22 August 2022; MEMO: A well-known Palestinian rights group called on Monday for the international community to intervene immediately to protect Palestinian civil society groups and their staff targeted by the Israeli occupation authorities. The heads of leading rights groups in occupied Palestine have been told by Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet to sever their connections with the organisations "or else".
This follows raids by the Israeli occupation forces on the offices of seven Palestinian rights groups which were declared by Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz last October to be "terrorist entities". The assets of the rights groups "risk being confiscated, and their staff members, directly targeted, arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned."
Al-Haq warned that by "targeting Palestinian civil society organisations, Israel is… systematically removing the critically vital monitoring and oversight institutions, necessary for a viable and functioning society based on the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law."
