Israel to bar entry to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor members following much-panned NYT op-ed — report

Israel will bar entry to 40 activists affiliated with the organization Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, placing them on a blacklist of prohibited entrants, according to the Walla news site.

Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli reached an agreement with the Population and Immigration Authority to block the Geneva-based nonprofit following its appearance as a key source in a recent New York Times column that alleged systematic sexual abuse of Palestinian security prisoners and has been slammed by Israel and others as a blood libel, the report says.

Among those barred is the group’s founder and chairman, Ramy Abdu, along with senior officials, board members and staff, the ministry is said to say. The list also includes lower-level employees such as media assistants and translators.

Questions about the organization’s political agendas and accuracy of reporting have swirled even before it served as a primary source in Nicholas Kristof’s graphic allegations of sexual abuse in Israeli prisons earlier this month. Israeli officials rejected the article’s accusations and called it “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press.”

Euro-Med’s leaders have long drawn accusations from Israel of being Hamas operatives, and the group has faced scrutiny for referring to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas as having been “arrested and moved to the Gaza Strip” and for claiming that Israel steals the organs of deceased Palestinians.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has previously rejected allegations of bias, describing itself as an independent human rights organization focused on documenting violations in conflict zones.