Without warning, Palestinian Interior Minister Said Abu-Ali decided to close the Palestinian Human Rights Foundation (Monitor) offices in the West Bank. He claimed that his decision was based on the Law of Charitable Associations and Community Organizations, Law No.1.
Abu-Ali says the foundation does not comply with Article 34 of the Law of Charitable Associations and Community Organizations, which gives foreign charities the right to open branches in Palestine that provide social services. According to Abu-Ali, this branch does not provide any social services, nor any other services that serve the Palestinian people’s interests. Therefore, the foundation’s registration in Palestine contradicts the Palestinian NGO Law.
He explained that Monitor’s application to open a branch in the Palestinian territories is against the law since there is no proof that the foundation is registered in Lebanon. Also, it did not possess many of the documents required for legal registration, such as a copy of the founders’ passports in Lebanon, which contradicts Article 26 of its regulations.
Abu-Ali stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a memo to the Ministry of Interior which recommended that Monitor be closed due to legal issues between the foundation and the Palestinian embassy in Lebanon. According to the memo, the foundation violated Article 36 of the Palestinian NGO Law because it did not make its financial reports available in 2009, 2010, or 2011.
These justifications did not convince Abd-al-Aziz Tarakji, chairman of Monitor’s regional board. Tarakji believes that Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Fatah Central Committee member Azzam al-Ahmad were behind the minister’s decision. He gave many reasons for this, like how there were "some concerns in the Palestinian Authority that Monitor may expose corruption cases in which they are involved, since we have published reports which highlight restrictions on freedoms and the detention of journalists in the occupied territories. Another reason is that we requested Azzam al-Ahmad—who is also President Mahmoud Abbas’s envoy to Lebanon—to visit the Palestinian refugee camps and witness the suffering there, instead of staying in hotels and releasing statements that are not based on his own experiences.”
Tarakji denies the possibility of "reprisals against members of the foundation in Palestine." He said that Monitor will “resort to the Palestinian court in Ramallah, and later the International Court of Justice to resolve the matter."
Monitor’s regional board of directors issued a statement responding to the Palestinian Interior Minister’s decision, saying it "increases restrictions on Palestinian civil society organizations, and even targets human rights movements in the Palestinian territories."
In response to the Interior Minister’s decision, Monitor released a communiqué entitled "Stance Paper," which said: “Since its establishment, the Palestinian Human Rights Foundation (Monitor) has never introduced itself as a charity or a social organization."
"The foundation’s staff works around the clock, without any source of financial funding to serve the Palestinian cause," the communiqué continued. "Our foundation has played a key role in presenting documented reports of the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation in our Palestinian land. Monitor obtained a license to work in [Palestine] at the beginning of 2009, and the minister’s claim that the foundation does not meet the necessary requirements means that the fault was in the initial acceptance of the registration request. This means that the minister questions the credibility of his predecessors, the former Palestinian interior ministers.”
The statement advised the Interior Minister to "thoroughly examine the foundation’s registration papers at the Palestinian Interior Ministry, because he will find that the registration request and other papers are legal and proper."
Front Page Features