Israeli attacks on Palestinians have received widespread condemnation while also inspiring unity and solidarity, writes Dr Ibrahim Natil.
THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT has led systematic operations of smear, defamation and defunding campaigns by Israeli and international lobby groups such as NGO Monitor and UK Lawyers for Israel at different levels against the Palestinian and international organisations.
Israel has banned more than 400 local and international organisations as being “hostile” or “unlawful” since 1967. In the recent military attacks on civil society organisations (CSOs), the Israeli occupation forces raided the offices of six leading Palestinian civil society and human rights organisations in the occupied city of Ramallah, West Bank, on 18 August. The organisations were outlawed by Israel as “terrorist” in October 2021 and accused of connections to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
These leading organisations include Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Al-Haq rights group; the Union of Palestinian Women Committees (UPWC); the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC); the Bisan Center for Research and Development; and the Palestine chapter of the Geneva-based Defence for Children International, which has been operating for many years and funded by international donors as European organisations in particular. They are a key pillar of the larger Palestinian civil society in delivering asocial and economic development services for Palestinians who live in the 1967-occupied territories.
Read the article by Ibrahim Natil on Independent Australia.