Defense for Children International – Palestine, 18.08.2022
Ramallah, August 18, 2022—Israeli forces raided Defense for Children International – Palestine’s headquarters in the central occupied West Bank early Thursday morning.
Israeli forces raided DCIP’s headquarters located in Al-Bireh’s Sateh Marhaba neighborhood, located just south of Ramallah around 5:55 a.m. on August 18. More than a dozen Israeli soldiers forced open the office’s locked front door and removed a computer, photocopier, printer, and client files related to Palestinian child detainees represented by DCIP’s lawyers in Israel’s military courts, CCTV footage showed. They exited the office after 45 minutes, welding shut the entry door and leaving a notice taped to the door ordering the office closed declaring DCIP an illegal organization. It is unclear exactly what items were confiscated.
“Our human rights documentation and evidence-based advocacy exposing Israeli forces’ grave violations against Palestinian children has made us a target of the Israeli government for years,” said Khaled Quzmar, General Director at DCIP. “Sealing and closing our office will not silence us. We reject the Israeli designation and any repressive tactics aimed at eliminating our work and urge the international community to robustly denounce this serious escalation against Palestinian human rights defenders https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_forces_raid_and_seal_shut_dcip_office_leaving_official_notice_declaring_organization_unlawful