Israel Grants Visa To Human Rights Watch Official
Omar Shakir Image by Human Rights Watch
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.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
