Activities

• Aims to “effect a positive transformation of the urgent and critical human rights situation for Palestinians.”
• Seeks to achieve its goals through “a combination of: legal advice and support; human rights and international law education and advocacy; research, monitoring and urgent actions on rights violations; public policy and lobbying; and utilising human rights complaint mechanisms of domestic and international institutions.”

Political Advocacy

• Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) runs a project titled “Protect Human Rights Defenders” to “support harassed or detained Palestinian human rights defenders by submitting cases to the UN and EU member states.” Examples of these “human rights defenders” include Omar Shakir, Omar Barghouti, Manal Tamimi, and Khalida Jarrar.
  • Omar Shakir is the Israel and Palestine Country Director for Human Rights Watch, Shakir is a consistent supporter of a one-state framework and advocate for BDS campaigns against Israel. In May 2018, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior decided not to renew his work permit because of his involvement in anti-Israeli campaigns. HRW and Shakir are appealing the Ministry’s decision.
  • Omar Barghouti is the co-founder of Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and a leader in BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanction) campaigns against Israel. He supports a “right to resist,” including armed resistance, uses Nazi rhetoric, and supports a one-state solution.
  • Manal Tamimi is a board member of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that organizes protests that have turned violent. Tamimi has promoted terrorism, violence, and virulent antisemitism, as well as using Nazi and Holocaust rhetoric on her Twitter account.
  • Khalida Jarrar, Addameer’s former vice-chairperson, is a senior official of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. Jarrar was administratively detained on April 1, 2015 by Israeli security forces. On April 15, 2015 she was indicted for various offenses including active membership in a terrorist organization (the PFLP) and inciting violence through a call to kidnap Israeli soldiers.
• Since December 2013, LPHR has been partnering with Defence for Children International Palestine (DCP-I) for an ongoing campaign titled “Know Your Rights,” seeking to “inform Palestinian children who are arrested, detained, interrogated and tried through the Israeli Military Court system of their legal rights throughout the entire process.” The campaign relies on an inaccurate March 2013 UNICEF report that alleged “widespread, systematic and institutionalized” ill-treatment of children within the system. LPHR omits that Israel established a military juvenile tribunal, which entitles minors to significantly better conditions than adults. The group also disregards the circumstances that may have led to such arrests, such as terror activity and violence.
  • In February 2018, LPHR published a briefing on “Israel’s military detention of Palestinian children living in the occupied Palestinian territory,” which makes numerous false and misleading claims about the IDF and Israeli Military Courts. (Read NGO Monitor’s report “No Way to Represent a Child: Defense for Children International Palestine’s Distortions of the Israeli Justice System.”)
• In August 2022, LPHR was a signatory on a statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the statement, “These Palestinian civil society organisations provide vital services to Palestinians living under occupation…We call on the UK government to uphold its legal and moral duties to the Palestinian people and support Palestinian civil society as its institutions are targeted by Israel’s repressive measures.”
• In May 2022, LPHR published a briefing claiming that, “Solely relying on Israel’s military investigation system to carry out effective military investigations amounts in practice to promoting effective impunity, and the associated greater likelihood of recurrent violations.”
• In January 2021, LPHR, alongside a number of Israeli, Palestinian, and international organizations, issued a declaration headlined “Israel must provide necessary vaccines to Palestinian health care systems.” The NGOs falsely claim that Israel has “legal obligations” to “ensure that quality vaccines be provided to Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and control,” while altogether ignoring that Palestinians residing in Jerusalem are part of the Israeli health care system; that under the Oslo Accords the PA is responsible for health care of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza; and that the PA has adopted its own vaccine policy for its population.
• In September 2020, LPHR and Addameer partnered on a complaint to the United Nations regarding “Israeli military authorities ongoing unlawful arbitrary detention.”
  • Addameer is a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) “affiliate.” The PFLP is a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared Addameer a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.” For more information on Addameer’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Addameer’s Ties to the PFLP Terrorist Group.”
• In March 2020, LPHR, Al Mezan, and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) published a report titled “Chronic Impunity: Gaza’s Health Sector Under Repeated Attack.” The report dealt with 2018 protests along the Israel-Gaza border, yet ignored and whitewashed the context of Hamas terrorism, repeated assaults on Israeli civilian communities, and attempts to sabotage the border fence and infiltrate into Israel to commit violence.
  • • The report refers to Sajed Mizher, a “first aid volunteer” who was killed by Israeli security forces “during confrontations…in the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem.”
      • The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization – designated as such by the EU, US, Canada, and Israel – posted about the “pride and honor of the death of our comrade the medic Sajed Abd Al-Hakim Mizher (17 years old) from Dheisheh who was martyred of his wounds caused during his attempts to help those wounded in the clashes, ignited in the camp by the occupation soldiers who invaded the camp.”
      • Mizher’s funeral procession featured many individuals wearing military gear, PFLP paraphernalia, and PFLP banners. Mizher’s body was also adorned in PFLP paraphernalia.  (For more details, see NGO Monitor’s blog “Palestinian NGO Medic Killed in Bethlehem Clashes Had Ties to PFLP Terror Group.”)
• In September 2018, LPHR was a signatory on a letter to the ICC Prosecutor to “End Impunity and Open Investigation on Palestine.” According to the letter, “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. This year marked 51 years since the beginning of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory and so far it has been characterized by complete impunity” (emphasis added).
• In May 2018, LPHR signed on a call to 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 call accuses 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 September 2017, LPHR participated in a panel titled “Prisoners’ Health in Israel and Palestine” at Medact’s conference, “Health Through Peace.” The panel, which included Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP) and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I), discussed the “various political and social conditions endured by Palestinians” and accused Israel of “breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law.”
• In June 2017, LPHR, alongside Amnesty International UK and Medical Aid for Palestinians, held an event titled “Accountability and Human Rights at 50 Years of Occupation” featuring Michael Lynk, UN Special Rapporteur “on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967.” At the event, Lynk stated that while as Special Rapporteur he does not take a position on BDS, he added that he will defend BDS as a movement entitled to freedom of expression or speech as it is “only though the creative activism and the enlightened conscious that will be a major factor in bringing this conflict to a successful conclusion…”
  • Lynk has a long history of involvement in overtly anti-Israel events, including speaking at events with BDS activists and highly political organizations and NGOs that are part of the campaign to delegitimize Israel.
• In August 2015, LPHR, along with groups including the National Lawyers Guild, International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), Amnesty international, Center for Constitutional Rights, FIDH, and Jewish Voice for Peace, signed a statement supporting a call by the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) to the international community to “act on the report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict.” In particular, the groups called for the international community to “exercise universal jurisdiction to try international crimes in national courts.”
• LPHR, together with Al Mezan and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), submitted a February 6, 2015 joint public statement to the UN following the 2014 Gaza war, falsely accusing Israel of “repeated apparent deliberate or reckless targeting of medical infrastructure and personnel by the Israeli military,” “apparent unjustifiable obstruction of emergency medical access to the injured,” and “serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.” The letter altogether omits the countless violations of international law by Hamas, such as rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, terror tunnels running beneath the border into Israel, and Hamas’ systematic exploitation of civilians and civilian strHuman rights defuctures illegally shield their operations.
• In August 2014, Director of LPHR Tareq Shrourou co-published a letter in The Guardian, accusing Israel of committing “war crimes” and urging the British government to “publicly condemn” Israel’s “brutally destructive military campaign” and “deliberate targeting of family residential homes.”
• Submitted an October 22, 2014 open letter to U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond accusing Israeli military forces of using a Palestinian child as a human shield during the 2014 Gaza war. While LPHR makes the unsubstantiated allegation of Israel’s use of a human shield, it ignores the repeated and widely documented use of human shields by Hamas operatives in Gaza.
• In October 2014, LPHR member Jinan Bastaki published a blog post advocating for a Palestinian “right of return,” which, if implemented, would effectually mean the elimination of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.

ICC Activities

• In April 2021, LPHR condemned the British Prime Minister’s statement rejecting ICC jurisdiction over Israel: “the Prime Minister’s statement sets a wholly dangerous precedent by the UK, that may impact victims of grave crimes and threatens the viability, objectives, and the future of the court itself.” 
• In April 2021, LPHR welcomed the decision of the International Criminal Court to launch a formal investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the “State of Palestine.” According to LPHR, “This is a long-awaited and a critically important step towards ensuring the rule of law and ending impunity, while ensuring accountability for Israel’s crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.”
• In April 2020, LPHR was a signatory on a letter calling to support the International Criminal Court (ICC) and encouraging ICC state parties to “cooperate with…any possible investigation into the situation in Palestine.”
• In December 2019, following ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announcing that she intends to investigate alleged war crimes in the “State of Palestine,” LPHR stated that this is a “seminal step towards achieving legal accountability and justice for the many victims, survivors and their families of alleged serious international crimes perpetrated by Israeli forces and their military and political leadership.”

BDS Activities

• In February 2021, LPHR, alongside the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), published a legal brief alleging that it is legal for the company building a high speed railway in the United Kingdom to exclude firms allegedly “involved in Israeli war crimes” from its tender process.
  • The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) was jointly founded by the Rights Forum, the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), and European jurists as an initiative aimed at “defending individuals and organizations that face false and defamatory accusations of antisemitism and repression because of their support for Palestinian rights and particularly for BDS measures to achieve these rights.”
• In April 2020, LPHR published a briefing calling for the UK government to “Ban settlement goods from entering the UK marketplace. This is a requirement anchored by third-party state duties under international law.”
• In 2018-2020, LPHR lobbied intensively in support of the discriminatory UN database of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel. LPHR signed multiple letters to the UN calling for the database to be implemented without further delay.
• In December 2019, LPHR lodged a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accusing JCB, a UK construction company, of alleged “involvement in human rights breaches in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
  • The complaint relies on material collected by Al-Haq, a leader in anti-Israel “lawfare” campaigns and BDS activities.
    • Al-Haq General Director Shawan Jabarin is tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. As a result, his requests for Israeli exit visas have been denied on several occasions, and he has been denied entry by Jordan.  In a series of court cases in 2007-2009, the Israeli High Court of Justice found Jabarin to be a senior PFLP activist (2007, 2008, 2009).
    • In May 2019, Jabarin attended a memorial event organized by the PFLP that centered on PFLP political bureau member Rabah Muhanna, who, according to information posted by the PFLP, “contributed to the establishment” of several PFLP-affiliated NGOs, including UHWC, UAWC, and Addameer. The hall was decorated with PFLP paraphernalia.
    • In May 2018, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express shut down online credit card donations to Al-Haq due to the group’s ties to the PFLP.
• In February 2018, LPHR 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, “the Database should be a mechanism that assists states in meeting their obligations under international law, including the obligation not to recognize as lawful – even implicitly ­– the illegal situation created by Israeli settlements and not to contribute to maintaining this illegal situation.”
• In February 2017, LPHR wrote a letter to the UK Secretary of State asking that the UK government “reconsiders and changes its current position of not supporting the development of a business and human rights database by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights which will list companies involved in settlement activities that adversely impact Palestinian human rights” as it is “in stark contrast to the government’s long-standing approach to the illegality of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
• In October 2016, LPHR wrote a letter to the UK Foreign Secretary requesting that the UK government “carefully reconsiders its current position of supporting the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism agreement” as the agreement “effectively perpetuates and gives tacit approval to the nearly decade old illegal closure imposed on Gaza by successive Israeli governments.”
• In September 2016, Director of LPHR Tareq Shrourou was a signatory on a letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Chairman of FIFA’s Israel Palestine Monitoring Committee Tokyo Sexwale stating that it is “unconscionable that FIFA should explicitly or implicitly continue to endorse the situation…which manifestly undermines respect for the international rule of law and basic human rights for Palestinians,” and called for FIFA to “withdraw its vital consent for football clubs based in illegal Israeli settlements to play in the Israeli football league.”
• In December 2015, Shrourou was a signatory on a letter to Members of European Parliament calling on the European Union to “withhold incoming as well as outgoing trade with settlements in compliance with the duty of non-recognition…Trading with settlements constitutes implicit recognition and is a violation of international law.”
• In October 2015, LPHR stated that it “does not take a policy on BDS in relation to Israel proper, but we do take a considered policy position that the UK government should withhold incoming and outgoing trade with illegal Israeli settlements as a matter of compliance with their fundamental legal obligations.”
• In November 2014, LPHR was a signatory on a call to the European Union to “suspend its Association Agreement with Israel until it complies with international law” as the EU is “contributing to the climate of impunity and lack of accountability… the EU is providing material support to Israel’s violations of international law and failing to uphold its own commitments under international law.”
• In June 2014, LPHR, represented by lawyers Leigh Day, filed a complaint against security company G4S, claiming it has “breached the obligation to respect human rights of those affected by their activities.”
  • According to its website, “LPHR was provided with information for the complaint by the following NGOs: Who Profits, Defence for Children International Palestine, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Organisation, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling, Al-Haq, Military Court Watch and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.” These NGOs regularly promote the 2001 Durban strategy, which utilizes BDS and lawfare campaigns in an effort to delegitimize Israel through international isolation.

Lack of Verifiable Sources

• In June 2015, LPHR, along with Al-Mezan and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), released “No More Impunity: Gaza’s Health Sector Under Attack.” The publication alleged the “destruction of and damage to medical infrastructure and loss of life and injury to civilians and medical personnel” during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Like previous publications from these NGOs, “No More Impunity” is characterized by one-sided accounts, a total lack of verifiable sources, and lack of context. In addition, LPHR and its partners erase the terror affiliation of three “paramedics” and “medical volunteers” who were killed in an Israeli strike.
  • The report’s methodology section credited a coalition of NGOs for compiling the “evidence.” The coalition is comprised of Al-Mezan, Al-Haq, Addameer, and Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) – all blatantly anti-Israel NGOs that lack credibility on allegations concerning laws of war. At least three of these NGOs have alleged links to the PFLP terror organization.

Notable Figures

• Daniel Machover
• Machover has been involved in numerous attempts to arrest Israeli officials.
  • Machover was involved in obtaining a warrant from a British court to arrest Tzipi Livni, then Foreign Minister of Israel, when she visited the UK.
  • In 2008, Machover and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) submitted evidence filesof alleged war crimes to the Anti-Terrorist and War Crimes Unit of the London Metropolitan police regarding former IDF Southern Command Chief Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog.
• Machover has referred to BDS as a “matter of conscience.”
• In 2016, Machover was a signatory on a statement “Defending the Right to Support BDS for Palestinian Rights.”
• In 2013, following the Versailles Court of Appeals dismissing an appeal regarding French corporations Alstom Transport, Alstom and Veolia Transport, Machover wrote an article in Electronic Intifada referring to the ruling as “disappointing,” and stating that “no one should think for a moment that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is discouraged… the BDS movement will continue to hold governments, companies and other complicit parties to account for aiding and abetting Israel’s violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.”
• Machover participated in the 2013 Russell Tribunal on Palestine.