Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a government decision to deport a Human Rights Watch (HRW) official, Omar Shakir, accused of backing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and granted him 20 days to appeal or leave the Palestinian territories.
The court rejected the objections of Shakir and several Israeli peace activists, who accused the Israeli government of harming the work of the international agency in protecting human rights.
Executive director at Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, said that with this decision, Israel is joining countries like North Korea, Iran, and others that have blocked access for HRW.
Roth indicated that the Supreme Court has effectively declared that free expression in Israel does not include completely mainstream advocacy for Palestinian rights, warning that if the government now deports “Human Rights Watch’s researcher for asking businesses to respect rights as we do across the world, there’s no telling whom it will throw out next.”
Shakir, a US citizen of Iraqi descent, was born in California in 1984 and received his doctorate in law in 2013.
The Israeli authorities began prosecuting him a day after he received his work visa at the United Nations in April 2017. Seven months later, he was only granted a 2-months working visa.
Israeli Interior Ministry tried to prevent his entry into Israel, saying he is “an undesirable person,” claiming he supports the BDS movement.
Shakir contested the argument that his past pro-Palestinian statements, before being appointed to the HRW post in 2016, constituted current backing for boycotts of Israel.
“Israeli Supreme Court upholds my deportation over my rights advocacy,” Shakir tweeted about the decision.
Shakir did not deny that he was active in defending human rights issues, but that this activity was not limited to supporting the Palestinian cause, and also addressed human rights in Egypt, Iraq and the United States as well.
He asserted that, once he took up his post at HRW, he had complied with its conditions that prevented him from expressing his political views.
But the three-judge court rejected this interpretation, saying the Interior Ministry has the right to deport him from the country.
The court considered what Shakir published before his appointment as a clear indication that he is an anti-Israel person and an unequivocal supporter of boycotting it internationally.
The court rejected the claim that his expulsion was damaging the work of an international organization, saying that the decision concerned Omar Shakir alone, not the activity of his organization, which operates freely in Israel.
Ayman Odeh, a senior politician representing Israel’s Arab minority, added on Twitter that deporting Shakir “only proves to us and the world the extent to which his work is needed”.
