Democracy and Workers' Rights Center [Association] in Palestine (DWRC)

Activities

• DWRC rhetoric includes accusing the “Israeli occupation” of “apartheid” and “collective punishment.”
• In November 2022, DWRC was a signatory on a letter to the ICC Prosecutor to “Urgently expedite his investigation into the Situation of Palestine, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” 
• In May 2022, DWRC was a signatory on a petition titled “The Return Appeal” calling on the United Nations to “take all necessary steps and measures for immediately holding the occupation’s state accountable for all the crimes, the latter has so far committed against the Palestinian people, within strict legal means that would not allow the occupation’s criminals to evade interrogation or possible trials.”
• In January 2020, Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), of which DWRC is a member, vehemently opposed a new clause in European Union grant contracts with Palestinian NGOs that prohibits grantees from working with and funding organizations and individuals designated on the EU’s terror lists. PNGO claimed that Palestinian terrorist organizations are “political parties.”
• In July 2014, DWRC described “Apartheid Israel” as a place where “a wave of open racism and intolerance has pervaded the society.”

BDS

• As a member of PNGO, DWRC has been a signatory on numerous statements supporting BDS campaigns.
  • In September 2022, PNGO was a signatory on a letter to the European Union to “review its decision to revive the Association Council Meeting, stop the recently signed gas deal and review its bilateral cooperation programmes.” According to the call, “Instead of allowing Israel to entrench its colonial enterprise and apartheid regime, rewarding it with further economic cooperation and trade of harmful military equipment and technologies, the EU and its Member States have an obligation, and interest, to hold Israel accountable and put an end to impunity.”
  • In July 2020, DWRC was a signatory on a statement calling for “Immediate targeted sanctions to stop Israel’s annexation and apartheid.” The statement further called for “A ban on arms trade and military-security cooperation with Israel,” “Suspension of trade and cooperation agreements with Israel,” and “Investigation and prosecution of individuals and corporate actors responsible for war crimes/crimes against humanity in the context of Israel’s regime of illegal occupation and apartheid.”
  • In 2018-2019, PNGO lobbied in support of the discriminatory UN blacklist of businesses supposedly operating across the 1949 Armistice line, aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel.
    • • In March 2020, PNGO was a signatory on a letter to OHCHR High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet praising the High Commissioner for publishing the list and stating that it “look[s] forward to continuing to work with the OHCHR, with a view toward ending corporate impunity for profiting from grave breaches of international law.”
• In October 2015, at the height of a wave of terror attacks against Israelis, DWRC posted a statement of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) on Facebook and Twitter, calling on Palestinians to boycott Israel as a show of “solidarity” with the “current phase… [of] Palestinian popular resistance” and praising the “increased [] isolation of Israel and [] its regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid and occupation.”
• During the 2014 Gaza conflict, DWRC posted a call to join BDS campaigns as a way to “stop this madness” committed by the “Israeli occupation army.”
• In 2010, the Jerusalem Post reported that DWRC participated in a pro-BDS event hosted by the Irish trade-union.
• In 2008 DWRC was a signatory to a Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) petition against the EU-Israel upgrade and calling for the suspension of the EU Association Agreement.
• Signatory to the 2005 “Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS” that calls for an end to Israel’s “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands.”