2021 ban of Palestinian human rights organizations

On 19 October 2021, Israel designated six Palestinian human rights organizations—Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees—as terrorist organizations.^[1] After the ban, an Israeli official told American media that arrests of the organizations' leadership was not being pursued, the goal was to cut off funding for the targeted groups.^[2] Although the ban was justified on the basis that the organizations had links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, no evidence for such links has been made public by Israel.^[3]

The ban was widely criticised by human rights organisations. Multiple European states rebuffed the idea the NGOs were 'terrorist organizations' while the CIA determined that the accusations were unsupported by evidence.^[4][5] Some European countries said they would continue to fund the organisations from the list, while one such organisation has had their funding cut by the Netherlands.