Al Haq - Travel Bans On Shawan Jabarin

Travel Bans On Shawan Jabarin

Al-Haq's General Director, Shawan Jabarin, has been prevented from traveling outside of West Bank since 2006. Shin Bet claim Jabarin is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and that "his travel may endanger regional security" but refuse to disclose evidence on the grounds that it is classified. Jabarin has been detained on at least two previous occasions following convictions in Israeli courts on the charge that he has engaged in activity on behalf of the PFLP, once for nine months in 1985 and once in 1994. Jabarin denies membership saying that he has worked for Al-Haq since 1987. Israeli and international human rights organizations sent letters of protest to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, asking that Jabarin be allowed to travel and accept the prize. Israel–Netherlands relations have been strained by the affair.

In 2009, Israel's Shin Bet prevented Jabarin, from travelling to the Netherlands to accept the Geuzenpenning, a prestigious Dutch human rights prize presented by the Geuzen Resistance 1940-1945 Foundation jointly awarded to Al-Haq and B'Tselem. The Supreme Court of Israel were asked to review Jabarin's petition to reverse the travel ban which the petitioners stated "suggests he is being targeted for securing human rights for his people". Previous secret hearings by the Israeli High Court decided in the Shin Bet's favour. The court heard the arguments and reviewed the evidence presented to it in two separate hearings on the 5th and 9 March 2009 and dismissed the petition upholding the travel ban. In previous case in 2008, The Supreme Court concluded, after reviewing classified intelligence material, that a petitioner was at the same time among the senior activists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine organization. Al Haq issued a statement that stated "the Israeli High Court has yet again exposed itself as merely a rubber-stamp for the decisions of the military and intelligence authorities, rather than an independent branch of government". Dutch Foreign Minister, Maxime Verhagen, in its official statement issued on 11 March 2009 wrote " is very disappointed that the travel ban on the Palestinian human rights defender Shabwan Jabarin has not been lifted."

In November 2010 Jabarin, who was Amnesty International's first Palestinian Prisoner of Conscience, was refused permission by the Israeli authorities to travel to Galway, Ireland to receive a "distinguished graduate award" at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the NUI's Irish Centre for Human Rights, where he had studied international human rights law from 2004 to 2005.

In addition, the government of Jordan also denied Jabarin an exit visa and did not allow him to travel in its territories.