Dear Human Rights in Palestine and Israel Champions,
Your urgent help is needed. We’re asking you to spare 2 minutes out of your day in support of Mission & Service partner Defense for Children International-Palestine and five other Palestinian human rights defenders who are under serious, immediate threat from the Israeli government.
Six leading, respected Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations have been extraordinarily and suddenly designated as “terrorist organizations” by the Israeli government. These groups provide vital services for Palestinians living under military occupation. They support some of the most vulnerable communities including women and girls, children, political prisoners, child detainees, and civil society activists. The six groups are:
- Defense for Children International – Palestine
- Al-Haq
- Addameer
- Bisan Center for Research and Development
- The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees
- The Union of Agricultural Work Committees
Defense for Children International-Palestine is a Mission & Service partner, and one of the six organizations. This means all their activities are now banned. The Israeli government is authorized to close their offices, seize their assets, and arrest and jail their staff members – and prohibits funding or even publicly expressing support for their activities. Israeli human rights organization and Mission & Service partner B’Tselem has called it an “act characteristic of totalitarian regimes”. These human rights defenders need your solidarity urgently.
Here are three ways you can take action today:
1. Join in today’s international day of action to #StandWithThe6
The six are organizing an international day of action on Thursday, 28 October. They are asking us to get involved in the following ways:
- Show your support on social media: explain why you #StandWithThe6 organizations – tweet or make a video!
- Retweet/share posts from the 6 organizations
- Organize / join local rallies, events, panels, conversations!
- Social Media storm is organized for 10 AM Pacific, 1 PM Eastern, and 8 PM Jerusalem time.
Lots of images and resources are here in the Oct 28 Action Toolkit! bit.ly/standwiththe6 #UCCan #StandWithThe6
2. Ask Foreign Affairs Minister The Hon. Mélanie Joly, and your MP, to speak out now!
Send an email to Minister Joly asking her to condemn the designation and to express public support for these organizations. The UCC letter to Minister Joly is here (PDF). Write a similar letter to your MP condemning the designation and asking them to use their platform to express their public support for these organizations. Doing so will help increase the pressure on the Israeli government to reverse its decision, and provide much-needed public protection for these threatened human rights defenders.Here are some of the statements you can send. You can pick out some key quotes from them to add into your email:
- Statement from Defense for Children International-Palestine
- Joint statement from 16 UK-based humanitarian, human rights, development and faith groups
- Joint statement from Christian organizations in Palestine
- Statement from the United Nations
- Joint statement from dozens of Israeli human rights organizations
3. Speak out to support these organizations
Share the statements above with your own networks and on social media using the hashtag #StandWithThe6.And importantly, learn about and amplify the important work that these six organizations do. Explore their websites (linked in the list above), follow them on social media, and share their voices with those around you and online. Their work is vital and must be allowed to continue.