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Early Thursday 07/29/2021, occupation forces raided the headquarters of Bisan Center for Research and development, vandalizing offices, breaking the main entrance door, and shattering the doors of offices inside the center, they also rummaged the center and stole office owned equipment and devices. Substantially, this direct targeting of an academic and research institute by occupation forces is a dangerous breach of academic freedoms.

 

Bisan’s board of trustees and employees do not consider this attack, preceded by continuous attacks on other civil society organizations, foreign behavior for an oppressive regime fighting all that is Palestinian, and specifically targets progressive civil society organizations predominantly standing against occupation and violations of international and human rights law.

 

Mere condemnation of these acts is no longer adequate, the occupation’s increasing shrinking space for Palestinian CSOs and disregard for CSO rights and jurisdictions has become a routine, and with no official protection of CSOs, the entirety of the Palestinian society has become permissible for occupation forces to destroy.

 

We demand that international human rights organizations and defenders to stand with Bisan Center for Research and development and defend it against desecrations to our right to work, and reject the occupation’s incessant attempts to undermine any social Palestinian infrastructure working to end the occupation. While also holding the occupation accountable for its violations of basic human rights.

 

Finally, Bisan Center for Research and Development must emphasize its democratic and progressive mission, to defend the socio-economic, political, and civil rights of the poor and marginalized in the Palestinian society. A mission that Bisan has long worked to sustain and will continually work toward achieving.