Adalah denounces denial of entry of Center for Constitutional Rights’ leadership to Israel for #JusticeDelegation visit
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel vehemently opposes the denial of entry and deportation of Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and Katherine Franke, chair of CCR’s board of directors and Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Columbia University from Israel.
Warren and Franke sought to visit Israel/Palestine with a delegation of prominent lawyers and human rights activists – the #JusticeDelegation – to better understand the human rights situation, including the history of systematic displacement and institutional racism, as well as the work of human rights defenders here. The two human rights attorneys were tasked with leading the delegation in their week of meetings with human rights defenders and organizations fighting against the Occupation and for full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Israeli authorities detained Warren and Franke on Sunday, 29 April 2018 for 14 hours. They interrogated them at Ben Gurion International Airport, and then denied them entry into Israel before deporting them back to New York. The authorities aggressively questioned them about their association with human rights groups that have been critical of Israel’s human rights record. Adalah and CCR work closely together on advocacy for Palestinian rights, and together with diverse partners across social movements, seek to advance the protection of human rights and global justice.
The ban on entry and deportation of Warren and Franke is a clear reflection of Israel’s opposition to human rights, and comes within a wider context of systemic efforts to delegitimize human rights defenders and organizations. By prohibiting advocates for social justice and equality from visiting Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, Israel places itself squarely on the side of the intolerable status quo of inequality, oppression and injustice. Adalah is proud to stand with CCR and the human rights community, and will continue to advocate together for Palestinian rights, and for the rights of all people to dignity, freedom and justice.
