Press Release: Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council Strongly Condemns Continued Israeli Attacks on Civil Society and Human Rights Defenders
21/10/2026 – Union for Justice Foundation
On 13 October 2026, Israeli occupation forces raided offices they claimed belonged to the Palestinian Women’s Committees Union and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, as well as the grounds of the Palestine Medical Complex, the largest government hospital in the West Bank, all located in the city of Ramallah. The Palestinian Women’s Committees Union had closed its offices and ceased its activities in Ramallah in 2022. These attacks form part of an overt attempt by the occupation forces to incite against these organizations, including those that are no longer active.
The occupation forces seized equipment, furniture, and files from the buildings, deployed snipers at the gates of the medical complex, and prevented people from entering or leaving it. They also assaulted journalists covering the operation. The occupation forces left a notice in Arabic and English at the location they claimed belonged to Addameer. The notice acknowledged that Addameer, one of the leading Palestinian human rights organizations, had been designated an “unlawful entity,” alleging that it had misused public funds to support “terrorist organizations.” It also contained an explicit threat stating: “Any dealings with this entity or any terrorist organizations will result in severe consequences, as happened here.” This smear campaign targeting Addameer, a leading Palestinian human rights organization, forms part of the occupation’s latest attempts to delegitimize the work of Palestinian human rights institutions, which seek to end the impunity enjoyed by the occupying state.
The gravity of these attacks is particularly evident in the case of Addameer, which defends the rights of Palestinian female and male prisoners who are subjected to various forms of torture, inhuman treatment, sexual violence, gender-based violence, and starvation, while also facing the threat of the enactment of an Israeli law imposing the death penalty.
The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council strongly condemns the latest Israeli attacks as a new episode in a series of repressive measures aimed at silencing civil society institutions and undermining their work, thereby entrenching the continuation of Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime, founded on racial discrimination and control over the entire Palestinian people. Israel is systematically seeking to erase evidence documenting its commission of international crimes against Palestinian female and male prisoners, including attempts to destroy evidence of acts causing severe physical and psychological harm, as well as crimes of rape and sexual violence against detainees held in torture camps, including Sde Teiman. These violations have been extensively documented by organizations working on prisoners’ affairs.
In October 2021, the Israeli Minister of Defense designated six Palestinian civil society organizations as “terrorist organizations”: Addameer, the Palestinian Women’s Committees Union, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International–Palestine, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. The designation was based on Israel’s 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law, which is being abused, and was made without presenting any evidence to substantiate these serious allegations. The designations were widely condemned by United Nations experts, who warned that “the Israeli government’s misuse of counter-terrorism measures in this way undermines everyone’s security.” They also called on the international community to “use all available political and diplomatic tools to urge Israel to review and reconsider this decision.”
In August 2022, Israeli occupation forces raided the offices of Palestinian organizations they had branded as terrorist, damaged their property, and confiscated their equipment and files. These included the offices of the six organizations mentioned above, as well as the Health Work Committees. The occupation forces tampered with files, scattered accounting folders and threw them onto the floor, knocked over coffee cups and left stains behind, and left offices and bathrooms in a state of chaos and destruction. More recently, between 28 June and 1 July 2026, Israeli occupation forces arbitrarily arrested 11 Palestinians on the pretext of their affiliation with the Health Work Committees. Most of them were subsequently released on bail.
More than a year after the United States imposed these arbitrary sanctions, neither the international community nor third states have taken adequate measures to protect Palestinian institutions and safeguard the full body of available evidence that we are working to collect and document. The failure of these states to take effective steps to enforce the law undermines the entire international legal system. The failure of third states to intervene has effectively given Israel the green light to continue its brutal raids and persecution of Palestinian organizations and human rights defenders on the ground, resulting in the destruction of Palestinian human rights institutions and the eradication of what remains of the rule of law.
The Council reiterates that these sanctions and raids are purely politically motivated, particularly in light of the approaching Israeli elections. Their sole purpose is to create a chilling effect intended to silence those engaged in the Palestinian struggle for survival and self-determination through ending Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime, the unlawful Israeli occupation, and the genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people.
The widespread and systematic Israeli attacks targeting the fundamental freedoms of Palestinian human rights institutions and human rights defenders, and depriving them of their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, constitute a particular form of persecution committed in the context of the ongoing Israeli occupation and apartheid regime. Acts of persecution committed with the intent of supporting and maintaining Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime constitute an inhumane act of apartheid, in accordance with the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
The Council warns that Israel’s continued persecution of Palestinian civil society contributes to the ongoing genocidal destruction of the Palestinian people. Palestinian human rights institutions are targeted because they document Israeli violations, including ongoing acts of genocide, and seek to ensure accountability for them. These institutions are also targeted because of their efforts to protect the Palestinian people from attempts to erase them.
In light of the above, it is important to emphasize that third states must fulfil their international obligations, foremost among them the obligation to prevent the crime of genocide. They must also fulfil their international obligations not to recognize any situation arising from violations of peremptory norms of international law and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining such a situation, as affirmed by the International Court of Justice in its landmark advisory opinion on Palestine, issued on 19 July 2024.
The voices of Palestinian human rights institutions and human rights defenders will not be silenced.
The Council also calls on the international community and third states to:
-Take concrete measures to ensure that designated Palestinian civil society organizations and their staff can operate safely in the occupied Palestinian territory and are protected from arbitrary and unlawful targeting.
-Impose diplomatic and economic sanctions on the occupying state, as well as a comprehensive arms embargo.
-Urge the European Union to urgently apply its Blocking Statute or any other mechanism that provides effective protection for Palestinian institutions and human rights defenders.
-Resume and continue, and even increase, political and financial support for Palestinian society in general, and for Palestinian civil society institutions and international non-governmental organizations in particular, which carry out critically important work aimed at ending Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime and its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, as well as stopping the ongoing genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip.
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