Activities

• EuroMed Rights, previously known as Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), is a “network representing 68 human rights organisations active in 30 countries.”
• Headquarters are in Copenhagen, with offices in Brussels, Paris, and Tunis.
• Established the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support to Human Rights Defenders (EMHRF), an organization which provides “strategic financial assistance” to “human rights defenders in difficulty or at risk, for the specific purpose of allowing them to pursue their activities, as well as to small human rights organisations or groups with the aim of strengthening their capacities in implementing innovative activities in the region.”
  • EMHRF has provided grants to a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including Who Profits, B’Tselem, Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI), and Al Marsad.
• Regularly lobbies the EU and UN, “as well as in other fora and urges the international community to adhere to its own obligations and commitments under international law.”

Political Advocacy

• Accuses Israel of “imposing collective punishment,” perpetrating “war crimes,” and violating international law.
• Maintains four “Working Groups,” one of which is the “Palestine, Israel and the Palestinian Working Group.” The Working Group focuses on “Accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity” and “The separation and fragmentation of the Occupied Palestinian territory, including through Israel’s settlement policy and the Gaza closure.”
  • The Working Group “works toward the end of the Israeli occupation…and the realization of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; securing the right of civilians, including Palestinians and Israelis, to protection under international law at the core of this work.”
• EuroMed claims that the “prolonged occupation is at the root of many violations and regularly triggers sporadic wars, resulting in grave breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law, including alleged war crimes.”
• In January 2025, following a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, EuroMed Rights published a statement calling to “Address root causes. Commit to addressing the structural causes of the conflict, starting with Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid system. Support Palestinian right to self-determination” and to “Fully cooperate with the ICC and all relevant international judicial mechanisms to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of genocidal acts and war crimes, ensuring that victims see justice and reparations. Support access and independent monitoring of violations in Gaza.”
• In May 2024, EuroMed Rights published an article calling on the EU and its member states to “implement the ICJ’s Provisional Measures to stop any potential genocidal act against Palestinians, which would include implementing two-sided weapons trade bans with Israel, to ensure that no war material is used to commit internationally criminal acts in Rafah. They must support the International Criminal Court, including any future decision to ensure accountability for perpetrators of war crimes in Gaza, such as in the issuing of arrest orders against Israeli officials.”
• In February 2024, EuroMed Rights was a signatory on a statement “deplor[ing] the European Union’s stance for its unconditional support of the Israeli occupation in the genocidal war and its duplicity in rhetoric. We urge it to play a clear role consistent with the principles of human rights it claims to uphold and to cease the coercion it exerts by pressuring Palestinian civil society and the region, including imposing conditions on this funding that contradict shared international values and principles.”
• In October 2023, EuroMed Rights tweeted, “What we are seeing in #Gaza is caused by the unconditional support of the United States and the European Union for Israel without any accountability in the past for war crimes committed in occupied Palestine. What is happening today is not new to the Palestinian people. It is a systematic genocide, and it is unfortunate that it is happening in international silence.”
• In October 2023, in response to an explosion outside the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, EuroMed Rights tweeted, “The bombing of Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital in #Gaza is a horrific crime that requires unequivocal condemnation. The int’ community/EU must act swiftly to safeguard innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza from the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli occupying forces.” EuroMed Rights ignored the videos, images, and intelligence materials demonstrating that an Islamic Jihad rocket had “misfired” (i.e. detonated in Gaza instead of Israel) and hit the hospital parking lot.
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, EuroMed Rights tweeted, “Considering the many missed opportunities to enforce accountability in #Israel & the #OPT & pursue a real peace process in the past, the ongoing violations of int’ law & collective punishement (sic) in #Gaza should be a wakeup call for the EU”
• In August 2022, EuroMed Rights was a signatory on a letter to President Biden condemning the decision by Israel to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the letter, “The targeted organizations form part of the bedrock of Palestinian civil society that has been protecting and advancing Palestinian human rights for decades across the full spectrum of issues of global concern.” The letter also called to “Suspend U.S. military funding to the Israeli government and cease any diplomatic efforts that enable systemic impunity for Israel’s gross violations of internationally-recognized human rights.”
• In May 2021, EuroMed Rights published an article questioning “Europe’s inaction” in Israel. According to EuroMed Rights, “European indifference has over time become complicity…Only the most complete and undisguised dehumanisation makes possible Israel’s slaughter of 200 human beings, including 58 children, without a single European country lifting a finger.”
• In March 2021, EuroMed Rights welcomed the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch a formal investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the “State of Palestine.” According to EuroMed Rights President Wadih Al-Asmar “Today is an important day for international justice in the Euro-Mediterranean region. After decades of systematic impunity and international neglect of the thousands of Palestinian victims of the most egregious crimes, the Court has officially embarked on the road to justice, accountability and reparations for victims in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
  • EuroMed Rights Executive Director Rasmus Alenius Boserup called on the “EU and its Member States to strongly support the ICC’s legitimacy from the escalating threats to its independence and mandate, and provide effective and decisive protection to Israeli and Palestinian human rights defenders and potential witnesses in the face of ongoing cases of smear, harassment and intimidation.”
• In June 2020, in the context of the Black Lives Matter protests, EuroMed Rights published an article stating that “Around the world people gasped in horror as George Floyd pleaded for his breath. His passing breathed new life into the fight against racism and thousands around the world took to the streets to denounce systemic racism, discrimination and police brutality… In Israel/Palestine, the situation is marked by the decades of dispossession, occupation and discrimination Palestinians have been subjected to by Israeli policies.”
• In March 2020, following the announcement of President Trump’s “Peace Plan,” EuroMed Rights published a statement that the “Trump plan entrenches this apartheid reality through further threatened annexation of occupied territory, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and the ongoing displacement and dispossession of Palestinians” (emphasis added). The statement further called for the EU to “terminate all European investment in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.”
• In September 2018, EuroMed Rights was a signatory on a letter to International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, calling to open an investigation as the “situation in Palestine is rapidly deteriorating and war crimes and crimes against humanity are allegedly frequently committed to entrench Israeli control over Palestinian territory and the Palestinian people” and there is a need to “prosecute and convict perpetrators, including high-level officials of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
• In December 2017, following President Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, EuroMed Rights published a statement saying that “It seriously undermines the human rights of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, while encouraging and rewarding Israel’s illegal annexation and its unlawful occupation and fragmentation policies on the ground.”
• On June 2, 2017, EuroMed Rights held a press conference in Brussels titled “Israel & OPT: 50 years of occupation, 50 years of impunity” featuring Hagai El-Ad (B’Tselem), Shawan Jabarin (Al-Haq), and Mahmoud Abu Rahma (Al Mezan). According to EuroMed, “For 50 years, Israel has administered a pervasive system of control over Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), while denying them their right to self-determination and controlling virtually all aspects of their life without giving them any say.”
• Stated that ”it is believed that the Israeli government and its supporters might be behind” anonymous death threats against Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq’s General Director.

BDS Activities

• Calls upon the EU to “differentiate, in its relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the OPT including through steps to prevent illegal settlement products from accessing European markets” (emphasis added). Labeling and banning products from the West Bank is the first step in a broader strategy of imposing boycotts against Israel.
• Refers to BDS activists as individuals who “express non-violent opinions and advocate for change.”
• In March 2025, EuroMed Rights called on the EU to “Suspend arms transfer to Israel and impose a two-way arms embargo on Israel”; “Ban trade with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory”; “suspend[] the trade provisions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement”; and “review[] diplomatic relations, imposing lawful and targeted sanctions, suspension of trade and other cooperation agreements.”
• In February 2025, EuroMed Rights signed a letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, calling to “ban all trade and business between the EU and Israel’s illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem.”
• In October 2024, EuroMed Rights held a seminar titled “Justice and Accountability in and for Palestine: How Israel’s Genocidal War in Gaza Affects Human Rights Politics in the Euro-Mediterranean Region.”
• In March 2024, EuroMed Rights published an article urging “Military aid and arms exports to Israel, the transfer of weapons and military technology to and from Israel, and all forms of military aid and research cooperation must end.”
• In February 2024, EuroMed Rights sent a letter to EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs calling to “Take all measures to ensure that the Provisional Measures of the ICJ are complied with, by establishing a two-way arms embargo on Israel, reviewing all agreements with Israel, recalling ambassadors and prosecuting officials in the Israeli government suspected of conducting plausible genocidal acts” as well as “Suspend the EU Israel Association-Council until further notice.”
• In November 2023, EuroMed Rights was a signatory on a statement urging states to issue a “Two-Way Arms Embargo on Israel,” demanding that “The US, the UK, Germany, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and other States that authorise the continued transfer of arms, and other forms of military support to Israel to immediately bring an end to such transfers…and immediately halt the provision of any materiel, equipment or other commodity that may foreseeably be used in the commission of serious international law violations including international crimes.”
• In January 2023, EuroMed Rights called on the EU to “Revise and when necessary cancel international agreements made with Israel, as not to provide aid and legitimacy to a serious breach of international responsibility.”
• In February 2022, EuroMed Rights participated in a campaign titled “#StopTradeWithSettlements” calling “for an EU law that will end trade with illegal settlements once and for all.”
  • In May 2022, EuroMed Rights published a press release claiming that “trading with illegal settlements amounts to recognition and assistance, as it allows for profits from illegal acquisition of territory and further contributes to the expansion of the settlement enterprise.”
• In September 2021, EuroMed Rights endorsed a report alleging to “investigate and expose the financial relationships between businesses involved in the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and European Financial Institutions (FIs).” According to EuroMed Rights, “These companies are at a high risk of being involved in violations of International Humanitarian Law and complicity in war crimes…The report also points out the way forward, with examples of companies that have divested from the Israeli settlement enterprise.”
• In November 2019, EuroMed Rights supported the decision of the European Court of Justice to apply a discriminatory labelling regime on products originating in the Israeli settlements. According to EuroMed Rights President Wadih Al-Asmar, “EU Member States should prevent goods and services originating in the illegal Israeli settlements from entering the European market and ensure European companies withdraw from settlement activities.”
• In 2018-2019, EuroMed Rights lobbied in support of the discriminatory UN database of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel. EuroMed Rights has signed multiple letters to the UN calling for the database to be implemented without further delay.
• In June 2017, to mark “50 years of occupation, 50 years of impunity,” EuroMed Rights called on the EU and its Member States to “clearly call for the full dismantling of all settlements and outposts in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and reject any efforts to recognise these areas as legal” as well as “preventing the entry of illegal settlement goods into the EU market” (emphasis added).
• In February 2017, EuroMed Rights submitted a letter and submission to the EU “warning against the risks of convening an EU-Israel Association Council and further depending relations with Israel in the coming months,” based on Israel’s “normalizing its prolonged occupation.”

International Advocacy

• In December 2024, following the ICC Prosecutor announcement to seek arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, EuroMed Rights was a signatory on a statement calling on the ICC to “rapidly request the issuance of additional arrest warrants for other State officials, military commanders, and those in positions of authority who are allegedly implicated in committing such crimes.”
• In October 2023, EuroMed Rights was a signatory on a letter to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to “Issue Arrest Warrants, Investigate Israeli Crimes and Intervene to Deter Incitement to Commit Genocide in Gaza.”
• In December 2022, EuroMed Rights published a press release demanding that “EU Member States must vote for the ICJ Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences of Israeli occupation.” The statement called on all EU Member States to “support other UN initiatives to bring accountability for international crimes committed in Palestine.”
• In April 2022, EuroMed Rights called for the EU and its member states to “support accountability mechanisms including ICC investigations” as “Expressing concern is insufficient to guarantee Palestinians’ human rights. Dismantling Israeli systemic oppression and dispossession of Palestinians is an urgent take.”
• On March 30 2021, EuroMed Rights Executive Director Rasmus Alenius Boserup published an article claiming that “The recent opening of an investigation by the International Criminal Court into the situation in Palestine provides a unique opportunity for the EU to hold Israel accountable for crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory” and “While the EU has publicly supported ICC proceedings in the vast majority of third countries under investigation, Palestinian proceedings at the ICC in their entirety, from the Palestinian Authority’s accession to the Rome Statute in 2015 to the opening of the investigation by the prosecution, have been met by the EU with indifference at best and rejection at worst.”
• In May 2018, EuroMed Rights called on the UN Human Rights Council to launch an “independent investigation into violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Israel” in response to Gaza-border violence. The statement accused Israel of “excessive, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of lethal force… [that]  may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity” (emphasis added). The call ignored the violent nature of the protests, which included Molotov cocktails, arson, and attempts to breach the border fence with Israel.
• In February 2018, EuroMed Rights signed a statement supporting the discriminatory UN database of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel. According to the statement, “An effective database would give a glimmer of hope to the Palestinian people enduring half a century long military occupation, and stand as a reminder that the international community is committed to putting an end to the illegal settlement enterprise that is stifling their economy, depleting their natural resources, and undermining their human rights.”
• Called upon the EU to pressure Israel to withdraw the “NGO Transparency Bill” which provides Israeli democracy and civil society with the information necessary to assess the extent and impact of foreign government funding for political advocacy NGOs, some of which promote BDS against Israel.

Staff

• EuroMed Rights’s Executive Committee (EC) is elected every three years by the General Assembly. These individuals act “as the link between the Working Groups and the EC.” Many of the Members of the EC have previously worked for or have been involved in other politicized NGOs:
  • Honorary President Michel Tubiana is the former president of the French Human Rights League (LdH).
  • Søs Nissen was active in “Danish advocacy and solidarity work to support the Palestinian cause for many years.”
  • Hamdi Shaqqura is Deputy Director for Program Affairs at Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
  • Catherine Teule worked at the French Human Rights League (LdH) as a General Secretary and then as Vice President.

Members

• EuroMed Rights disproportionately focuses on Israel and holds it responsible for the continuation of the conflict. Reflecting this one-sided bias, EuroMed Rights members in “Israel/OPT” are all highly politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict:
  • Adalah
    • Adalah rejects the legitimacy of the Jewish state, attempting to portray it as inherently racist and discriminatory; regularly lobbies the Israeli Supreme Court and international bodies to adopt its agenda.
  • Al-Mezan
    • Highly active in anti-Israel lawfare campaigns, exploiting courts and international legal bodies to seek arrest warrants against Israeli government officials, filing lawsuits against companies and governments doing business with Israel, and lobbying for cases against Israelis at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
    • A number of Al-Mezan officials and employees are members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Hamas, terrorist organizations designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. Additionally, Al-Mezan officials and board members often speak at PFLP events, and many have posted material on their social media accounts promoting terror groups or utilizing antisemitic imagery and rhetoric. For more information on Al-Mezan’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Al Mezan Center For Human Rights’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
  • Al-Haq
    • Al-Haq is a leader in anti-Israel “lawfare” campaigns and BDS activities. The NGO’s General Director Shawan Jabarin is allegedly linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
    • On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared Al-Haq a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.”
    • In September 2025, the US State Department imposed sanctions on Al-Haq for “directly engag[ing] in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”
  • B’Tselem
    • B’Tselem actively pursues its political agenda of “international consequences” and international pressure on Israel via lobbying of the UN and European governments.
    • In January 2021, B’Tselem launched a discriminatory and hateful campaign, under the banner of “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.” As part of the campaign, B’Tselem attacked Israel’s role as a haven for the Jewish people (the Law of Return) and used the phrase “from the river to the sea” – echoing long-standing Palestinian terminology for the destruction of Israel. (Read NGO Monitor’s analysis: “From the “River to the Sea”: B’Tselem’s Demonization Crosses the Line.”)
    • In July 2024, B’Tselem urged the international community to “use every tool – criminal, diplomatic and economic – to force Israeli decision-makers to end the occupation.”
    • In May 2024, B’Tselem published a statement claiming, “It is time we understood that violence and disregard for human life are keystones of the Israeli apartheid regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. So long as this regime continues to exist, there will be more violence and more victims — Palestinian and Israeli. The only way to ensure safety for us all is to end the apartheid regime.”
  • Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)
    • In September 2025, the US State Department imposed sanctions on PCHR for “directly engag[ing] in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”
    • Raji Sourani is PCHR’s founder and director. According to a 1995 article in the Washington Report, he served “a three-year sentence [1979-1982] imposed by an Israeli court which convicted him of membership in the illegal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…” He was also denied a US entry visa in 2012.
    • In February 2014, the PFLP organized a ceremony in Gaza honoring Sourani, featuring a speech by PFLP Politburo member, Rabah Muhana.  During the event Sourani stated that “I was in the ranks of the Popular Front… we are proud that once we were members of this organization and we fought in its ranks” (emphasis added). 
    • On May 13, 2023, in the context of the May 2023 conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), PCHR published a statement in which it  “affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation by all available means, including armed struggle, all the way to achieve their legitimate rights, end the occupation and establish their independent state” (emphasis added). 
      • Following pressure from European donors, PCHR altered the text to read: “to resist the occupation by all legitimate means in accordance with international law.”
  • Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC)
    • Accused Israeli forces of “resorting to extra-judicial killing, mass intimidation and collective punishment in order to maintain their grip on Palestinian territory in violation of basic international norms.”
    • Supports BDS initiatives through participation in activities and events, signing of petitions and initiatives, and membership in BDS platforms.
  • Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI)
    • PCATI regularly circulates unverifiable allegations of Israeli torture, using them as the basis for campaigns of demonization in international forums.
    • In February 2025, PCATI was a signatory on a letter to the European Commission calling to “Make clear that if Israel does not positively address concerns about its breaches of international law at the Association Council and in its immediate aftermath, the EU must suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement. To demonstrate the EU’s seriousness, request the Commission to already draft a proposal for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The proposal should then be approved by member states in case of Israel’s continued non-compliance.”