RAMALLAH, Tuesday, July 12, 2022 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates welcomed this night a statement issued earlier on Tuesday by nine European Union countries rejecting the Israeli occupation’s designation of six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations.
In October 2021, the Israeli occupation designated six Palestinian civil society organizations – Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees – as terrorist organizations.
The Foreign Ministry considered the position of the nine countries – namely Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden – a step in the right path in the face of Israeli attempts to silence the Palestinian civil society, which is evidence of the crimes of the Israeli occupation and its violations of international law.
The Ministry emphasized that the Palestinian NGOs are credible and transparent institutions that operate within national and international legal frameworks and have a pivotal role in civil society and in the steadfastness of the Palestinian people.
The Ministry urged states and institutions of the international community not to be misled by Israeli classifications, decisions, and laws because they are tools of the Israeli occupation in consolidating the apartheid regime and the oppression inflicted upon the Palestinian people and its institutions.
