Israelische Sicherheitsbehörden verwehren Salah Hajj Yihyah, dem Direktor für die mobilen Klinken des medico-Partners Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, die Einreise nach Gaza und verhören ihn stattdessen. Ein offensichtlicher Versuch, ihn einzuschüchtern und Informationen aus Gaza an die israelische und internationale Öffentlichkeit zu verhindern:
PHR-Israel issues public protest after its employee is unfairly interrogated and intimidated by the General Security Services
On Monday, May 26, Physicians for Human Rights sent a letter to the head of the GSS, Yuval Diskin, in which the heads of the organization protest "the attempt by the General Security Service to harm the organization's work," and warned against "the attempt to influence its policy and methods and intimidate a human rights organization." The letter was sent following the investigation last week of Salah Hajj Yihya, the head of the organization's clinics, by the GSS.
Hajj Yihya, who has worked for PHR for 20 years, was summoned for an investigation following the PHR's request to issue an aid delegation to Gaza for the third time in the last six months to give medical aid. All of the members of the delegation of doctors received permission to enter while Hajj Yihya was told he was "denied entry on security grounds" subject to the GSS interrogation. It should be noted that it was Hajj Yihya who organized and led the previous delegations to Gaza. The GSS claims that PHR exceeded the "mandate" it was given by engaging in "political" affairs in the Gaza Strip besides its humanitarian activities.
On the evening of May 14 a police patrol car came to the home of the director of the clinics in Taybeh to summon him for investigation. The next day the head of the PHR clinics came to the Taybeh police station for investigation, assuming it was merely a mistake that could be clarified through calm conversation, because he was engaged in transparent and legal activities of the organization. But during the investigation, which took place on two levels -- the personal and the organizational -- it turned out it was a matter of inappropriate interference by the GSS in a human rights organization's activity.
The GSS investigated Hajj Yihya about the organization's activity, its budget, its donors, the rate of its salaries and asked for information about other workers in the organization. It also asked how the members of the organization enter the occupied territories, how they take care of the security of participants and how they transfer patients from Gaza to Israel. An emphasis was placed on the question of whether representatives of the organization met Ismail Haniya and why they talked (during their last visit to Gaza) with the Palestinian minister of health and head of the parliament. "When the head of the clinics asked whether, according to the GSS, we are allowed to speak to the minister of health, who is both a political and a professional figure, the investigator did not answer him, whether because he knew the demand to avoid political activity was not valid or because he preferred to maintain the vagueness to create embarrassment in the organization," said the letter.
On a personal level Hajj Yihya was asked about his statements in the media and whether he was a member of the Islamic movement. Except for the questions, Hajj Yihya was threatened by presenting pictures of his house, and the GSS investigator "Danny" reminded him that details of his personal life are known to them. "The personal summons, by a police patrol car to the home of an employee of the organization, who is acting on the instructions of the leadership of the organization; the separation between him as an Israeli Arab who is not a doctor, and the more protected members of the organization who are Israeli Jews and doctors; and the threatening insinuations during the investigation, are unprecedented attacks on PHR and human rights, which are unacceptable in a state of law and a democratic society," the organization's leadership says.
"PHR contributes to the Democratic strength of Israel precisely because it brings information from Gaza that is not accessible to the Israeli public," said Hadas Ziv, CEO of the organization. "Since the GSS itself defines the denial of entry to the director of our clinics as based on 'your political activity' we can only view the denial of his entry and his interrogation as an illegal political act which is trying to silence our voice. We demand the head of the GSS stop his attempts to harm the work of the organization and for that interference to be clarified and investigated so that it is not repeated."
Since PHR’s letter, several other organizations have written and/or sent similar letters to Shabak including: Adva Center, Yesh Din, ACRI, B’Tsellem, Gisha and Adallah.
