‘Not going anywhere’: The Palestinian NGOs shut down by Israel

Israel shut down seven Palestinian NGOs on Thursday, but they’ve defiantly said they will continue their operations.

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – The reasons for the Israeli raids on Thursday that led to the closure of seven Palestinian civil society organisations and human rights organizations are quite obvious.

According to Mazen Rantisi, head of the board of directors of the Health Work Committees, (HWC), which runs hospitals and clinics, and was among the groups raided, the closures were aimed at “destroying Palestinian society”.

During the dawn military raids, which took place in Ramallah, offices were ransacked and equipment confiscated, with doors welded shut and a military order declaring the organisations “unlawful” posted on them.

Six of the organisations raided had been criminalised as “terrorist” organisations in October 2021 by Israel, which claimed they were affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Since 1967, Israel has expelled more than 400 organizations, including all major Palestinian political parties, from its borders. Fatah, which runs the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, with which Israel signed the 1993 Oslo Accords, are two of them.

The organisations targeted on Thursday work in fields such as human rights, prisoner support, children’s rights, and healthcare. Here’s a deeper look at the groups, and their response to the attempts to stop their work.

Addameer

• Addameer was established in 1991 and provides free legal representation for Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli and Palestinian Authority prisons. It also offers guidance to hundreds upon hundreds of Palestinian detainees each year.
• Monitors the living condition of detainees through regular prison visits.
• “Following the baseless criminalization of our organizations last year, the international community failed to hold Israel accountable. This has encouraged, if not provoked, today’s attacks,” Addameer said in a Twitter statementThursday. “Our partners & funders know well the integrity of our work. Most importantly, we work for and with the support of our communities,” Addameer added.

Al-Haq

• Al-Haq was founded in 1979 and is one of the most prominent Palestinian human rights organizations operating in the Palestinian territories illegally occupied in 1967 by Israel.
• Al-Haq works closely with Palestinian rights groups and advocates for Israel’s accountability at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• Al-Haq said the closures are the “latest in a pattern of repressive attacks by Israel, targeting Palestinian civil society organisations who advocate for human rights and international rule of law, and call for an end to Israel’s aggressive 74-year colonial and apartheid regime, that denies the collective right to self-determination of the Palestinian people and the rights of refugees to return”.

Defense for Children International – Palestine

• The Geneva-based organisation’s Palestine chapter is a children’s rights group that provides free legal aid to Palestinian children detained and prosecuted in the Israeli juvenile military court system.
• The group has a strong reputation for reducing the time children spend behind bars and publishes key reports as well as information about the issue of child prisoners.
• DCI-Palestine sharedOn Twitter, surveillance camera footage shows the moment Israeli forces invaded their offices and confiscated material.
• The group said that Israel had called its members “terrorists” for “protecting and defending Palestinian children’s rights”. “This work isn’t getting easier – but we aren’t going anywhere,” DCI-Palestine added.

Union of Agricultural Work Committees

• The UAWC was established in 1986 as a response to the difficult sociopolitical conditions facing Palestinian farmers due to the Israeli occupation’s restrictions on access to natural resources.
• It provides hands-on aid to Palestinians, including by rehabilitating land at risk of confiscation and helping tens of thousands of farmers in Area C – the more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank under direct Israeli military control, and where all illegal Israeli settlements and settlement infrastructure are located.
• In a Twitter statement, the UAWC said it “demands the international community to take serious action against the absurd targeting of human rights organizations. Actions should go beyond statements!”

Health Work Committees (HWC)

• HWC, a community healthcare organisation, was established in 1985. It runs two Palestinian hospitals in occupied West Bank, as well as dozens more clinics.
• According to the group’s website, it aims for sustainable health infrastructure that benefits all members of society, including the marginalised and the poor.
• Though not one of the six organisations designated by Israel as a “terrorist” group last year, the HWC was nevertheless shut down with a military order banning its operation.
• Mazen Rantisi, the head of the board of directors, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the goal of the closures was to “put obstacles in the way of civil society so that it doesn’t develop, it is part of destroying Palestinian society”. Rantisi assured that the HWC would find a way for it to continue its work.

Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC)

• Established in 1980, the UPWC works to “empower Palestinian women on all levels” and to contribute to the “Palestinian national struggle against the Israeli military’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories”.
• In a statement, the group said Israel’s “barbaric behavior comes in an oppressive colonial context against the legitimate rights of Palestinian women and their natural right to defend their national, social, cultural, legal and political rights”.

Bisan Center for Research and Development

• A civil society and rights organisation formed in 1989, which works with youth, labour workers, impoverished communities and women to achieve “socioeconomic rights in the context of national liberation”.
• While Bisan did not issue their own independent statement, the group has continuously condemned Israel’s criminalisation of its work as “arbitrary and baseless”, called on states to pressure Israel to rescind the designation, and affirmed its commitment to continuing its work of “advocating and protecting the actualisation of the dignity and rights of the Palestinian people”.