Shrinking Space

Israel’s actions since the start of the war in banning UNRWA and restricting the activities of NGOs and UN agencies helping Palestinians have been well publicised. But this policy of targeting aid organisations can be traced back years earlier.

In October 2021, Israel designated six West Bank Palestinian civil society organisations as terrorist groups without any evidence.

“I didn’t understand what had happened,” explains Juana Ruiz, a 65-year-old Spanish aid worker, who was arrested in April 2021 after 25 Israeli soldiers stormed into her home and accused her of “belonging to an illegal organisation”. She was imprisoned for nearly a year.

Three months later, it was 60-year-old Shatha Odeh’s turn, a fellow health worker and nurse. She spent almost a year in illegal detention in Israeli prisons before being banned from providing health services. During her detention, she lost about 20 kilograms. “No one is safe here in Palestine,” she laments.

Ubai Aboudi is the director of a research NGO. His phone was hacked using Pegasus. Tahreer Jaber is the director of a women’s NGO. She and her family were threatened and harassed. All of them know they could be arrested at any time.

In this moving film, we hear from the aid workers being targeted, arrested and imprisoned. How long can they continue carrying out their task of serving their people and defending human rights in Palestine?