Israel’s foremost civil rights group publicly and illegally expressed support for a Palestinian terrorist organization that’s under U.S. sanctions for anti-Israel lawfare, Simcha Rothman, chair of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, told police on Sunday.
Rothman’s letter to the Police Investigations and Intelligence Division concerned the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which he said should be the subject of a criminal investigation for allegedly breaking anti-terrorism laws by supporting Al-Haq, a Palestinian group Israel designated as a terror group in 2021.
Last week, the U.S. State Department sanctioned Al-Haq and two other Palestinian NGOs for working with the International Criminal Court.
On Sept. 5, ACRI posted on social media a text criticizing the move. In a post that mentioned Al-Haq, ACRI said it “stands in solidarity with the Palestinian organizations and partners whose dedicated work is essential to protecting the human rights of the Palestinian population and with their struggle against the injustices of the occupation.”
The U.S. government’s decision “is part of a deplorable and illegal delegitimization campaign, which aims to empty international law of its content, and prevent the investigation of serious suspicions of war crimes and crimes against humanity by senior Israeli officials,” the post continued.
Shai Glick, the CEO of the B’Tsalmo human rights group, wrote a letter to Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Sept. 8 regarding ACRI’s post, which he noted ACRI had translated into Arabic on Instagram, which has a relatively young usership.
ACRI’s statement “reaches directly tens of thousands of young Arabs,” some of whom may be more inclined “to carry out attacks or support the aforementioned terrorist organization,” the letter states.
In Rothman’s letter, seen by JNS, he argues that such expressions amount to unlawful support for a terror organization under Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law of 2016. The law proscribes “support, identification or provision of services to a terror organization, which constitutes a serious criminal offense.”
Rothman called for an immediate criminal probe to examine the circumstances and motives behind the post and to assess potential violations of the Counter-Terrorism Law.
ACRI’s “conduct directly harms the security of the state, the legitimacy of the Israeli government’s decisions, and may even provide a tailwind for hostile elements,” Rothman added.
ACRI had not responded to a JNS query on the matter at time of publication.
ACRI, which was established in 1972, has often sided against Israeli interests in favor of Palestinian ones in advocacy and judicial actions, according to NGO Monitor, a group that monitors the work of NGOs on Israel.
In addition to amplifying and platforming disputed allegations of war crimes by Israel against Palestinians, ACRI is one of the most politically active NGOs in opposing Israeli policy regarding the Bedouin in the Negev, according to NGO Monitor.
ACRI, which has funding from the European Union and some of its member states, has supported the Breaking the Silence group, which accuses Israeli soldiers of systemic human rights abuses.
