Israel announced this Sunday that Doctors Without Borders (MSF) must cease its activity in the Gaza Strip before February 28 for your refusal to provide the list of its Palestinian employeesan obligation “applicable to all humanitarian organizations operating in the region,” said the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Fight against Anti-Semitism, which is in charge of registering these entities.
In a statement released last Friday, MSF announced its final decision not to share with the Israeli authorities any list with information about its workers, Palestinian or international, given “the current circumstances.” According to the NGO, Israel does not guarantee that the personal information provided will be used only for administrative purposes and not put those involved at risk.
To accede to the demand of Binyamin Netanyahu’s Government, the organization demanded in exchange “full authority over all matters of human resources and the management of humanitarian medical supplies”and the cessation of attempts to defamation against MSF, since Israel accuses it without evidence of employ “terrorists”.
“In the absence of these clear guarantees we have concluded that we will not share personnel information in the current circumstances,” the NGO stressed in its statement.
MSF had informed the Israeli authorities on January 23 that, as an exceptional measure, it would be willing to share a defined list of the names of its Palestinian and international staff; in order to comply with new Israeli registration requirements for international organizations and to continue operating in Gaza.
Other banned NGOs
On January 1, the Government of Israel declared that 37 non-profit organizations that had not registered before the end of the year had to close their operations in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank within 60 days, that is, before March 1 in accordance with the legislation. In addition to MSF, this list also includes, among others, the Norwegian Refugee Council, World Vision International, CARE y Oxfam.
This new registration system includes controversial reasons for denying the activity. Among them, denying the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, but also “promoting delegitimization campaigns against Israel”, urging a boycott or supporting the prosecution of Israeli security forces in foreign or international courts, according to the guidelines published by this ministry.
