Statement| Anawanti Network condemns Israelí raids on Palestinian NGOs

The Anawanti network condemns the raids carried out by Israeli occupation forces in the early hours of August 18 on the offices of six highly respected Palestinian human rights  organisations, confiscating equipment, documents and materials, sealing their doors, and ordering them closed by leaving notices declaring them unlawful. As well as the persecution and attacks on workers of these organisations during the last few days.

The six organisations are Defense for Children International Palestine, Al-Haq, Addameer the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees, the last one member of Anawanti Network.

These organizations do vital work defending Palestinian rights and exposing crimes and rights abuses perpetrated by Israel’s apartheid regime, thats why the Israeli state attempts to punish them.

Therefore, the organizations of the Anawanti Network send solidarity to our friends and colleagues in these human rights organisations and denounce their persecution by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid (Article II of the 1973 Apartheid Convention).

We call on the international community to immediately intervene to protect the six designated organisations, whose finances
and assets risk being confiscated, and their staff members, directly targeted, arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned. We demand a meaningful action from the international community to hold Israel accountable for its crimes and face sanctions for its violations of international law and human rights abuses and crimes against the Palestinian people.

Statements by some organisations of the Anawanti Network on the attacks on our comrades from the Union of Palestinian Women Committees and the other organisations:

“May the energies lead us to life. We embrace all our feminist comrades in Palestine and honour their path to freedom.” Actoras de Cambio (Guatemala).

“Our sisterhood with the Palestinian women who face violations of their rights for defending women’s rights” ORMUSA, El Salvador.

Signed by:

ANAWANTi NETWORK – FEMINIST ORGANIZATIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE MEDITERRANEAN FOR A LIFE FREE OF VIOLENCE– anawanti.international

SUDS – Spain
Fundación SURT – Spain
Centro de Derechos de Mujeres (CDM) – Honduras
Organización Salvadoreña de Mujeres por la Paz (ORMUSA) – El Salvador
Actoras de Cambio – Guatemala
Association Marocaine pour les Droits des Femmes (AMDF) – Marroc
Mains Solidaires – Marroc
Unión of Palestinian Women Commitees (UPWC) -Palestine