass surveillance techniques demonstrate the length they are willing to go to sensor Palestinian human rights:

• A joint investigation with Front Line Defenders, Citizen Lab and Amnesty Int Security Lab revealed that six Palestinian human rights defenders were hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware. Another investigation exposed the Israeli military’s “Facebook for Palestinians”, a facial recognition programme used by Israel exclusively for Palestinians, which flashes color-coded instructions on whether to detain them or not.  
• “This is more than just eavesdropping, it’s terrifying. The spyware takes complete control over the phone. It can make calls to anybody, send messages and it can download content,“ says Ubai Aboudi, the director of Bisan and one of the targeted NGOs, whose phone was infected with Pegasus, proving that “Israel can monitor any telephone call in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Plea bargains as a tool in arbitrary military courts to fabricate indictments:

• On 10 November 2021, the Israeli military court coerced Juana Rishmawi, a Spanish citizen working for the Health Workers Committee (HWC) and detained since April 2021, into a plea bargain with a conviction for allegedly raising funds for the organization, which was also outlawed earlier this year.
• Rishmawi stated via her attorney that the indictment was amended to fit the recent outlawing of NGOs and the plea bargain ”was intended entirely to support the false claim that Rishmawi allegedly admits to the affiliation of human rights organizations to PFLP”.
• While Israel’s Foreign Ministry was quick to celebrate Rishmawi’s plea bargain as ‘evidence’ for the criminalization of the NGOs, writer Yousef Munayyer tweeted that it only proved that it has no case and is desperately attempting to do damage control.
• This tactic by Israel is not unprecedented; 99% of trials of Palestinians in Israeli military courts end in plea bargain convictions. This means that the Israeli military can detain Palestinains without any allegations, and corner defendants to either remain in prison to fight alleged charges for years, or agree to a plea bargain for reduced imprisonment. 
• A Palestinian prisoner explained that he was convicted of throwing rocks at a time when he was already serving time in prison.

Palestinian human rights defenders are exposing internationally, Israel’s systemic and decades-long denial of our basic rights. It is for this very reason that Israel is actively harrassing and attacking Palestinian civil society manipulating facts and without evidence.

As we will continue resisting these attempts to be silenced, we will keep you updated on how to take concrete action and mobilise.