Call for protection of human rights defenders working on issues related to Palestine

December 9, 2016 - In marking International Human RightsDefenders Day, the undersigned organizations commend the work of all humanrights defenders working for justice globally, stand in solidarity with them,and highlight the case of individuals and organizations focused on Palestine.Human rights defenders advocating and working on Palestinian human rightsaround the world are facing intensifying threats and are increasingly targetedfor their work.

Human rights defenders operating in Palestine use a varietyof non-violent methods to call attention to Israeli human rights violations andto seek accountability. Each of these methods, however, is met with acts ofsuppression and intimidation by Israel.[i]Weekly peaceful protests throughout the West Bank are routinely met with forceby the Israeli military. Hashem Khader Abu Maria, 45, coordinator ofDefence for Children International – Palestine’s community mobilization unit,was shot dead by Israeli forces while peacefully participating in a weeklyprotest in July 2014. Human rights defenders seeking to monitor and documenthuman rights violations, including lawyers seeking to represent their clients,have their freedom of movement and access obstructed, and are further at riskof arrest and detention because of their work.[ii]Palestinian human rights organizations providing submissions to theInternational Criminal Court (ICC) during its preliminary examination havefaced even more extreme targeting. Palestinian organizations Al-Haq andAl-Mezan have had staff members receive death threats, and have also been thetargets of a wider campaign that attempts to discredit and destabilize theorganizations.[iii]These campaigns have included the hacking of emails, intimidating phone callsto staff, and efforts to alarm donors; all of which seek to distractorganizations from their primary human rights work. While the ICC’s Office ofthe Prosecutor and other authorities have recognized these threats,[iv]acts of intimidation have persisted.

Human rights defenders advocating on issues related toPalestine in the United States and Europe are also facing intensifying pressurefor bringing attention to Israeli human rights violations.[v]Israel has treated the Palestinian call to engage in nonviolent boycott,divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns, given the absence of accountabilityfor Israel’s violations of international law, as a “strategic threat,” and hascountered it with increasingly coercive and punitive measures, both inPalestine and globally.[vi]In the United States, individuals and institutions engaged in advocacy forPalestinian rights, including BDS campaigns, have been targeted[vii]with online harassment,[viii]surveillance, threats to their physical safety,[ix]frivolous lawsuits,[x]intimidation campaigns maligning them as terrorist supporters and antisemitic,[xi]and even disciplinary and criminal investigations and sanctions for theirprotest activities.[xii]Legislative measures in the US aim to penalize advocacy for Palestinian rightsand engagement in BDS.[xiii]

These attacks in total aim to silence and undermine anyresistance to Israel’s unlawful policies and should not be viewed in isolation.They should rather be examined within the broader context of impunity in Israelitself, as well as the failure of states to hold Israel accountable for itscommission of internationally recognized crimes.

Citizens and organizations have internationally anddomestically recognized rights[xiv]to engage in alternative means for accountability and advocate for justice forPalestinians.[xv]Our organizations underscore the universality of human rights, including theright to “participate in peaceful activities against violations of humanrights and fundamental freedoms,”[xvi]and we call upon states to protect human rights defenders working on issuesrelated to Palestine.

Signed by:

• Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
• Addameer
• Al-Haq
• Al Mezan Center forHuman Rights
• American FriendsService Committee
• American Muslims for Palestine
• Arab American Institute
• Badil Resource Centerfor Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
• Bill of Rights DefenseCommittee & Defending Dissent Foundation
• Center forConstitutional Rights
• Defence for Children International- Palestine Section
• FIDH, within theframework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
• Jerusalem Center forLegal Aid and Human Rights
• Palestine Legal
• Ramallah Center forHuman Rights Studies
• US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
• World OrganisationAgainst Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for theProtection of Human Rights Defenders

[i] For more information, see:Joint Oral Statement to the Human Rights Council on 29 September 2016,available at http://webtv.un.org/search/item7-general-debate-contd-29th-meeting-33rd-regular-session-human-rights-council-/5140985289001?term=item%207#full-text;PHROC Sends Letter to UN High Commissioner and Special Rapporteurs on theSituation of Human Rights Defenders, Al-Haq, 16 June 2016, available at http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/targets/palestinian-human-rights-organizations/1052-phroc-sends-letter-to-un-high-commissioner-and-special-rapporteurs-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-defenders;and PHROC Draws Attention to the Repression of Human Rights Defenders inSubmission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the OPT, Al-Haq, 10 November 2016, available at http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/targets/palestinian-human-rights-organizations/1084-phroc-draws-attention-to-the-repression-of-human-rights-defenders-in-submission-to-the-un-special-rapporteur-on-the-opt

[ii] See, e.g., the case of Hasan Safadi, Addameer’s Media Coordinator,Addameer, 13 June 2016, available at http://www.addameer.org/prisoner/hasan-safadi.

[iii] Al Mezan Condemns Continued Death Threats to Staff Members andCalls on the International Community to Intervene, Al Mezan, 11 August 2016, available at http://www.mezan.org/en/post/21475/Al+Mezan+Condemns+Continued+Death+Threats+to+Staff+Members+and+Calls+on+the+International+Community+to+Intervene;Update: Attacks Against Al-Haq Continue, 4 June 2016, available at http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/topics/human-rights-defenders/1050-update-attacks-against-al-haq-continue

[iv] Report on Preliminary Examination Activities 2016, Office of theProsecutor, International Criminal Court, para. 144, 14 November 2016, available at https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/otp/161114-otp-rep-PE_ENG.pdf

[v] France’s criminalization of BDS activism is the most extremeexample of the repressive reaction to Palestine advocacy outside of Israel. See France's criminalisation of Israelboycotts sparks free-speech debate, France 24, 21 January 2016, available at http://www.france24.com/en/20160120-france-boycott-israel-bds-law-free-speech-antisemitism.

[vi] Israel brands Palestinian-led boycott movement a ‘strategic threat’,The Guardian, 3 June 2015, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/03/israel-brands-palestinian-boycott-strategic-threat-netanyahu

[vii] See generally, Palestine Legal and Center for Constitutional Rights, ThePalestine Exception to Free Speech: A Movement Under Attack in the U.S.,September 2015, available at http://palestinelegal.org/the-palestine-exception.

[viii] See, e.g., Exposed: Pro-Israel Modern Day McCarthyites Going to Extremes toSlime Human Rights Activists, Alternet, 30 September 2015, available at http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/modern-day-mccarthyists-are-going-extremes-slime-activists-fighting-israels.

[ix] See, e.g., PalestineLegal Demands Action from University of Chicago to Protect Student Activists,Palestine Legal, 19 November 2015, availableat http://palestinelegal.org/news/2015/11/19/palestine-legal-demands-action-from-university-of-chicago-to-protect-palestine-advocates?rq=death%20threat;Ohio University: Student President Receives Death Threats, Palestine Legal, 10March 2015, available at http://palestinelegal.org/case-studies/2015/3/4/ohio-university-student-senate-president-received-death-threats-after-pro-bds-video

[x] Another frivolous lawsuit against the American Studies Association’sBoycott, Palestine Legal, 21 July 2016, availableat http://palestinelegal.org/news/2016/7/21/another-frivolous-lawsuit-against-the-american-studies-associations-boycott?rq=lawsuit.

[xi] See, e.g., Rights Groupsto UC Irvine, UC Berkeley and SFSU: Condemn David Horowitz Posters, ProtectStudents from Intimidation Campaign, Palestine Legal, 20 October 2016, available at http://palestinelegal.org/news/2016/10/11/rights-groups-to-uc-irvine-condemn-david-horowitz-posters-protect-students-from-intimidation-campaign?rq=horowitz;IUPUI must stand with Haneen and SJP, too, Palestine Legal, 8 April 2016, available athttp://palestinelegal.org/news/2016/4/8/iupui-must-stand-with-haneen-and-sjp-too?rq=iupui.

[xii] Palestine Legal collection of articles regarding the Irvine 11, available at http://palestinelegal.org/search?q=Irvine%2011&f_collectionId=55357b08e4b0366c2fd525e9;CUNY: Independent Investigators Clear SJP, Palestine Legal, 31 October 2016, available at http://palestinelegal.org/case-studies/2016/10/31/city-university-of-new-york-independent-investigators-clear-sjp?rq=brooklyn;Brooklyn College Students Cleared at Controversial Disciplinary Hearing,Palestine Legal, 31 May 2016, availableat http://palestinelegal.org/news/2016/5/31/brooklyn-college-students-cleared-at-controversial-discipslinary-hearing?rq=brooklyn.

[xiii] Seehttp://righttoboycott.org/.

[xiv] In NAACP v. Claiborne, the United States Supreme Court foundthat boycotts to effect social, economic and political change are a protectedform of speech, association, assembly and petition under the First Amendment.Foreign ministers from Holland, Ireland and Sweden have all recognized theright to engage in BDS actions. See PHROC welcomes statements by European officials to uphold the right toparticipate in and call for BDS measures, Al-Haq, 30 May 2016 available at http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/targets/palestinian-human-rights-organizations/1047-phroc-welcomes-statements-by-european-officials-to-uphold-the-right-to-participate-in-and-call-for-bds-measures.The EU foreign minister Federica Mogherini also stated that the right toboycott is protected under freedom of expression. See EU declares right to boycott Israel isprotected free speech, Independent, 3 November 2016, available at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/eu-right-bds-boycott-israel-palestine-protected-free-speech-federica-mogherini-a7394536.html.Two hundred European legal scholars recently affirmed the right toboycott under international law. See Groundbreakingstatement by 200 European Legal Scholars Upholds the Right to BDS for PalestinianRights, Boycott National Committee, 8 December 2016, available at https://bdsmovement.net/news/groundbreaking-statement-200-european-legal-scholars-upholds-right-bds-palestinian-rights.

[xv] Where states fail to search for and prosecute individualsthat have committed grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention,organizations have filled this gap by providing submissions to theInternational Criminal Court. Where states have failed to ban the entry ofsettlement products into their domestic markets, consumers have sought boycottactions. Where states have given military aid to Israel without accountability,individuals and groups have campaigned to circumscribe that aid.

[xvi] Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groupsand Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized HumanRights and Fundamental Freedoms, Article 12(1), available athttp://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Defenders/Declaration/declaration.pdf.