[News] Donorbox Suspends BDS National Committee’s Account After Threats from Israeli Legal Group

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://palestinelegal.org/news/2018/12/21/donorbox-suspends-bds-account


  Donorbox Suspends BDS National Committee’s Account After Threats from
  Israeli Legal Group

December 21, 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Media Contact: *media at palestinelegal.org

After legal threats and false allegations from Shurat HaDin-The Israel 
Law Center, the donation platform Donorbox has temporarily suspended 
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/fundraising-site-suspends-bds-campaign-account-181221094816207.html> 
the BDS National Committee’s account, disabling its ability to fundraise 
for its human rights advocacy at the height of the charity season.

WikiLeaks revealed in 2013 that Shurat HaDin works in close coordination 
with the Israeli intelligence agency 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-law-center-shurat-hadin-admits-mossad-ties> 
to pursue legal action against Israel’s critics. The group regularly 
uses litigation to harass individuals and groups worldwide who challenge 
Israel’s oppression of Palestinians or endorse boycott and divestment 
campaigns for Palestinian rights.

Said Palestine Legal Director Dima Khalidi, “The accusations from Shurat 
HaDin are false and based on flimsy legal theories. Shurat HaDin are 
themselves engaging in unlawful interference with the BNC’s peaceful 
grassroots advocacy to achieve freedom and equality for Palestinians. We 
call on Donorbox to complete its investigation rapidly and reinstate 
BNC's account.”

Said CCR Deputy Legal Director Maria LaHood 
<https://ccrjustice.org/home/who-we-are/staff/lahood-maria>, “This is 
one more example of a widespread effort to punish Palestinian existence 
and thwart advocacy for Palestinian rights. These baseless threats to 
intimidate and chill the growing movement for Palestinian freedom will 
only strengthen it.”

Accusations that the BNC’s fundraising in any way constitutes “material 
support for terrorism,” as Shurat HaDin has insinuated, rely on 
unsupported and false claims that funds raised by the BNC “may” go to 
groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government.

Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of the BDS movement, stated 
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/fundraising-site-suspends-bds-campaign-account-181221094816207.html>, 
"They are making categorically false allegations, threatening and 
bullying our partners and service providers in a desperate attempt to 
undermine our ability to challenge Israel's regime of apartheid and 
oppression."

Shurat HaDin has been behind a number of other attempts to stamp down 
advocacy for Palestinian rights around the world, often with harassing 
lawsuits that have no legal merit, that ignore a host of state and 
federal laws as well as the First Amendment protections of the U.S. 
Constitution. It has repeatedly threatened legal action against groups 
that have endorsed boycotts for Palestinian rights, including General 
Electric 
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/2015/9/10/palestine-legals-statement-on-shurat-hadins-claim-against-ge?rq=shurat%20hadin> 
when the Union of Electrical Workers endorsed BDS, the Presbyterian 
Church, the Park Slope Food Co-op, young women in New Zealand 
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-zealand-activists-dismiss-israeli-courts-damages-order-over-lorde-concert/> 
who urged the pop star Lorde not to play in Israel, and, most recently, 
it filed a lawsuit against Airbnb for its decision to delist properties 
located in illegal Israeli settlements.

-- 
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