In response to the US government sanctioning the Palestinian organizations al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Brandon Wu, Director of Policy and Campaigns of ActionAid USA, says:
“The Trump administration’s singling out of three leading Palestinian human rights organizations is yet another abuse of power to persecute political opponents. It is an attack on groups that are giving voice to Palestinian people in the face of genocide, and it is an attack on freedom of speech and freedom of dissent more generally.”
ActionAid collaborated with Al Mezan Center for Human Rights last year to release a briefing, Compelled to Flee: Cycles of Israeli forced displacement of Palestinians, and worked closely with al-Haq in 2021 on a virtual public hearing to put a spotlight on Israel’s violations of international law, including its apartheid policies of blockade, illegal settlements, forced displacement, and excessive force.
Brandon warns:
“The authoritarian playbook is clear. If the administration is allowed to single out and target pro-Palestinian organizations and activists, they will go after others they disagree with in short order. In fact, this is already happening.
“For the sake of Palestinian rights and for the sake of stopping the US slide into autocracy, ActionAid expresses solidarity with the targeted organizations and calls on US civil society and other national governments to clearly and powerfully oppose the Trump administration’s assault on Palestinian organizations, activists, and communities.”
ENDS
Brandon Wu, Director of Policy and Campaigns of ActionAid USA, Jamil Sawalmeh, Country Director of ActionAid Palestine, and Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, are available for interview. For media requests, please email christal.james@actionaid.org or call 7046659743.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 countries, including some of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty, including by shifting power to local organizations and movements.
