STATEMENT ON THE ISRAELI RAID OF THE DEFENSE FOR CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
We are writing to express our shock and concern about the raid made at dawn on July 29, 2021, in which Israeli paramilitary forces entered the headquarters of the Defense for Children International south of Ramallah, Palestine, and confiscated client files and computers. The DCIP has issued the following statement regarding the event.
This video-footage documents the raid itself.
The DCI is a child rights organization serving the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip which has documented human rights violations, provided legal services to children whose rights have been violated, and brought awareness of these violations to international attention for the past thirty years.
Khaled Quzmar, the general director of DCIP, stated: “Rather than demand Israeli forces end serious breaches of international law or that Israeli forces hold perpetrators accountable, rising conservative nationalist social forces in Israel, including governmental ministries and agencies, aim to silence and eliminate legitimate human rights work that exposes widespread human rights violations inherent in Israel’s military occupation of Palestinians.”
The raid on the DCIP headquarters resonates with another event which took place this past month—the raid upon and incarceration of the Director of the Palestinian Health Works Committee, the health rights advocate Dr. Shatha Odeh. These assaults on human rights organizations and upon their leadership manifest an escalating campaign to criminalize Palestinians who speak out to defend human rights and to delegitimize humanitarian organizations.
We ask you to voice your opposition to Israeli defamation and intimidation of humanitarian workers by forwarding this document to your colleagues and to the forums of your mental health organizations, and—above all—by contacting your lawmakers and governmental representatives.
Thanking you for your support,
UK-Palestine Mental Health Network
USA-Palestine Mental Health Network
Ireland Palestine Mental Health Network
South Africa-Palestine Mental Health Network
France Palestine Mental Health Network
Palestine Global Mental Health Network
August 9, 2021
