Frontline

International orgs call on Israel to immediately release rights defenders



On 6 May 2010, at 03:10am, 16 members of the Israeli General Security Services (GSS) and the Israeli police force raided the family home of Mr. Ameer Makhoul. After meeting him last night, Mr. Makhoul’s lawyers confirmed that he was suffering from exhaustion — as a result of sleep deprivation — and that he had been subjected to various forms of intensive interrogation, raising fears of possible torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. 

Human Rights Defenders in Palestine At Risk



A Front Line delegation, including Front Lne�s Director, Mary Lawlor, is currently in Gaza launching a report on the situation of human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The report, which is written in conjunction with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) examines killings, injury, arbitrary detention and arrests of human rights defenders over the past five years caused by both the Israeli military and by forces with links to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The report recommends, among other things, that Israel stops treating human rights defenders as terrorists and lifts the regime of checkpoints, closures and curfews which has imposed a siege across the OPT and prevented defenders from carrying out their work.