Al Jazeera correspondents
Gaza- The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory announced the closure of its office in the Gaza Strip after nearly 15 years of continuous field work.
Observatory head Rami Abdo said that this decision came as part of a series of precautionary measures that he recently took to protect his crews, in light of the escalation of threats and official punitive measures imposed by Israel against him, against the backdrop of his activities in the field of documenting Israeli violations against the Palestinians.
He explained in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that during recent weeks, especially after the Observatory published a report documenting crimes of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons, official bodies and Israeli officials – including ministers – and prominent figures and propaganda platforms launched an organized and systematic campaign of incitement and distortion against the human rights organization and its workers.
Dangerous environment
Abdo stated that the Israeli campaign intends to link the work of the “independent human rights observatory” to false political allegations that lack any basis, which has created a “dangerous environment” that may lead to “direct targeting of workers in the field.”
He pointed out that the Israeli campaign focused on targeting its leadership and members with individual and collective smear campaigns, which sometimes amounted to direct death threats to key members of the work team due to their active involvement in documenting acts of genocide.
He added that these pressures culminated at the end of last May with the Israeli authorities imposing punitive measures that included restrictions on the movement of 40 people from the observatory’s staff, including members of the board of directors, employees, volunteers and partners.
Abdo stressed that closing the Observatory’s office in Gaza does not mean stopping its work or retreating from its ethical and professional responsibilities, but rather it is an emergency measure imposed by legitimate concerns for the lives of workers.
He held the Israeli authorities fully responsible for the safety of his team, considering that this campaign is part of a broader pattern of intimidating and silencing journalists and human rights activists.
Why targeting?
The official Israeli campaign against the Observatory began against the backdrop of a report published by veteran American writer Nicholas Kristof, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, in the New York Times, on May 11, in which he confirmed the occurrence of systematic crimes of rape and sexual violence practiced by Israel against Palestinian detainees in its prisons.
Kristof’s report, entitled “Silence over the Rape of Palestinians,” angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took the initiative to issue a statement of condemnation, in which he announced his intention to take legal action against the newspaper and the writer, on charges of defamation.
Later, the Israeli Ministry of “Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anti-Semitism” launched an attack on the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory, considering that it was one of the main sources on which the American journalist Kristof relied in his article.
The Ministry claimed that the Observatory does not only work as a human rights documentation body, but rather runs an integrated network that includes field documentation, legal and international influence, and media pressure, with the aim of strengthening the Palestinian narrative in international forums, including calls to hold Israel accountable before international judicial bodies.
It accused him of promoting “allegations of systematic sexual violence” against Palestinian prisoners, and of contributing to efforts aimed at increasing international pressure on Israel.
Brutality and sexual violence
On April 12, Euro-Med issued a human rights report that revealed shocking details about the “sexual violence” to which Palestinian detainees are exposed inside Israeli prisons.
According to the report, the occupation practices brutal and systematic patterns of sexual violence, including direct rape by soldiers, or using trained dogs and hard tools, as well as electrocuting the genital areas and kicking them with military boots, which in documented cases led to the removal of genital organs and death under torture.
The Observatory’s testimonies intersected with a detailed report issued by the United Nations on May 28, which concluded that “sexual violence” had become for Israel “a method of war,” according to which Israeli forces were included in the UN blacklist for conflict-related sexual violence.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor began its work in November 2011 as a human rights initiative to confront “the waves of repression and violence that coincided with the Arab Spring protests.”
The Observatory is headquartered in Geneva, and has a network of regional offices in Europe and the Middle East and North Africa region.
The Observatory’s Board of Trustees is chaired by Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories between 2008 and 2014.
