Israel’s Supreme Court in a ruling published on Friday said it would freeze a government ban on 37 foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank pending a final decision.
“Without taking any position, a temporary interim order is hereby issued,” the court said.
The decision theoretically allows the NGOs to continue working in Gaza and the West Bank until the court issues a final ruling, although aid groups expressed uncertainty as to how the freeze would be implemented.
Photo: AFP
The organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE, were notified on Dec. 30 last year that their Israeli registrations had expired and that they had 60 days to renew them by providing lists of their Palestinian staff.
If they failed to do so, they would have to cease operations in Gaza and the West Bank from March 1.
The NGOs petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court via an umbrella organization, AIDA, after their charity registration in Israel was revoked at the end of a year-long battle during which the NGOs had refused to provide lists of their Palestinian employees to Israeli authorities.
The court said there existed a “genuine legal dispute” due to the foreign NGOs’ responsibilities to their employees’ privacy under European law.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense body in charge of civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said the new registration process was “designed to ensure Hamas doesn’t infiltrate humanitarian organizations and use them as a disguise for its terror purposes.”
“Organizations who refused to comply should be asked one question: What are they hiding?” COGAT said.
Israel has accused NGOs such as MSF of employing Hamas fighters in Gaza, which the organization has denied, pointing to a rigorous vetting process for staff hiring.
“We are still waiting to see how the injunction will be interpreted by the state and whether or not this will mean an increase in our ability to operate,” AIDA director Athena Rayburn said, calling the ruling “a step in the right direction.”
“We will keep fighting to be able to do our jobs, and deliver life saving assistance to Palestinians in need,” she added.
Lawyer Yotam Ben-Hillel, who represented the NGOs in court, welcomed the injunction, but said that “we still don’t know how it will play out.”
“Today, the High Court of Justice has given the residents of Gaza and the West Bank some breathing room,” he said.
MSF project coordinator Craig Kenzie said the organization’s 28 remaining foreign staff left the Palestinian territory on Thursday and would not be able to return unless the ban was reversed.
“It’s a positive step, but it’s very light on the details, so it’s not clear what that results in in terms of getting supplies and foreign staff inside,” he said.
The organization’s supplies are running low, because none have been allowed in since the end of last year, Kenzie said, but added that 1,200 Palestinian staff would be seeing to day-to-day operations, which include clean water provision, surgeries and maternity health.
Although commercial cargo has entered Gaza, the goods they bring in are unaffordable for many Gazans left destitute by the war, and no other deregistered NGO has been able to get supplies in in recent months, he added.
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