On 1 September 2022, the Six prominent Palestinian civil society organizations arbitrarily outlawed by Israeli government sent a letter to the Biden administration demanding action.

The letter, addressed to United States President Joe Biden, called on him and his administration to condemn Israel’s latest actions aimed at delegitimizing and criminalizing Palestinian human rights defenders and civil society organizations. The letter further demanded that Biden’s administration rejects the Israeli government’s unsubstantiated allegations against the six Palestinian civil society organizations and demand Israel to rescind the designations under both Israeli civilian law and military law.

The six prominent Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations targeted by the designations are Addameer, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees. The groups work directly with Palestinian women and girls, children, peasant families, prisoners, and civil society activists, providing direct services and monitoring and exposing human rights abuses. Israeli forces raided their offices on August 18, welding their doors shut and taped a military order to the door effectively closing the groups’ offices.

The letter also called on the Biden administration to work collectively with other states to demand Israel rescind the designations and take diplomatic action, in concert with European counterparts, that serves to protect targeted Palestinian organizations, staff, premises, and assets; end any U.S. efforts to undermine the right of Palestinian people and Palestinian civil society organizations to pursue justice and accountability, including at the International Criminal Court; and end complicity and financial and diplomatic support to the Israeli apartheid regime.

In response to the August 18 raid on the Palestinian civil society groups, United Nations experts condemned Israel’s escalating attacks against Palestinian civil society in an August 24 statement declaring “these actions amount to severe suppression of human rights defenders and are illegal and unacceptable.”

This week, nearly 300 organizations around the world sent their own letter to President Biden demanding immediate action in response to the Israeli government’s latest assault against the Palestinian civil society organizations.

* Letter and statement on the joint website of #StandWithThe6 can be viewed here.