Expelled HRW official slams Israel for attacking rights defenders
Omar Shakir, a senior Human Rights Watch official recently expelled from Israel over his alleged support for promoting boycotts of the regime, has lashed out at Tel Aviv for attacking rights defenders.
Shakir says despite his deportation, Israel has failed to silence Human Rights Watch or other rights movements.
"Despite my deportation today, the Israeli government has failed to muzzle HRW or the human rights movement," Shakir told a press conference in Jerusalem al-Quds, alongside Kenneth Roth, HRW's executive director.
As long as impunity reigns, there will be more and more rights defenders coming under pressure, he said, calling for a change in the international community’s approach toward human rights abuse.
Shakir, a US citizen who worked as the HRW’s Israel and Palestine director, was expelled after months of deportation proceedings against him.
He has been accused of promoting anti-Israel boycotts over the regime’s policies against Palestinians and occupied territories.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has strongly condemned the decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to deport Shakir, describing it as an attempt by the Tel Aviv regime to conceal its crimes.
“Israel is constantly trying to surround its occupation with … high walls to hide its violations and crimes,” the ministry said in a statement released on Monday.
It added, “To achieve this goal, it does not hesitate to use all means and methods, whether by targeting media crews, by direct fire on journalists and threatening their lives, or through terrorizing international crews and staff of human rights and humanitarian organizations.”
The Palestinian foreign ministry then called on regional and international human rights organizations, associations and societies to condemn this crime, which is meant to silence the voice of truth and cover up Israel’s crimes and violations.
The expulsion order would make Shakir the first individual to be expelled from Israel under a controversial 2017 law allowing the expulsion of foreigners who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The BDS movement, launched in 2005 by Palestinian civil society groups, seeks to use non-violent means to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, dismantle Israel's separation wall, achieve equal rights for Palestinians living in Israel and implement the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
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