Shin Bet calls director of ‘banned’ Palestine rights group in for interrogation 

Israel’s domestic spy agency, Shin Bet, yesterday ordered the General Director of Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin, to go to Ofer Military Prison in the occupied West Bank for interrogation during a threatening call.

According to Wafa news agency, Jabarin was threatened with arrest, interrogation and “other things” if he failed to comply.

“I will not change my mind, but if he wants to arrest me then he can surely do it as an occupying power,” Jabarin said. He said he invited the officer to the Al-Haq office and that he demanded the interrogation order be sent officially through lawyers, not over the phone.

It comes after the Israeli occupation forces raided seven offices of Palestinian civil society rights groups in the occupied West Bank last week. Closing them.

The raid included six NGOs designated as “terrorist organisations” in 2021, as well as the Union of Health Work Committees, which Israel claims is linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), outlawed by Tel Aviv.

Israel has not provided evidence for its claims.

Jabarin called the claims of PFLP ties “utter nonsense and complete lies.”

READ: ‘International impunity is the backbone of Israel’s occupation,’ says rights group

Israel claimed it will provide information to the United States on the basis for the closures after US State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, expressed concern over the closures of civil society groups, Reuters reports.

However the US has since said that it is “concerned” by Israel’s raids of the West Bank offices of Palestinian NGOs, stressing that there is not enough evidence to prove their designation as terror organisations.

The United Nations also condemned the closures and said there was no credible evidence to support the Israeli accusations.

“Despite offers to do so, Israeli authorities have not presented to the United Nations any credible evidence to justify these declarations,” the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement. “As such, the closures appear totally arbitrary.”

Nine European Union countries – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden – have said they will continue working with the groups, citing a lack of evidence for Israel’s accusations.