Israel Orders Human Rights Watch Official Deported

(Jerusalem) – Israeli authorities on May 7, 2018, revoked the work permit for Omar Shakir, the Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine director, and ordered him to leave Israel within 14 days. The government said it was because of Shakir’s alleged support for boycotts of Israel.
Authorities based the decision on a dossier a government ministry compiled on Shakir’s activities spanning over a decade, almost all of them predating his Human Rights Watch employment. The decision comes a year after the Interior Ministry granted Human Rights Watch a permit to employ Shakir as a foreign expert, after initially refusing to issue it.