Israel Raids Offices Of Palestinian NGOs In Mass Silencing Effort

Seven NGOs denounce raids as message of impunity against Palestinians and foreign governments, after army seizes equipment and welds office doors shut.

The Israeli army raided this morning the Ramallah offices of seven prominent Palestinian NGOs that have been designated as “terror organizations” by the Defense Ministry. In a concerted operation, soldiers simultaneously broke into the groups’ headquarters across the occupied West Bank city just before dawn, seized files and equipment from some of them, and welded the doors shut. At the entrance to each office, the army left copies of military orders declaring that the organizations were illegal.

A raided office with broken windows, boxes and papers on the floor

Six of the organizations — Al-Haq, Addameer, Bisan Center, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), the Union of Agricultural Works Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC) — were outlawed by Defense Minister Benny Gantz in October 2021, while the seventh, the Health Work Committees, was outlawed the year before.

In Al-Haq’s office, soldiers left items and equipment sprawled on the floor and sealed the main door with a metal plate. In the office of UPWC, the contents of the cupboards and drawers were thrown onto the floor, and one staff member said that the army had taken the organization’s computers, portable drives, and servers.