Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza city, was this week denied a permit by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to leave the Gaza Strip to address a major human rights conference in Brussels, Belgium.

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The conference, hosted by Diakonia, a prominent Swedish Development organisation, was attended by more than sixty Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights lawyers, legal experts and advocates. It focused on ‘Making Monitoring Work: Enforcing International Law in Europe.’

In addition to Raji Sourani being denied a permit to leave Gaza by the IDF, Iyad Nasser, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza, and Issam Younis, Director of Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, were both also denied permits to attend the Diakonia conference. Shawan Jabarin, Director of the Al Haq human rights centre in Ramallah on the West Bank, was also denied a permit to travel to the Brussels conference.