On Tuesday, 10 June 2025, the United States (US) launched its latest attack on human rights defenders in sanctioning Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer).

The Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council (PHROC) and Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations Network (PNGO) condemn the targeted sanctions, taken pursuant to US Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, which are based on the completely unfounded and unsubstantiated claim that Addameer “has long supported and is affiliated” with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). No evidence has been disclosed in support of this allegation. In fact, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has openly and outright rejected the US Department of the Treasury’s claim that in the spring of 2022, a meeting was coordinated with the PFLP to send funds to Addameer and to arrange meetings between Addameer and Samidoun as “completely fictional” with “no basis in reality”.

Just like Israel’s unlawful designation of the six prominent Palestinian human rights and civil society organisations based in the occupied West Bank and arbitrarily outlawed by Israeli authorities in October 2021, which also includes Addameer, the latest wave of sanctions by the US has no concrete, or even public, evidentiary basis. They are purely political and only serve to delegitimise, restrict, and silence key actors in the fight for Palestinian self-determination and an end to Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime, illegal occupation and genocide against the Palestinian people.

Such baseless action, designed to undermine the indispensable work carried out by Addameer, will have an incalculable impact on the tens of thousands of Palestinians unlawfully imprisoned and arbitrarily detained. Israel’s widespread and systematic use of torture and sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians in Israeli detention centres and prisons, as well as the complete absence of due process in the applicable military “justice” system, is well-documented. Now, the little recourse or support available to Palestinian prisoners for the legal representation that Addameer provides is being stripped away.

The economic warfare waged by the US in support of Israel, its genocidal partner, is purely intended to plunge Palestinians into deeper depths of despair and deprivation and further isolate and dismantle crucial mechanisms working to uphold human rights and pave the way for Palestinians' right to self-determination. This unlawful attack on the global human rights movement must not be tolerated.

We recall the urgent call of UN experts to Israel’s designations in 2021, expressing, “[w]e are deeply disturbed by Israel’s apparent misuse of anti-terrorism legislation to attack some of the leading civil society organisations in Palestine. Such misuse must be rejected and countered”. The repeated abuse and misuse by imperialist States of anti-terrorism legislation to eliminate the possibility of Palestinian self-determination and attack and dismantle leading civil society organisations in Palestine must once again be outright rejected and countered.

PHROC & PNGO urgently call on Third States and international institutions to:

• Immediately condemn the Trump administration for its unsubstantiated allegations against Addameer;
• Demand that the Trump administration lift the sanctions aimed at delegitimising and criminalising Palestinian human rights defenders, Addameer, as well as the sanctions targeting the ICC’s fight for accountability;
• Resume, continue, and even increase its financial and political support for Addameer’s crucial work, as well as other Palestinian organisations that continue to use all legal avenues available to end Israel’s settler colonial apartheid system and unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as its genocidal onslaught on Gaza;
• Calls on the European Union to implement the EU Blocking Statute as a matter of urgency;
• Work collaboratively to ensure Palestinian voices are not silenced and to bring an end Israel’s vicious onslaught and rapid settlement expansion across the West Bank and genocidal campaign in Gaza, including by withdrawing any and all diplomatic support for Israel, imposing sanctions and a two-way arms embargo, and cutting all trade and economic relations with Israel.