The international SCI working group focusing on the cooperation between SCI Branches and partner organisations in the Maghreb and Middle East region (MIDI WG) is following the developments in the regions as much as they can. Getting first hand information from the partners is essential to understand the challenges they are facing in their daily work. At the moment, Nour is doing his ESC in the office of SCI Catalonia and describes for us what the NGO’s in the West Bank are going through.

The Palestinian NGO’s are undergoing daily oppression from the Israeli occupation forces. This oppression takes different forms but makes it hard for NGO’s to start activities or continue their activities. I was involved in several NGO’s and all of them received “warnings” from the occupation forces because of their work. The continuous repression has made it hard for the NGO’s to actually put their beliefs and ideas into practice because of the many restrictions they face. The Israeli government sees NGO’s and civil society organisations as dangerous entities. Everything is always framed in the “national security” discourse, and this doesn’t make sense and is not based on evidence. The fact that Palestinian civil society is committed to work for a positive change in their society, does not mean that they are affecting the national security of Israel. The volunteer projects and projects that the NGO’s in the West Bank want to initiate, are mostly focusing on the reality in the West Bank. They want to improve the situation of children, young people, women, elderly people and citizens in general to give them a better future.

In 2021 the Israeli Ministry of Defence, designated 6 Palestinian NGO’s, among which several human rights organisations such as Al-Haq, prisoners’ rights group Addameer, Defence for Children International but also the Union of Palestinian Women’s committees or the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, as terrorist organisations. Staff of NGO’s were imprisoned and although complaints were filed and international support brought these cases in the open, the repression continues. The Israeli military considers the organizations as “unlawful” , effectively outlawing their work in the West Bank, where they are based and the majority of their staff works”.

In addition to “destroying the services that the NGOs provide to the most marginalized and at-risk communities in Palestine, including women, children, agricultural workers, and political prisoners,” this ban on Palestinian NGO’s also had a serious effect on the funding these NGO’s used to receive from different funders making it impossible for them to sustain the organization. To give you some examples: the Dutch government cancelled all funding for UAWC; Khitam Sa’afin, the president of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, was sentenced to 16 months in prison by an Israeli military court following nearly 15 months of arbitrary detention.

The UN Human rights office of the high commissioner in a 2023 report states: “The Israeli Government has increasingly restricted civic space through a strategy of delegitimizing and silencing civil society. This includes criminalizing Palestinian civil society organizations and their members by labelling them as “terrorists,” pressuring and threatening institutions that give a platform for civil society discourse, actively

lobbying donors, and implementing measures intended to cut sources of funding and support.”

It is not a surprise that especially human rights organisations are targeted as they are the ones holding Israel responsible for its crimes and violations of international law against the Palestinian people. Also partner organizations of SCI in Palestine experience every day more difficulties to continue their work.

After October 7th 2023, the repression of Palestinian civil society only increased. Many NGO’s couldn’t continue their work. Several donors stopped their funding programmes or it became impossible to organize activities due to the restrictions of movement or the attacks from settlers or incursion from the Israeli military forces, …Many projects had to be cancelled.

In our daily life, everything is a challenge and I personally experienced very difficult moments. In September I was invited for the “Stop All Genocide” seminar in Rome organized by the No More War collective and SCI Italy. First of all, going to such an event is something you should not make public. Although I live only an hour away from the place of total destruction, it took me a lot of courage to talk about what is going on. During the seminar I was asked If I could participate in an interview so that my story can be shared. I had to refuse because it would really get me into trouble when travelling back home. Every day we are constantly reminded of all these restrictions we have on us as Palestinians. I am never able to practice my freedom of speech, not even in countries where there is a freedom of speech.

After the seminar in Rome, I was very interested in continuing my participation with SCI in any way possible. I applied for an ESC position with SCI CAT as an incoming placement officer and was selected. The process for getting the visa was hectic and I had to provide many different documents to the embassy just to prove that I’m a trustworthy person and I am not considered a threat. Getting my papers and planning my travel took around 2 and half months: sending papers, doing interviews to get more official papers and traveling to the governmental offices in difficult circumstances with roadblocks and controls.

The road to Catalunya was a bit dangerous and leaving my family behind for 1 year was hard, especially knowing the currents developments in Palestine. When finally ready to depart, the news announced the probability of a total lockdown. All borders with Palestine would be closed. So, I decided to leave as soon as possible to avoid not being able to travel at all. Leaving in a rush, no having time to say a proper goodbye to friends and family…. a huge part of me is still there. I always feel like I have been “labeled” as a subhuman just because there is a bigger power controlling our lives.

Once in Catalonia, things were different. It was one of the few times I felt safe and listened to and even seen. The amount of love and care I felt in Catalunya gives me hope in actually making a change in a world where change is hard to achieve. The feeling of helplessness is going away with every new day, the change is coming, and I like to follow the saying “where there is a will there is a way”. And I hope this year will bring all good things to everyone in Palestine. Hopefully we can see the work of the NGO’s flourish again!