It is good that an important newspaper in the US (the New York Times of 5 January 2016) carries a op-ed about the situation of human rights defenders in Israel. Under the title “Israel’s Human Rights Activists Aren’t Traitors“, Michael Sfardjan argues that smear attacks by ultra-nationalists on human rights campaigners have sunk to new lows. Michael Sfardjan is an Israeli human rights lawyer who serves as legal adviser to the Israeli organizations Breaking the Silence, Yesh Din and the Human Rights Defenders Fund. Here some long excerpts:
Posts Tagged ‘Palestinian people’
Stop the Wall activist Hassan Karajah arrested by Israel
February 5, 2013
The Palestinian News Network on 4 February 2013 reported that in the early hours of Wednesday 23rd January 2013, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested Hassan Yasser Karajeh, a 29 year old youth activist in the Stop the Wall Campaign, violently breaking into his home in the West Bank village of Safa, west of Ramallah. Since then he is in interrogation without access to his lawyer or family. He is part of a new generation of active Human Rights Defenders. ‘Stop the Wall‘ asks solidarity groups, social movements, human rights organizations and concerned citizens to act together to free Hassan Karajah and stop the repression of human rights defenders in Palestine.
Related articles
- Israel jailed my friend Hassan Karajah to break the grassroots struggle (altahrir.wordpress.com)
Israeli NGOs condemn raid on offices of Palestinian colleagues
December 13, 2012Yesterday, 12 December 2012, the undersigned Israel based organizations protest the aggressive treatment of three Palestinian civil society organizations by the Israeli military and demand that all property seized be restored and that the work of civil society organizations—and especially those comprised of human rights defenders – be protected and respected.
Early morning yesterday, 11 December 2012, just a few hours after the end of International Human Rights Day, the Israeli military entered the offices of three Palestinian organizations in Ramallah: Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights; Union of Palestinian Women’s Committee and the Palestinian NGO Network. The organizations were not provided with any explanation for the search or shown a search warrant and their staff members were not present during the search. The soldiers caused extensive damage to some of the offices and confiscated computers, hard discs, cameras and other essential equipment.
Addameer office after the raid. Photo: Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem, 11 Dec. 2012
The undersigned organizations emphasize that all individuals have the right to freedom of association, and to be free from arbitrary or unlawful interference in their homes and offices, and to due process of law. It is particularly important that human rights organizations enjoy such rights so that they can protect and ensure the rights of others. A free civic space within which Palestinian individuals are able to organize is critical for the protection of Palestinian’s basic rights. Actions such as those taken by the Israeli military threaten this free civic space and damage the protection Palestinian human rights.
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel; The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI); B’Tselem – The Israeli information center for human rights in the occupied territories; Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement; Hamoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual; Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR-Israel); The Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI); Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR);Yesh Din
http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20121212_military_raid_on_hr_organizations
Palestinian HRD Nariman Tamimi speaks out on repression of peaceful protest in AI video
November 5, 2012In Greece there is a frequently heard ‘complaint’ that international human rights groups – in particular AI – have the same agenda as the USA. At a recent meeting with friends in Chania, AI’s position on Pussy Riot was quoted as evidence.
I countered by pointing out that AI on many occasions has taken a stand that seems to go against US policy, from the death penalty to Guantanamo Bay and the Israeli occupied territories. A recent video referred to here makes that clear again in the case of Israel. Perhaps even more shocking are some of the comments that seems to confirm the existence of an orchestrated response [by whom?] to equal any criticism of Israel to anti-Semitism.
Every Friday since December 2009 residents of al-Nabi Saleh and solidarity activists gather around noon in the village centre and march peacefully towards the spring. They have been met repeatedly with unnecessary and excessive force by the Israeli army including the use of stun grenades, pepper spray, batons and guns. Demonstrations are dispersed as soon as they begin and are usually not allowed to reach the spring. The Israeli army raids the village regularly, usually during the night, and conducts house searches and arrests, including the arrest of children under the age of 15.
Israeli military laws in place in the West Bank impose sweeping and arbitrary restrictions on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, requiring people to obtain advance permission from the Israeli military for any proposed gathering of 10 or more persons “for a political purpose of for a matter that could be interpreted as political”. Nariman Tamimi told Amnesty International that in al-Nabi Saleh and all areas where there is popular resistance, police use extreme violence, noting that “there is nothing [to the protests] except that you chant and express your opinion.” As one of the organizers of the al-Nabi Salneh protests and a coordinator of the village’s popular committee, Bassem Tamimi and his family have been the target of harsh treatment by the Israeli army. For more see the excellent film:
AI video on Palestinian protest
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 