UN commission accuses Israel of 'silencing' Palestinian rights groups

Investigators commissioned by the UN’s top human rights body have accused Israel of "delegitimising and silencing civil society" by outlawing Palestinian human rights groups and labelling their members as "terrorists."

The findings came in the annual report, published on Thursday, by the Human Rights Council's "Commission of Inquiry."

The commission, led by a three-member team of human rights experts, was established in 2021 following an 11-day Israeli military raid on Gaza. Israel accuses the rights council, and the commission, of being unfairly biased.

The report said most of the violations it had uncovered were committed by Israel as part of a campaign it says is aimed at "ensuring and enshrining its permanent occupation at the expense of the rights of the Palestinian people."

Former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, who leads the commission, accused Israeli and Palestinian authorities of "limiting the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful association."

"We were particularly alarmed by the situation of Palestinian human rights defenders, who are routinely subject to a range of punitive measures as part of the occupation regime," she said.

Israeli crackdown

Thursday’s report said the Israeli crackdown on the Palestinian human rights groups was "unjustified and violated fundamental human rights, including the rights to freedom of association, expression, opinion, peaceful assembly, privacy and the right to a fair trial."

It also aimed at Israel's deportation of a Palestinian human rights activist last year from the occupied East Jerusalem to France. Israel has accused the activist, Salah Hammouri, of an outlaw group membership.

Chris Sidoti, a member of the commission, said there was "no doubt" that the deportation "constitutes a war crime."

In a statement released by its UN mission in Geneva, Israel rejected the report’s findings. "The Commission of Inquiry against Israel has no legitimacy. It never had," it said.

It accused the commission members of having "pre-existing biased prejudices" and compared the commission’s public hearings to gather information for the report to "kangaroo trials."