A/HRC/34/70 was peacefully holding a poster during the demonstration in front of Israeli soldiers when he was aggressively arrested.56 • Issa Amro, founder of the Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements, a community organization advocating non-violent action, has recently been charged by the Israeli military on 18 counts, including insulting an Israeli officer and incitement in connection with his work organizing peaceful protests calling for the re-opening of Shuhada Street in Hebron. Some of the charges are stale, dating back to 2010. During two of his recent arrests, he states that he was beaten by Israeli police while in custody. Amnesty International has called the charges against Mr. Amro baseless and an attempt to silence him.57 • Salah Khawaja, a member of the secretariat of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions national committee, was arrested during a night raid by the Israeli military on 26 October 2016 at his home in Ramallah (within Area A). His computer and phone were confiscated during the raid. He was subsequently detained and interrogated at the Israeli military facilities in Petah Tikvah. Reports suggest that he has been subject to harsh conditions during his incarceration, including strenuous interrogations, sleep deprivation and physical violence, with no charges laid against him and little or no access to a lawyer.58 • Hasan Safadi, the media coordinator for Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner support and human rights organization, was arrested by Israeli forces on 1 May 2016 at the al-Karameh bridge crossing with Jordan when returning home from a conference on Arab youth in Tunisia. He has been held in administrative detention since then at Ktziot prison in Israel, with the administrative detention order extended for an additional six months from 8 December 2016.59 The Special Rapporteur notes that Israel’s administrative detention system probably violates the exceptional nature of the measure permitted under international law, as does the incarceration of protected persons outside the occupied territory or country, in line with articles 76 and 78 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. 44. One highly illustrative and disturbing example of the current climate is the series of sophisticated death threats and menacing accusations issued to Nada Kiswanson, a human rights lawyer in The Hague, where she represents Al-Haq and other human rights defenders in Europe and before the International Criminal Court. Beginning in February 2016 and intensifying over the following months, Ms. Kiswanson received multiple phone and e-mail messages to private numbers and encrypted message services — some of them anonymous, others from individuals impersonating governmental, intergovernmental and international organizations — stating variously that she would be “eliminated”, that she was “not safe at all and hopefully this would remain” and “Honey, you are in grave danger. You have to stop what you are doing”. Thousands of fabricated leaflets with the Al-Haq logo were distributed to homes in the neighbourhood where she lives, describing Al-Haq as an organization “working to strengthen the Islamic base in the country”, and asking for financial donations to be delivered to her home address. Funeral flowers were also left in front of her house. Amnesty International stated that it had to temporarily close its office in The Hague, after one of its employee’s e-mail accounts had been hacked as a means of sending threats to Ms. Kiswanson. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders noted that these attacks demonstrated a high level of technological sophistication and financial backing. To date, police in the Netherlands have investigated the threats and have provided protection for Ms. Kiswanson, but they have been unable to locate their 56 57 58 59 12 Amnesty International, “Israeli government must cease intimidation”. Ibid. See European External Action Service, letter from the Managing Director for Middle East and North Africa concerning the arrest of Salah al Khawaja, 28 November 2016, and joint submission by 13 human rights defenders to the Special Rapporteur, 7 November 2016. See www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/detention-hasan-safadi.