The head of prominent Palestinian rights group Al-Haq has toldThe New Arab that an international travel ban imposed on him by Israel on Friday will not stop his human rights work.
Speaking to TNA on Saturday, Al-Haq chief Shawan Jabarin said: “This is a widespread policy used to silence Palestinians, including students, activists, and human rights defenders, and obstruct their work”.
“It will not stop us,” he said, adding: “Al-Haq is an established institution with nearly 50 years of history. It is far bigger than me as its director, and our work will continue”.
According to Al-Haq, Jabarin was held at the Allenby (al-Karameh) bridge, where he was prevented from leaving Palestine for Jordan.
As he was held by Israeli authorities, he was asked about his reasons for travel before being told that he would be prohibited from leaving.
“Even internal movement within the West Bank is severely restricted, and the denial of freedom of movement is routinely weaponised against our people,” Jabarin said.
The rights group denounced the action against their general director, stating it was the “latest alarming step taken by Israel’s settler colonial apartheid regime”.
The group further called the travel ban arbitrary and politically motivated, and said the move was to restrict and sanction his human rights advocacy work carried out at al-Haq.
Balkees Jarrah, the Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, denounced the travel ban, stating “it reflects a vindictive effort to punish those advocating for victims of serious crimes. The ban is the latest escalation of Israel’s campaign to silence Palestinian rights groups that document violations of international law and seek accountability”.
“Governments should act to support and protect Palestinian civil society and ensure that they’re able to continue their invaluable work,” she added.
This is not the first time Jabarin has been targeted. In August 2022, he received a call from Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence service threatening his arrest and imprisonment if he continued his work with al-Haq. Earlier, in 2016, he received death threats for his work with the International Criminal Court.
He has also been issued with travel bans in previous years. In 2006 he was unable to travel to the Netherlands to receive an award for his human rights work after the Israeli Supreme Court handed him a travel ban, which remained in place for six years.
In a statement on Friday, Al-Haq said that the recent travel ban was evidence of the erosion of the rule of law and democracy.
“Israel, the Occupying Power, has significant obligations towards protected persons in territory it holds under its effective control, including obligations to apply human rights treaties to which it is a party, extraterritorially, as reiterated ad nauseam by UN treaty bodies,” the statement read.
The organisation further stated that the travel ban violates the rights to freedom of movement and association under Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the right to freedom of expression under Article 19.
The development comes amid rising stifling restrictions imposed on Palestinian rights groups as well as a severe crackdown on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Al-Haq has called on the international community to intervene and take immediate action to protect the organisation, as well as Jabarin, ensuring his travel ban is revoked.
“The international community must take concrete actions, including countermeasures and economic sanctions in response to Israel’s systematic dismantling of Palestinian civil society and attacks on human rights defenders who are now facing existential threats,” Al-Haq said in a statement.
