"Israelis Against Apartheid" organization have joined the global protest of the recent Israeli decision to designate six Palestinian human rights organizations as "terrorist groups."
The organization launched a petition slamming the decision and urging people to end Israel's brutal apartheid regime.
Within a few hours, the petition gathered thousands of Jewish signatories, calling on those "appalled by Israel's apartheid and by its attempt to crush human rights organizations, to join us in supporting the organizations under attack."
The signatories affirmed their absolute solidarity with the Palestinian human rights organizations and their "admirable work for justice, in the face of the recent attack on their existence and their labeling as terror organizations."
They argued that, like every colonial regime, crushing the colonized civil society has been a cornerstone of Israeli policies since its creation, both within the 1948 borders and in the territories it occupied in 1967.
"Criminalizing any form of dissent and resistance by indigenous Palestinians, by labeling them as terrorists while at the same time calling its colonial practices, of oppression and dispossession, 'self-defense' is essential to sustain Israel's settler-Apartheid system," the group continued.
They warned that Defense Minister Benny Gantz's attempts to silence organizations that document and report the war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces he commands, demonstrate Israel's widespread abuse of children, and collect data on Israel's criminal activity is an apparent attempt to obstruct justice in war crime investigations against Israeli war criminals.
"Shutting down organizations which provide vital support and services to Palestinian farmers such as the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and Palestinian women, such as The Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, or Palestinian political prisoners, such as Addameer – all this is part of the continued efforts by Israel to erase the traditions, kinship, and economy of Palestinian society and bring it to its knees."
The signatories said it was shameful that the pro-colonial discourse has been adopted by many foreign politicians and journalists, calling on the press to seek the truth.
"Israel will not end its occupation and apartheid regime of its own free will."
