* During Al-Haq’s early years, its focus was limited mainly to “analyzing the legal status of Israel as an Occupying Power in the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, and the structures imposed by its military and governmental authorities in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Teritories].” Also during that period, Al-Haq established its Legal Unit, which collaborated with its Legal Research Unit to formulate the NGO’s various positions and legal arguments. When the First Palestinian Intifada broke out in late 1987, Al-Haq expanded its workforce “to meet the challenge of addressing violations occurring as a result of this uprising.” By the early 1990s, Al-Haq’s staff consisted of approximately 40 people. For additional information on Al-Haq’s history, click here.

* In November 2010, Al-Haq issued a publication deriding the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) as “the ultimate rubber stamp for Israeli policies in the OPT, legitimizing Israel’s illegal actions through the veneer of ‘legal’ judgments.” Accusing the HCJ of “perverse application of international legal standards … masquerading behind a superficial façade of humanitarian and human rights,” the document urged activists to “flood … the Court with petitions in the hope of obstructing its functioning and resources.”

* In February 2015, Al-Haq objected strongly to Israel’s efforts to force the resignation of William Schabas as the head of the United Nations‘ inquiry into the 2014 Gaza War, where Israel, in response to a massive barrage of Hamas rocket attacks, launched a military operation designed to degrade and destroy Hamas’s terror infrastructure. According to Al-Haq, Israel’s campaign against Schabas was nothing more than an “attempt to obstruct the work of the international human rights and justice mechanisms in investigating Israeli violations of international law against the Palestinian population.” But in fact, Schabas’s anti-Israel biases were indisputable: He had previously issued repeated calls for prosecuting Israeli officials for alleged “war crimes” at the International Criminal Court, and he had done legal work for the Palestine Liberation Organization.