Israel Grants Visa To Human Rights Watch Official
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Israel gave a one-year work visa to a Human Rights Watch researcher on Wednesday after initially denying him a permit and accusing the organization of engaging in “Palestinian propaganda,” the group said.
The decision in February to deny Omar Shakir a work permit was criticized by the United States.
Shakir, a U.S. citizen, received the visa on arrival at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport and he will take up his position as the New York-based rights group’s Israel and Palestine director.
“We welcome this opportunity to work in Israel and Palestine alongside vigorous national human rights organizations,” Iain Levine, executive deputy director for program at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on the group’s website.
“Israeli authorities do not always agree with our findings, but, in facilitating the ability of our staff to carry out our research and documentation, they have taken an important step to safeguard the principle of transparency and demonstrate their openness to criticism.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in February that the decision to deny Shakir a work permit stemmed from HRW’s work “at the service of Palestinian propaganda.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
