HRW tweeted: “Today is the day that Israel deports Human Rights Watch's Israel-Palestine Director, @omarsshakir, for doing his job.
“It won't stop us investigating and reporting human rights abuses there.”
The Israeli Supreme Court recently upheld the Interior Ministry’s decision not to renew Mr Shakir’s work visa.
In a document making the recommendation from the Strategic Affairs Ministry obtained by Haaretz, it says that “Shakir continued encouraging activities to promote boycotts against Israel even after obtaining a work visa.”
It also noted his efforts to get Israel suspended from FIFA and his “consistent calls for BDS at conferences, meetings and on social media over the years.”
Mr Shakir's attorneys Michael Sfard, Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man and Alon Sapir wrote in a joint statement that the ruling “would unprecedentedly harm the ability of human rights organizations and human rights defenders to do their work in Israel and the occupied territories in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
