Between 11 and 14 June 2019, Al-Haq participated at RightsCon 2019, the 8^th Annual Summit on Human Rights in the Digital Age, which was held in Tunis, Tunisia, and was attended by nearly three thousand participants from around the world, representing civil society groups, international organisations, and multinational corporations working in the field of digital rights. Al-Haq’s delegation to RightsCon 2019 included legal researcher Rania Muhareb and Dr. Isam Abdeen, Head of Local and Regional Advocacy at Al-Haq, who participated on Thursday, 13 June 2019, in a session titled “The Palestinian Cause for Digital Freedom” organised by 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media.

Between 29 May and 9 June 2019, Al-Haq monitored and documented the killing of three Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The killing of Abdallah Lua’y Ghaith, Yousef Wajih,^[1] and Muhammad Subhi Al-Judeili represent Israel’s unnecessary and disproportionate use of force against the occupied Palestinian population, depriving them inter alia of the right to life and bodily integrity.

During the 60th and 61st Great Return March protests, on 31 May and 14 June 2019, hundreds of Palestinians, including women, children, young men, and families, gathered between 4:00 and 7:00 pm in the five return camps established by the National Authority for the Return March. Protesters organized popular and folkloric activities in the return camps and surrounding areas, chanted national slogans, and raised Palestinian flags, while dozens of protestors, including women, children and youths, gathered at a distance of 50-300 meters from the fence, while Israeli snipers were stationed behind the hills and sand blocks, inside military towers and military enclaves behind the fence on the other side. Some of the protesters threw stones at Israeli forces, while the latter fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the protestors.

On Monday, 10 June 2019, Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs (MSA) claimed to have succeeded in efforts to convince banks to in Europe and the United States close  30 financial accounts associated with Palestinian NGOs, allegedly including those of Al-Haq.[1] It should be noted that Al-Haq, as an organisation does not hold credit card accounts and therefore despite the sweeping claims articulated by the MSA, there was never an account open, that could be closed to begin with. The Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan, smeared human rights NGOs who document and monitor human rights violations committed by the Israeli occupying authorities and forces against the Palestinian population stating, “we have revealed that the supposed ‘human rights’ NGOs are, in reality, filled with antisemitic operatives with deep ties to terrorist groups fixated on destroying the State of Israel.”[2]