Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence, John Brady TD, has condemned the Israeli military raid on the offices and premises of a number of Palestinian NGOs, which comes 100 days after the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh. 

Videos of the raid circulating online show Israeli military personnel removing material from the offices of the NGOs and, in a number of instances, welding steel covers on doorways to prevent access to the buildings. 

The organisations were also served with military orders declaring them closed. This is nothing more than another disgraceful attempt by Israeli authorities to further isolate Palestinian civil society from the global community.

The targeted organisations include, The Union of Palestinian Women (UPC), Defence for Children (DCI Palestine), Addamer, Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), the Bisan Centre for Research and Development, and Al-Haq, the Palestinian human rights organisation.

Teachta Brady said:

“I want to utterly condemn the series of raids conducted by Israeli military forces on the offices of NGOs representing Palestinian civil society.

“These include organisations that were arbitrarily designated as terrorist entities last October, a claim for which Israel has not offered anything which approaches credible evidence, despite repeated requests to do so. 

“A number of the NGOs were funded by the EU, and individual EU states including Ireland. The global human rights community, the United Nations, and many state governments rejected the designation of the NGOs.

“The huge raids resulted in the Israeli military removing large amounts of material, welding steel covers on doors to their premises, and serving military orders declaring them closed.

“This is just a continuation of the attack on Palestinian civil society, which began last October. It is a further attempt by Israel to isolate Palestinian society from the global community.

“The failure of the international community to once again act against Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people has merely emboldened the aggressors to go one step further.

“Israel is intent on silencing all internal voices of dissent against its violent apartheid colonial regime. The silence and inaction of the international community permits Israel to escalate its violence and oppression against Palestinians.

“I want to call upon the Irish government, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney in particular, to use Ireland’s position on the UN Security Council, and in the EU to voice the strongest possible condemnation of these disgraceful actions, and to lead the call for the international community to act. Israel cannot be allowed to prosecute its oppressive and discriminatory actions against the Palestinian people without sanction.”