“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”: Jabarin, Al Haq and PFLP
In June 2007 and July 2008, the Israeli Supreme Court denied Jabarin’s petitions, on the basis that he is a senior member of the PFLP terror group. The June 2007 decision called Al-Haq’s director a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” a human rights defender by day and a terrorist by night.
Head of Palestinian rights group banned from travelling to accept award, Haaretz, March 5, 2009
Israel is preventing the director general of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin, from travelling to the Netherlands to accept a prize. The Supreme Court has been asked to review Jabarin’s petition to reverse the Shin Bet’s decision…
For the past three years, the Shin Bet has prevented Jabarin from traveling abroad, arguing he is a member of the People’s Liberation Front for Palestine, and “his travel may endanger regional security.”…
“How can it be that my stay in the Netherlands constitutes a higher security threat than my being in Ramallah?” Jabarin told Haaretz.
“For the past 22 years, the Shin Bet has argued that I am an active member in the Popular Front. During this entire period, I was never tried for this and obviously was never given an opportunity to defend myself against such a charge. Their evidence is secret and classified and is hidden from me and my lawyers. I have been an activist in Al-Haq since 1987, and I am not an activist for the Popular Front,” Jabarin said.
Ten Israeli human rights groups sent a letter of protest…”The blatant blow to the freedom of movement of one of the best-known human rights activists in the West Bank is contrary to the basic principles of a state that is governed by the rule of law,” they wrote.
