Israël/Palestine. « Occupation and shrinking space »

Recent years have seen a virulent crackdown against civil society in Palestine and Israel. This “shrinking space” for CSOs operating in Palestine and Israel is an inherent feature of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, and manifests itself in various ways :

• Palestinian CSOs are prime victims of this shrinking space and are targeted from all sides : the Israeli government, extremist pro-occupation groups closely affiliated with the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the de facto Hamas authorities in the Gaza strip. They are confronted with administrative and arbitrary detentions ; physical threats and harassment ; restrictions on freedom of movement, expression and assembly ; increasingly restric- tive regulatory frameworks ; and intense defamation campaigns aimed
  at undermining their credibility and cutting their external funding.

• Israeli CSOs, meanwhile, are under constant attacks by the Israeli gov- ernment and by extremist pro-occupation groups closely affiliated with the Israeli government. They also face non-stop defamation and incite- ment campaigns, a multitude of restrictive laws that seriously curtail their freedom of expression and association, and persistent efforts to cut their foreign funding.
  This report aims to shed light on the different ways in which Palestinian and Israeli CSO actors are confronted with this “shrinking space”. It zooms in on the different ways in which Palestinian and Israeli CSOs are attacked by the Israeli government, pro-occupation groups, the Palestinian Authority and by Hamas. It is based on a desk review of existing literature, as well as field research in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in June 2019.

To complement initial findings, a survey was also circulated among 17 Pales- tinian and 10 Israeli CSOs in September 2019, including several partner organizations of 11.11.11’s member organizations. The data collected during this survey should be considered indicative and prone to changes over time, but nevertheless gives a good “snapshot” of the main issues threatening the operating space of Palestinian and Israeli CSOs, as well as the policy actions they would like to see prioritized by the EU and EU member states :

• In terms of main “shrinking space” for Palestinian CSOs, a number of factors stood out in this survey. “Physical violence” by different actors is a main issue in all contexts surveyed (Israel, Area C, East Jerusalem, PA-controlled areas in the West Bank, Gaza), while “decrease in external funding due to attacks by nationalist NGOs” is identified as one of the three most important issues in East Jerusalem, Area C, PA-controlled areas and in Gaza. Palestinian organizations working inside Israel and/or East Jerusalem are also particularly worried about new Israeli legislation and efforts to delegitimize and discredit their work, while organizations working in Area A and B of the West Bank are warning about a rapid decline in the rule of law within PA-controlled areas. Finally, Palestinian CSOs working in Gaza also highlight the impact of travel restrictions or travel bans, originating from the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip.
  Palestinian CSOs were also asked to identify the main actors threatening their space to operate. The pro-occupation group NGO Monitor and the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs were identified as the most threatening actors, followed by actions and statements by individual Israeli government officials. This is also reflected in the main policy recommendations Palestinian CSOs have for the EU and EU member states. After “increase in core funding”, Palestinian CSOs see the establishment of an EU no-contact policy with NGO Monitor and the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs as a main priority.
• In terms of “shrinking space” for Israeli CSOs, a number of factors dominate. Three “shrinking space factors” stand out by far when compared to other factors. New legislation, delegitimization and defamation campaigns, and the decrease in external funding due to attacks by nationalist NGOs are consequently ranked as the three main issues at stake. Israeli CSOs operating in East Jerusalem (which was illegally annexed to Israel in 1980) and Area C of the West Bank, however, face a different type of shrinking space. They are predominantly confronted with arrests and detention, a wide range of administrative obstacles, and with raids on their offices and/or the closure of their offices.
  Unsurprisingly, Israeli CSOs see Israeli government officials, NGO Monitor and the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs as the three actors that most threaten their space to operate. Finally, the 10 Israeli CSOs surveyed identify three main policy actions for the EU and EU member states : the re-establishment of the “Human Rights and IHL Secretariat” (see more background in section 4.3.1) and an increase in field visits by high-ranking European politicians and by members of European parliaments.

When asked about actors that threaten their space to operate, Palestinian and Israeli CSOs surveyed by 11.11.11 all identified the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and “NGO Monitor” as the main actors. This report there- fore paid particular attention to the anti-CSO campaign by Israeli authorities and affiliated groups, in addition to the gross human rights violations and anti-CSO attacks by the PA and Hamas.

Palestinian and Israeli CSOs are facing a strategic and holistic campaign by dozens of extremist pro-occupation groups operating in Israel, Europe and the US, which is coordinated by the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs (MSA). Both the MSA and government-affiliated groups such as NGO Monitor are conflating legitimate criticism of gross Israeli human rights violations with anti-Semitism and are employing vague and unsubstantiated claims of terrorist affiliations against Palestinian CSOs, in order to deprive the latter of funding essential to their sustainability. In doing so, Israel wants to delegitimize liberal human-rights voices advocating a free and democratic society in Israel and Palestine, and is openly attacking the fundamental right to freedom of expression.

This report therefore comes at a critical time. In recent years Israeli pro- occupation actors have stepped up their efforts and have brought their dis- information to the heart of European democracy. The EU has accused the
Israeli government of “disinformation campaigns” and has described NGO Monitor’s work as a “cocktail of tendentious research, intentional inaccuracies and downright EU-bashing propaganda”.

European territory and politics have thus become a main battlefield for persistent efforts to delegitimize any discourse about Palestinian rights and respect for international law. The number of worrying devel- opments has rapidly proliferated in recent years. The Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and its network of extremist pro-occupation groups have taken credit for bringing down EU funding mechanisms such as the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat. They have conflated human rights advocacy and criticism of Israeli policies with anti-Semitism, as can be seen by the promotion of the IHRA definition on anti-Semitism, the adoption of anti-BDS motions and legislation in Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and France and problematic developments in the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.

Yet the EU continues to engage with such disinformation actors and fails to hold them accountable for such deliberate disinformation campaigns. The EU, which remains by far the most important donor to both Palestinian and Israeli CSOs, has so far not managed to sufficiently defend and preserve an enabling environment for local CSOs. Interviews with Palestinian and Israeli CSO actors and with European diplomats have highlighted several serious concerns regarding the EU’s ability to meaningfully alter the shrinking space landscape. Such concerns include the non-existent or weak implementation of key EU strategy documents (most importantly the “EU Country Roadmaps for Engagement with Civil Society”) ; a self-imposed censorship among EU officials to criti- cize Israel, out of fear for being labelled as anti-Semitic ; a clear lack of strong political backing from EU capitals to hold all violators to account and impose consequences for attacks against CSO actors ; and a lack of a dedicated analytical capacity to systematically monitor the shrinking space for CSO actors by all actors.