News / Palestine

Israel intimidates, arrests anti-occupation activists: HRW

Friday, 07 September 2018 4:12 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 07 September 2018 4:17 PM ]

The file photo shows Israeli forces blocking the way of rights activists touring the occupied West Bank on August 31, 2018.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned the Israeli regime for increasingly targeting human rights activists revealing crimes in the occupied territories.

“Activists face intimidation, violence, and arrest,” read an article published by the US-based organization on Friday.

The article titled The Cost of Exposing Israel’s Illegal Settlements reveals Israel's heavy-handed tactics in targeting rights activists.

The writer of the article, Eric Goldstein, who is HRW's deputy director for Middle East and North Africa division, reports a story related to Israeli occupation, illegal settlements, assault by settlers and the military supporting all this.

In the article, the writer concludes that Israeli settlers are being emboldened by the military to carry out any illegal activity they want, while human rights activists telling the truth about Israeli occupation are being increasingly targeted by Israeli forces.

"Human rights defenders working to draw attention to abuses associated with Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territory are being increasingly targeted as a result of their work," according to a report released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights .

Less than a month before US President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.