The Ministry of internal Affairs of Israel refused to extend a work visa to the head of local representative office of the international Human rights organization Human Rights Watch Omar Shakir. This is stated in a communiqué published on the website of the organization.
The paper reported that the reason for the decision of the Israeli authorities became Pro-Palestinian position of the organization and that the organization “is not a real human rights group”.
Deputy Executive Director, program Human Rights Watch
Ian Levine (Iain Levine) said that he was disappointed by the decision of the Israeli authorities and questioned the state’s commitment to the values of democracy. According to him, the government “cannot or do not want to distinguish between criticism of their actions from hostile propaganda”.
In 2014 the Israeli authorities refused to let the representatives of HRW and Amnesty International into Gaza. According to the official version, the reason was the closure of the border crossing of Erez crossing, but human rights activists said that in fact the border was open to all but them.