UN experts condemn Israeli attacks against Palestinian civil society and human rights defenders
Francesca Albanese, UN Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, and Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, called today on the Israeli occupation authorities to stop their attacks on Palestinian human rights organizations and human rights defenders.
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Israeli occupation forces established a “closed military zone” around Amro’s house on October 31, a day after Amro sought to file a police complaint against Israeli settler violence. The military order has been verbally renewed daily.
Amro, who is an internationally respected human rights defender and a civil society leader in youth education initiatives, regularly receives death threats from settlers and Israeli forces. UN experts have previously intervened and called for his protection.
“The case of Issa Amro is emblematic of the sophisticated array of obstacles faced by Palestinian human rights defenders who engage in non-violent activities,” said the experts. “Israel’s use of military force to deter, silence or persecute non-violent and peaceful organizations and individuals is symptomatic of an apartheid regime, brittle and intolerant to any form of criticism.”
Amro’s house in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, also serves as a community center of the Palestinian civil society organization Youth Against Settlements, which seeks to end settlement expansion through peaceful civil resistance. The experts said the house closure raises serious concerns about freedom of association and assembly in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“Israel is using counter-terrorism legislation and military orders to halt, restrict and criminalize legitimate human rights and humanitarian work, and as a means of controlling and repressing the Palestinian population,” the experts said. “Israel’s targeting of Issa Amro and closure of the Youth Against Settlements community center amount to yet another unilateral Israeli attack on civic space across occupied Palestine.”
In January 2021, Amro faced 18 charges in the Israeli military court of Ofer relating to his human rights work. Although 12 charges were dropped during his trial, in March 2021 he was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence, with two years probation. His appeal is still pending.
Throughout 2022, settler violence has continued to increase across the occupied Palestinian territory for the sixth consecutive year.
