We are deeply concerned by the raids which took place in the morning of 18 August, as part of a worrying reduction of space for civil society\u201d in the territory
\nBERLIN
\nNine European countries, including France and Germany, said they were \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by the Israeli government\u2019s forced closure of several Palestinian NGOs operating in the occupied West Bank.
\nThe Israeli military on Thursday said it had conducted overnight raids of seven organizations in Ramallah, the West Bank city where the Palestinian Authority\u2019s headquarters are located.
\n\u201cWe are deeply concerned by the raids which took place in the morning of 18 August, as part of a worrying reduction of space for civil society\u201d in the territory, the foreign ministries of the nine countries said.
\n\u201cThese actions are not acceptable,\u201d Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden said in a statement.
\nSix of the Palestinian organizations were labelled last October as terrorist groups by Israel for their alleged links to the leftist militant group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, although Israeli officials have not publicly shared any evidence of the links.
\nThe NGOs have all denied any links to the PFLP, which many Western nations have designated a terrorist group.
\nThe seventh organization raided, the Union of Health Work Committees, was banned by Israel from working in the West Bank in 2020.
\nIsrael has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967, when it seized the territory from Jordan.
\n\u201cA free and strong civil society is indispensable for promoting democratic values and for a two-state solution,\u201d the European countries said.
\nThey added that \u201cno substantial information was received from Israel that would justify reviewing our policy toward the six Palestinian NGOs on the basis of the Israeli decision to designate these NGOs as \u2018terrorist organizations\u2019.\u201d
\nBut they said: \u201cShould convincing evidence be made available to the contrary, we would act accordingly.\u201d
\nThe United States on Thursday also said it was \u201cconcerned\u201d by the raids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are deeply concerned by the raids which took place in the morning of 18 August, as part of a worrying reduction of space for civil society\u201d in the territory BERLIN Nine European countries, including France and Germany, said they were \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by the Israeli government\u2019s forced closure of several Palestinian NGOs operating in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-278659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n