Israel expels Omar Shakir, an official of Human Rights Watch

First person to be deported as part of Israeli crackdown on boycott, divestment and sanctions boycott campaign, Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch (HRW) director for Israel and the Palestinian Territories , left Monday, November 25, the Israeli territory, after a long legal battle to try to cancel this decision.

Since 2017, Israel has banned the entry of foreigners accused of supporting the BDS campaign against the country. But, according to the Israeli authorities, Omar Shakir is the first to be deported under this measure.

Israel refused to renew its visa in late 2018, accusing it of supporting the BDS, which Omar Shakir denies. After a series of appeals, the Israeli Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for the expulsion of the head of HRW, a New York-based human rights NGO.

At Ben Gurion airport for my deportation flanked by leading Israeli rights groups. It has been an honor for a lifetime of working with you. We wont stop. You can not hide rights #WhoIsNext pic.twitter.com/Z6jP6e3y1F

Some 20 people, some with placards on which you could read "You can not hide the occupation", came to the Tel Aviv airport to support Omar Shakir, who flew into direction of Munich. He will continue his mission outside Israel, and will not be replaced.

"An effort to muzzle HRW"

Before his departure, Omar Shakir denounced "an effort to muzzle HRW", which testifies to the importance of "attacks" by the Israeli authorities against "the human rights community, Israeli and Palestinian".

HRW denounced her deportation, which she said was similar to the treatment of countries like Egypt, Syria and North Korea.

"I do not remember another democracy that blocked access to a researcher HRW," lamented AFP the director of the organization Kenneth Roth.

We have ✈️, so it's official: Israel has expelled me over my @hrw advocacy, joining Syria, Egypt & Bahrain in barring me access. But we will not be silent- en route to brief six Europeans in 8 days & address European Parliament on Israel's systematic repression of Palestinians pic.twitter.com/sr7WOGgML3

"Israel, like any healthy country, has the right to decide who has the right to enter and work within its borders", justified the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, spearhead of the Israeli campaign against the BDS. He assured that HRW could appoint a new director but that he considered Omar Shakir "an active propagator of the BDS".

The European Union and the UN have expressed opposition to the Israeli decision. The United States has said its "strong opposition to the BDS campaign" while affirming its commitment to freedom of expression.

This expulsion "is a desperate and despotic act consistent with the illegal practices of this occupation regime," denounced Hanane Achraoui, an official of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

For Israel, the boycott is anti-Semitic

The BDS calls for Israel's economic, cultural or scientific boycott to end the occupation and colonization of the Palestinian territories. His supporters are based on the example of South Africa, saying that the boycott of the country has put an end to the apartheid regime.

Israel accuses the BDS of anti-Semitism and questioning the very existence of the Jewish state, which the movement denies. The Israeli authorities had initially highlighted Omar Shakir's comments made before he took up his post in Israel in 2017 and in which he believed the BDS was a means of pressure on Israel. But they also blame HRW for its criticism of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, illegal under international law and the UN.

More than 600,000 Israelis have settled in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and home to about three million Palestinians.

With AFP