ICSPR: U.S. Sanctions on Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Are an International Crime and an Endorsement of the Law of the Jungle
September 5, 2025
Press Release
ICSPR: U.S. Sanctions on Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Are an International Crime and an Endorsement of the Law of the Jungle
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) expresses its strongest condemnation and denunciation of the decision by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to impose sanctions on three of the most prominent Palestinian human rights organizations: Al-Haq Human Rights Organization, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
ICSPR affirms that this decision constitutes a grave violation of international law, human rights standards, and the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. It comes as part of systematic attempts to silence the voices of human rights organizations and prevent them from continuing their role in exposing Israeli occupation crimes and pursuing accountability for genocide and war crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
ICSPR stresses that while it stands in full solidarity with these human rights organizations, the targeting is directly linked to their work in monitoring, documenting, and pursuing Israeli crimes with the international community through international mechanisms. This renders the U.S. decision a systematic undermining of the path of international justice and a reversal of the very values and principles that are supposed to punish criminals, not the victims and their defenders. The imposition of these unlawful sanctions reflects a joint U.S.-Israeli policy aimed at targeting all Palestinian sectors, extending even to international organizations such as UNRWA, the Human Rights Council, and the International Criminal Court. This is an attempt to replace the system of international humanitarian law with the law of the jungle, thereby reinforcing impunity—a reality that makes the U.S. administration a direct partner in Israeli crimes.
ICSPR warns that the use of sanctions and false terrorism allegations against human rights defenders and civil society organizations represents a dangerous political practice aimed at distorting and criminalizing Palestinian human rights work. It constitutes a flagrant violation of the freedom of association, freedom of expression, and the international protection afforded to human rights defenders, as well as the very principles of the rule of law. Accordingly, ICSPR:
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Calls on the U.S. administration to immediately reverse its policies of supporting Israeli occupation crimes and to lift its unjust sanctions on Palestinian civil society organizations and international humanitarian organizations.
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Calls on the United Nations, international and regional organizations, and the entire international community to condemn this crime as a grave violation of international law, ensure the protection of human rights defenders, and support the path of international accountability for Israeli war criminals and their partners.
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Calls on the free peoples and states of the world, as well as the United Nations, to ensure serious adherence to international law and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, and to act decisively against the U.S.-Israeli law of the jungle. ICSPR urges the formation of a global humanitarian alliance to safeguard the international legal system and human rights standards, to decisively intervene to end genocide and famine, to protect Palestinians, and to impose sanctions on Israel and prosecute it and its partners before international courts—while refusing to allow the punishment of victims and their defenders.
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The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR)
