The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor announced today the official closure of its field office in the Gaza Strip, thus ending nearly 15 years of continuous work in documenting human rights violations. Ramy Abdu, Chairman of the Monitor, explained that this difficult decision came as a necessary precautionary step to protect the working staff in light of the escalating direct threats and punitive measures imposed by the Israeli authorities against the organization.
Human rights sources confirmed that the decision aims primarily to avoid direct targeting of field workers, especially after widespread incitement campaigns launched by official Israeli bodies and officials were observed. These pressures come against the backdrop of the active role played by the Monitor in exposing crimes committed against Palestinians and providing international bodies with documented data on grave violations.
Recent weeks have witnessed an unprecedented escalation in Israeli rhetoric against the Monitor, especially after it published detailed reports documenting systematic sexual violence crimes against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons. The organization considered that this systematic campaign aims to tarnish its reputation and link its independent human rights work to false political claims that lack any legal or factual basis.
Ramy Abdu pointed out that the threats sometimes reached the point of hinting at killing key members of the work team, due to their involvement in documenting acts described as falling within the framework of genocide. He added that the current environment has become extremely dangerous, which necessitated taking decisive decisions to ensure the safety of employees and volunteers who face real risks while performing their duties.
At the end of last May, the Israeli authorities imposed severe punitive measures that included restrictions on the movement of 40 members of the Monitor's staff, including members of the board of directors, employees, and international partners. The Monitor considered that these restrictions fall within the policy of silencing and preventing the truth from reaching international forums that have become fed up with continuous Israeli violations.
The Monitor's administration stressed that the closure of the physical office in Gaza does not in any way mean the cessation of human rights work or a retreat from ethical obligations towards the victims. It affirmed that documentation will continue through alternative mechanisms that ensure the continuity of information and reports flowing to the judicial and international bodies concerned with holding perpetrators of crimes accountable.
The Monitor held the Israeli authorities fully responsible for the safety of all its team members, considering that targeting human rights defenders is part of a broader pattern of intimidating witnesses and silencing voices that convey the suffering of civilians. It described these practices as a desperate attempt to cover up the overwhelming evidence that condemns Israeli military and security conduct in the occupied territories.
The roots of the recent official campaign go back to a report published by American writer Nicholas Kristof in the 'New York Times', in which he relied on data provided by the Monitor regarding rape crimes in prisons. This report sparked widespread anger among the Israeli government, which prompted Benjamin Netanyahu to threaten to take legal action against the newspaper and the writer on charges of defamation.
The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs accused the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor of being the main driver of the Palestinian narrative in international forums, claiming that it operates an integrated network for media and legal pressure. The ministry claimed that the Monitor's activity goes beyond human rights documentation to the extent of international incitement and contributing to placing Israeli forces under international sanctions.
In April, the Monitor issued a shocking report revealing brutal patterns of sexual torture, including the use of trained dogs and electric shocks in sensitive areas of detainees. Documented testimonies confirmed that these practices in some cases led to death under torture or caused permanent disabilities, which strengthened the files for international legal prosecution.
These reports intersected with the results of UN investigations that concluded that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war by Israeli forces, which led to their inclusion on the UN blacklist. This agreement between independent human rights reports and UN findings increased the intensity of the Israeli attack on the institutions that were the source of this information.
It is worth noting that the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor began its work in 2011 as a human rights initiative to confront oppression in the region, taking the city of Geneva, Switzerland, as its main headquarters. The Monitor has a wide network of regional offices, and its work is overseen by a board of trustees that includes prominent international figures in the field of international law and human rights.
The Monitor's board of trustees is chaired by Richard Falk, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, which gives the organization's reports significant international weight. This strong legal background has made the Monitor a constant target of Israeli incitement that seeks to undermine the credibility of its reports before the international community.
In conclusion of its statement, the organization renewed its commitment to continue working for justice and accountability, noting that the closure of offices will not obscure the truth that has become clear to the whole world. It called on international institutions to provide protection for human rights defenders in the Palestinian territories who face an oppressive machine aimed at isolating them from the world.
The closure of the Gaza office is an emergency measure imposed by legitimate concerns for the lives of workers, and does not mean a retreat from our professional responsibilities.
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After 15 years of work.. 'Euro-Med' closes its office in Gaza under the weight of Israeli threats