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petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court via an umbrella organization, AIDA, after their charity registration in Israel was revoked at the end of a year-long battle during which the NGOs had refused to provide lists of their Palestinian employees to Israeli authorities.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.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
RSS