اللجنة الشعبية للدفاع عن الحريات

منبثقة عن لجنة المتابعة العليا للجماهير العربية

مهرجان النقب شكل انطلاقة قوية لحملة "التحدي والبقاء"

رغم الأجواء الجوية العاصفة والبرد القارس فقد شهدت القاعة الرياضية في قرية اللقية حضورا حاشدا من الأهل في النقب مساء يوم الجمعة الخامس من شباط، وحضورا قياديا تمثيليا ملفت للنظر في اجتماع شعبي سياسي ملفت للنظر. وشكل مهرجان اللقية انطلاقة وحدوية ومعنوية قوية لحملة التحدي والبقاء التي ترعاها لجنة المتابعة العليا للجماهير العربية وتنظمها اللجنة الشعبية للدفاع عن الحريات.

Open Letter 

 Palestinian, Israeli and International Human Rights NGOs Deplore Politically-Motivated Claims

The Board of Directors of Rights & Democracy, a not-for-profit organization created by Canada's parliament in 1988 to encourage and support human rights around the world, recently voted, with substantial objection, to repudiate grants given to Al Haq and Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, two well-known Palestinian human rights organizations located respectively in the West Bank and in Gaza.

The Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Rights and Democracy, Mr. Aurel Braun, was quoted (in The Globe & Mail) as criticizing both organizations for being two "of the most vitriolic anti-Israeli organizations" and for "their accusations against Israel's human rights violations. Further, the article reports that Braun had said that "there is no way to ensure that some of the money given to groups in Gaza does not go to the banned terrorist organization Hamas". He also led a personal attack against Al Haq's general director – the well-known human rights defender Mr. Shawan Jabarin – for allegedly being an activist in a PLO faction (ibid). These remarks made by the chairperson of Rights and Democracy are extremely grave as they seem to support the Israeli government's policy of silencing human rights' defenders.