Shurat HaDin succeeded in its three year battle to have Human Rights Watch Director, Omar Shakir, deported due to his BDS activity against the state of Israel. Israel deported Shakir on November 25, 2019, after the High Court of Justice in a landmark anti-BDS ruling determined he had supported boycott activity to delegitimize Israel.
Shakir, a United States citizen, has a well documented history as a BDS activist. His involvement includes, founding and leading an anti-Israel student organization promoting BDS on campuses, and advocating to indict IDF soldiers for alleged war crimes. Shakir was hired by Human Rights Watch (HRW) as Director for Israel and Palestine (HRW) and, shockingly, granted a work visa in 2017. Shurat HaDin immediately petitioned Israel’s Interior Ministry to revoke the permit as it contravenes Israel’s antiboycott laws.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, after the ruling, stated: “The High Court took for granted that there is no right of entry into the country, and certainly no right to work, nor even the right to petition the High Court at all, for those who work toward harming the State of Israel and striving for its destruction.”
“Shakir is the one who pushed Airbnb to delist the Jewish homes in the territories and even took pride in having the hosting platform comply with his dictates,” Darshan-Leitner said. “Now that the High Court has ruled Omar Shakir is grossly biased, HRW has now lost all its credibility in the IsraeliArab conflict. They ought to shut down their offices here and stay out of this region.”
