Israel: democracies do not close human rights entities

For four years, from 2003 to 2007, I was the Independent Expert of the United Nations Secretary-General, appointed by Kofi Annan, to prepare the World Report on Violence against Children, published in 2006. I visited sixty-five countries and organized nine major meetings in the different continents. I have always counted on the collaboration, in addition to UN agencies, of civil society entities such as Defense for Children International, DCI. This organization created in 1979 with the aim of promoting and protecting the rights articulated in the International Convention on the Rights of child, based in 38 countries and represented at the UN in New York. In Palestine, they offer legal assistance to the 175 children imprisoned in Israel, some under 10 years old.

What was my horror when I read in Haaretz, Israel's oldest and most prestigious newspaper, that on September 18, Israeli security forces invaded and sealed off the DCI offices in Ramallah. In addition to the DCI, other Palestinian human rights organizations - recognized by the major Israeli human rights organizations - were affected, such as Al-Haq, the oldest, which uses international law to combat military occupation and the violence of Israeli settlers, Addameer (Human Rights and Prisoner Support Association), Agricultural Labor Commissions Union, Bisan Research and Development Center, Women's Union Committees and Health Labor Committees Union. These groups have the same profile as the Arns Commission for Human Rights, work, like us, with women, children, peasant families, prisoners and civil society activists. All involved in documenting human rights abuses by Israel, but also by the Palestinian Authority, when it perpetrates violations.

These brutal raids stem from the Israeli government's accusation that entities are 'terrorist organizations', without any concrete and credible public evidence of those alleged links to terrorism. This designation was condemned by our partners such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR, which called it a “frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement and human rights throughout the world".

Soon after those raids, to express their support for those organizations, 17 diplomatic missions – of course, Brazil did not even think about it – met in Ramallah with the leaders of those entities - Denmark, Spain, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Chile, Mexico, the European Union (EU), France, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, Germany.

The United States said, "Independent civil society organizations in the West Bank and Israel must be able to continue their important work." Josep Borrell, head of European Union diplomacy, declared, "The EU will continue to respect international law and support civil society organizations". The OHCHR stated that there is no evidence to justify these actions, "the closures appear totally arbitrary.” The UN Secretary-General stressed “in all countries, the authorities need to take special care to ensure that human rights groups and civil society organizations can carry out their work without hindrance” calling for the protection of those Palestinian civil society groups.

Here, it will be asked, why this fixation with Palestinians and Israel? This country occupies the West Bank for 55 years, subjecting its inhabitants to a legal regime of apartheid on two levels: 390 thousand Jewish settlers live under Israeli civil law and their 2 millions Palestinian neighbors under military rule. All over the world and in Brazil, Israel pretends to be the “only democracy in the Middle East”. Nevertheless, democracies do not persecute human rights defenders, do not accuse their organizations of being terrorists without evidence, nor invade, confiscate their files and seal their headquarters to silence them. These practices only occur in autocracies and dictatorships, as here for 21 years.

Those raids are a frontal attack on the global human rights movement .When human rights defenders are attacked - no matter the country - we must show solidarity in the same way that we wanted international solidarity for us under the military dictatorship. Perhaps we will need it again if the extreme right prevails in Brazil in the coming October elections.