Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Monday that an official move is to be taken against Israel’s decision to classify six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Speaking to a delegation of the NGOs that have been targeted by the Israeli decision, Abbas said that the Israeli measure “is rejected and condemned, and we all stand with these national institutions whose duty is to expose the crimes of the occupation and reveal them to the world,” stressing that “there will be an official Palestinian move to confront this decision internationally,” according to WAFA.
“Israel does not have the right to interfere in the work of these institutions that operate in accordance with Palestinian law,” WAFA quoted Abbas as saying, stressing the need for concerted Palestinian efforts to confront “this challenge the Israeli occupation imposes.”
In a show of solidarity, President Abbas meets with Palestinian civil society organizations targeted by Israel – https://t.co/GuMd9Hb098 #Palestine #StandWithThe6 pic.twitter.com/lFopPcbTQ9
— al whit (@soitiz) October 26, 2021
On Friday, Israel announced that it had classified six Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist organizations”, claiming they funnel funds to the outlawed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The NGOs concerned are Al-Haq Foundation, Addameer Foundation, Defense for Children International (DCI) – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC) and Bisan Center for Research and Development (Bisan).
The UN, the EU and numerous human rights organizations all condemned the move as a means of “silencing, intimidating & criminalizing #Palestinian civil society org’s & human rights defenders”.
(The Palestine Chronicle, MEMO, Social Media)
