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PA condemns Israeli death threats against Palestinian ICC activist

August 15, 2016 at 10:54 am

Palestinian Authority (PA) yesterday condemned the Israeli death threats against a Palestinian lawyer representing a Palestinian NGO group in The Hague, Quds Press reported.

Hassan Al-Owri, the legal advisor of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, told Sawa radio that it is “illogical” for a society which claims to be developed then threatens certain organisations for defending human rights on “pure professional” bases.

Al-Owri said that the organisation does not only expose Israeli law violations, but also Palestinian violations.

The human rights group Al-Haq, based in Ramallah, said last week that its lawyer Nada Kiswanson, who represents it in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, had receiving death threats since February.

Kiswanson told Reuters the threats came by email, via family members, and in the form of flower deliveries to her home with accompanying messages.

“When she purchased an anonymous prepaid mobile phone number, she received a threat on it a day later. Messages had come in Dutch, English and ‘broken Arabic’.”

The Council of Palestinian Human Rights Organisations said in a press release that it was “gravely concerned” about threats against its employees.

“These threats are part of a systematic and planned campaign that began in mid-2015, with the intent to disrupt the work of [human rights] organisations, defame them and impact their funding,” it said.