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Israel's 'campaign' to undermine humanitarian NGOs [1]

['Samuel Forey', 'Jerusalem', 'Correspondent']

Date: 2024-10-21

NewsSince the start of the war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attacks, Israel has been restricting the activities of NGOs and UN agencies tasked with helping Palestinians, refusing to issue work visas and hindering the movements of staff in the field.

For the past year, Israel has refused to issue work visas to the staff of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the Palestinian territories. Employees leave the country when their authorized stay expires and are replaced by others who can only enter on a tourist visa, valid for three months only, which in theory prohibits them from working.

For some time, some of these employees played the system by leaving the country temporarily, only to re-enter a few days later, but this is no longer possible thanks to a new rule implemented by Israeli authorities in mid-September: it is no longer possible to have more than two tourist visas in less than six months.

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Other humanitarian personnel have been granted multi-entry tourist visas valid for one year, though in much smaller numbers, and only thanks to discreet pressure exerted on Israel by a donor country. But they are also officially forbidden to work and cannot undertake certain legal formalities, such as buying a car or carrying out certain banking transactions.

"Who would come to work here on a tourist visa for three months? Not someone with a family. It's someone younger who's willing to take the risk. So we can't recruit the more experienced staff we need. And even if they do get in, they're working illegally on tourist visas", said Allegra Pacheco, head of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a partnership of five NGOs.

Humanitarians are put in a situation that is legally uncertain at best, if not illegal. And this is becoming untenable, according to all the employees Le Monde spoke with.

'These restrictions are no accident'

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[1] Url: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/10/21/israel-s-campaign-to-undermine-humanitarian-ngos_6730032_4.html

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