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Israel Deporting HRW Official for Alleged Support of Boycott

VOA News

   Tel Aviv is expelling a top Human Rights Watch official because of
   allegations he supports the boycott of Israel, a movement activists use
   to protest the treatment of the Palestinians.

   Israel's Supreme Court upheld the government's order that Omar Shakir,
   the HRW's director of Israel and Palestine, has to leave the country
   Monday.

   Israel has denied entry to others who it says support the boycott,
   including United Nations diplomats. But this is the first time someone
   inside the country has been ordered to leave.

   "The court has now put the veneer of legality on the Netanyahu
   government's assault on human rights advocacy and that's a dangerous
   precedent that will affect many other people," Shakir said. "Not just
   human rights advocates, but ordinary students that study at Israeli
   universities, spouses of Israelis who engage in mainstream criticism
   and advocacy."

   He said Israel can apply the same logic of criticizing the boycott to
   those who call the West Bank an occupied territory and believe Jewish
   settlements are illegal, including the International Criminal Court,
   Shakir said.

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