Statement of Solidarity with Palestinian Civil Society

On 22 October 2021, six leading Palestinian civil society organisations were designated as terrorist organisations by the Israeli government. These organisations include several of our valued partners; Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, Defence for Children International Palestine, as well as Bisan Center for Research and Development, Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC). The designation bans the work of human rights defenders and allows the Israeli military to arrest their staff, shutter their offices, confiscate assets and prohibit their activities. The Israeli government continuously targets independent Palestinian human rights organisations and their staff, who regularly face smear campaigns, spurious accusations of anti-semitism and links to terrorism as well as threats and intimidation, travel bans and movement restrictions, and arrest for their work.

FFIPP stands in solidarity with the six targeted human rights organisations and reject Israel’s designation of Palestinian human rights and civil society organisations as “terrorist organisations”. We call on the international community to pressure the Israeli government to immediately rescind the designation, and to demand Israel revoke its Anti-Terrorism Law (2016) as it does not meet basic human rights standards and to end all other actions that deny Palestinians their inalienable human rights.