Turk praised the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that the US has targeted for their support of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), the International Criminal Court for Human Rights (ICHR), and the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights.
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These NGOs have been carrying out important human rights work for decades, he said, especially in terms of accountability for human rights violations.
I urge the US government to halt these sanctions right away.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio placed sanctions on the Palestinian organizations, preventing Americans from transacting with their assets and preventing them from doing so.
Without Israel’s permission, these organizations have directly engaged in the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigations, arrests, detentions, or prosecutions,” according to Rubio in a statement.
He also vowed to continue to “respond with significant and tangible consequences” to ICC prosecution efforts against Israeli officials.
The administration of US President Donald Trump’s wider campaign aims to punish Israel’s critics both domestically and internationally.
Washington has placed sanctions on a number of ICC , judges and officials, as well as UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who has been attempting to hold accountable for Israel’s violations over the past few months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant were detained by the ICC last year on suspicion of using starvation as a weapon of war.
Under the leadership of then-President Joe Biden, the US quickly refuted the accusations, arguing that Israel was not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC.
The state of Palestine, which joined the court in 2015, was the state that the court claimed was competent to prosecute alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.
Rubio’s statement on Thursday reiterated the US position.
The top US diplomat said, “This administration has made it clear that the United States and Israel are not under the authority of the ICC.”
The UN’s Turk, on the other hand, claimed that the US move promotes “a climate of continued commission of violations and international crimes” and encourages impunity.
According to him, “these attacks on NGOs that work to advance the respect for human rights directly conflict with the US’s long-held and promoted rule of law and other values.” The sanctions will have a chilling impact on Israeli civil society in the occupied Palestinian territory and in Israel, as well as potentially on the entire world.
A coalition of Palestinian and Israeli rights organizations, including B’Tselem, released a statement supporting the alleged NGOs earlier on Friday.
Source: Aljazeera
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