The US and Israel have blocked leading Palestinian human rights activists from attending the UN Civil Society Forum in Mexico City, Quds Press reported on Wednesday.
The Director of Addameer for Human Rights, Sahar Francis, and the Director of Bisan Centre for Research and Development, Ubai Al-Aboudi, were both stopped by the Israeli authorities, apparently at America’s request.
🚨 Sahar Francis, the longtime director of Addameer, human rights defender & lawyer, was just banned from boarding a plane to the US while headed to the World Social Forum in Mexico—like director of @BisanResearch, @UbaiAboudi, who was prohibited from traveling earlier. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/nrlg7s7VjR
— Addameer –الضمير (@Addameer) April 30, 2022
Despite having the necessary documentation, Francis was prevented from boarding a flight to the US on Saturday, a day before Al-Aboudi was stopped from traveling to Amman in Jordan to catch a flight to attend the same event.
Al-Aboudi told Quds Press that his request to meet a senior Israeli official to get an explanation about his travel ban was denied. He pointed out that he traveled to Jordan last month without any difficulty.
🚨Extremely troubling news on the denial of Sahar Francis, General Director of @Addameer and a Palestinian HRD and lawyer to board her flight to US while at Ben Gurion (Lydd) airport, as she was traveling to Mexico to attend the World Social Forum. #StandWithThe6 pic.twitter.com/tSaiRo06FN
— Al-Haq الحق (@alhaq_org) April 30, 2022
It is worth noting that Israel’s Pegasus spyware was found on Al-Aboudi’s mobile phone last November. The phones of five other Palestinian rights activists were also infected.
Last year, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz announced that six Palestinian NGOs, including Addameer and Bisan, had been labeled as “terrorist entities”. The US did not accept this designation and asked for an explanation from Israel, but nothing has been retracted yet.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
