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Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Israel seeks to isolate Palestinians from global support
Israel’s policy is to isolate Palestinians from the outside world and
obstruct the work of human rights defenders who document violations.
APA images
Two Dutch researchers were detained, subjected to humiliating treatment
and abuse and then deported by Israel earlier this month.
Their experience is part of Israel’s policy to isolate Palestinians from
the outside world and obstruct the work of human rights defenders.
Israeli security forces took Lydia de Leeuw for questioning immediately after she landed at Ben Gurion airport on 20 July.
Before the interrogation started, she was handed a file with personal
details and other information already completed, including a decision by
the interior minister to deny her entry.
Handcuffed and abused
Over four hours, de Leeuw was strip searched, deprived of her phone and
other property and denied access to the Dutch embassy or legal
assistance. She was then deported.
Her colleague Pauline Overeem experienced even more severe treatment.
She was detained for 24 hours during which she was “handcuffed and
subjected to verbal abuse, including threats that the Israeli
authorities would use force against her,” according to PHROC, a coalition of Palestinian human rights groups.
“They handcuffed me, verbally abused me and left me alone for hours in a room,” Overeem told the Dutch daily De Volkskrant.
Overeem was also denied consular or legal assistance before she was put on a flight back to the Netherlands the next day.
Our denial of entry fits into the pattern: anti-#BDS legislation is designed and used to suppress free speech and prevent #HumanRights research in #Israel #Palestine #oPt. Targets prior to @SOMO: @OmarSShakir of @hrw and @ArielElyseGold from @codepink. alhaq.org/advocacy/targe…
De Leeuw and Overeem are senior researchers at SOMO, a Dutch research center on multinationals founded in 1973.
Israeli media reported
de Leeuw’s expulsion around the time she was taken in for questioning,
mentioning details from her file – indicating that the media worked in
coordination with the government.
“This suggests that the decision to deny her entry was made before she
even landed in Israel,” according to PHROC. “Therefore, the treatment de
Leeuw received at the airport, including her interrogation, was solely
inflicted to harass and humiliate her.”
The interior ministry banned de Leeuw’s entry on the recommendation of Gilad Erdan,
Israel’s strategic affairs minister who is in charge of the
government’s global crackdown on supporters of Palestinian human rights.
Facebook “evidence”
The researchers appear to be the first Dutch citizens to be denied entry
under Israel’s anti-BDS law, which targets the boycott, divestment and
sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.
SOMO is not on the Israeli government’s blacklist of 20 organizations whose members are banned from entry because they work to end Israel’s human rights abuses.
However, Erdan nonetheless used Israel’s anti-BDS law to ban the two Dutch researchers.
SOMO said it was “incomprehensible and unacceptable” that its employees were denied entry over alleged BDSwork.
The group stated that it is “not active in the BDS movement” and that
“boycott falls outside the scope of SOMO’s work as a research
organization.”
Erdan was however bothered by SOMO’s report about Dutch agricultural imports from Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law.
The report served as proof that de Leeuw promotes BDS, Erdan’s ministry told the Dutch newspaper NRC.
De Leeuw told NRC that an Israeli interrogator presented
additional “evidence” that she supports BDS in the form of two Facebook
posts from 2015 and 2016. At the time, the law to ban to BDS
organizations from Israel was not in force.
Criminalizing BDS
SOMO sees Israel’s denial of entry to its staff as part of the “ongoing
trend toward shrinking space for civil society and the freedom of
expression.”
The group says it is “extremely concerned about the criminalization of
individuals and organizations that have called upon countries and
businesses to promote and respect human rights.”
SOMO is urging the Dutch government to demand an explanation from Israel and condemn the treatment of its researchers.
The group noted that the Dutch government has explicitly defended BDS activism as protected free speech and association, a position also held by the European Union.
“I am not active in the [BDS] movement but fully support people who choose to enjoy this right,” de Leeuw told NRC.
European complicity
The Dutch foreign ministry – a donor to SOMO – told NRC the entry ban was “regrettable,” while recognizing the right of any country to determine its admission policy.
The ministry repeated its position that BDS activism is protected by freedom of expression.
The Dutch government’s surrender to Israel’s “right” to determine who
can enter is identical to the apathetic response of the French
government after Israel barred the entry of a number of French elected officials last year.
But what these governments are dangerously ignoring is that Israel is
not merely barring entry to its “sovereign” territory. It is especially
barring entry to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and isolating
millions of Palestinians living there from the outside world.
Israel is obstructing the ability of international organizations to
monitor its compliance with its obligations as an occupying power under
international law. Therefore by refusing to stand up to Israel’s entry
ban, European governments are helping Israel conceal its abuses from the
world and giving it cover to commit more violations.
Dutch lawmaker Sadet Karabulut has asked the foreign ministry to look into the case.
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