In a ruling that sets a precedent about the right to external scrutiny in Israel, the Supreme court has rejected the appeal of the director of HRW against the ruling of a court in Jerusalem, which was ratified last April with the expulsion order issued by the Ministry of Interior, and has given him a deadline of 20 days to leave the country. The stations of the cross legal Shakir, born in the united States 34 years ago in the midst of a family of origin is iraqi, began even before landing in the airport of Tel Aviv. Three years ago, the Ministry of the Interior israel already denied the visa to work with your organization. It took seven months to get the permit, but in may of last year was revoked under the accusation of having supported the movement to boycott Israel.
“Before, the pretext of the Government was to strike at the NGO propagandists propalestinas; has now recalibrated its strategy towards the security OFFICE,” explained Shakir in an interview with THE COUNTRY. “We do not support the BDS, only question companies, like Airbnb, doing business in the west bank under occupation, without respecting the international law and discriminate against the palestinians”, he claimed. A year ago, the decision of the platform of apartment rentals removed from the web the offer of accommodation located in the settlements of colonists to fell like a sledgehammer on the exterior image in Israel. The company, with headquarters in San Francisco gave back five months later with the growing number of lawsuits filed against him before the justice of the united STATES.
a Graduate in Law and International Relations from Stanford University and a master’s degree in Arabic Studies by the Georgetown, Shakir reiterated last September, in an appearance before the press after the hearing held in the Supreme, which did not support the boycott of Israel, although in his time as a student he had attended campaign events, propalestina.
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Omar Shakir, country director for Israel and Palestine for Human Rights Watch. The israeli Government intends to deport the director of HRW who reported to Airbnb congress Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, last July. EFE Israel prohibits entry to two congressmen muslim U.S. at the request of Trump
Your order of removal was dictated by the Netanyahu Government under the protection of a legal reform in 2017 that bars the passage to Israel to the foreign supporters of the BDS. This was the case of the activist Spanish Ana Sanchez Mera, that was rejected at the Ben Gurion airport in July of 2018, when he coordinated a visit to Palestine of charges to municipal and regional United we Can.
The minister of Public Security of Israel, Gilad Erdan, has qualified to Shakir for being “an activist of the boycott of masquerading as a defender of human rights”. “No foreigner has the right to settle in Israel while causing harm to its citizens,” he warned. “You should know that they will end up paying a price”.
the case of The director of HRW is the first in which Israel applied the expulsion of an international observer after having been granted a residence visa. The “precedent is constitutional” that sought to lay their attorneys has resulted, however, in a twist on the doctrine of the Supreme Hebrew, considered a bastion of liberal and democratic in front of the Executive more conservative in the entire history of the jewish State. Its judges have now applied to the letter the legislation of anti-BDS 2017. In October last year, the judges of the Supreme allowed entry to the country to the american student of palestinian origin Lara Alqasem, 22 years of age, who had remained on hold for more than two weeks in the airport of Tel Aviv under the accusation of supporting the BDS.
“Israel boasts of being the only democracy in the middle East”, aimed Shakir before resorting to the High Court last September, “but you may end up joining a club [of countries that veto to HRW] on the listed North Korea, Egypt, or Venezuela.” Since he was expelled from Cairo in 2014 as a result of his report on the killing of islamist protesters in the mosque of Rabaa al Adawiya in Cairo the previous year. This human rights expert —who has also denounced the ill-treatment of detainees by palestinian security forces—, he served in the united States as a legal assistant of inmates in Guantanamo bay.
“I do Not fear that I will be deported from Israel. At the end of the day, I am privileged, with american passport and that he works for an international NGO. To me I’m not going to deal with the same violence as a palestinian,” acknowledged in the interview with THE COUNTRY. “This case has ramifications that go beyond it. Versa on the limits of criticism and dissent in Israel. Today is the boycott and deportation. Tomorrow may be the ban of questioning the settlements and the closure of NGO foreign”.
