A report from the Charity & Security Network calls attention to a rise in the use of legal strategies by politically motivated actors to suppress the work of civil society organizations that support Palestinian rights and operate humanitarian, peacebuilding, and other programs in the Palestinian territories.

According to the report, The Alarming Rise of Lawfare to Suppress Civil Society: The Case of Palestine and Israel (141 pages, PDF), several groups and networks opposed to organizations that work in the Palestinian territories or support Palestinian rights are using 'lawfare' tactics — the use of laws and legal principles to harm or discredit political adversaries — ranging from litigation and regulatory attacks such as those challenging the nonprofit status of organizations, to requests that governments investigate or prosecute particular groups, to efforts to deny them financial services and fundraising platforms by pressuring banks to cancel their accounts. The report highlights case studies of lawfare campaigns waged against organizations including Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Carter Center, Oxfam, New Israel Fund, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and Islamic Relief Worldwide.

The study also found that the use of lawfare campaigns is slowly spreading and could spread globally in the absence of a robust response by civil society, for lawfare groups incur little risk because their legal complaints are inexpensive to file and there is little scrutiny of or demand for accountability around lawfare and disinformation attacks. The report's recommendations for governments, civil society, donors, and publishers include closing the legal gaps that lawfare groups take advantage of by making post-9/11 restrictions more targeted in order to safeguard civil society and providing clarity in the law that avoids overly restrictive interpretations; recognizing the political nature of lawfare attacks and pushing back accordingly; and ensuring that they are not providing a platform for further dissemination of disinformation.

A fiscally sponsored project of NEO Philanthropy, the Charity & Security Network is funded by the Charles Stewart Mott and Open Society foundations, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Foundation for Middle East Peace, the Zakat Foundation of America, and the Human Security Collective.

"The findings in this report should alarm anyone who works in the fields of human rights, peacebuilding, or humanitarian aid," said Charity & Security Network senior advisor Kay Guinane, who authored the report. "They point to a concerted effort to undermine organizations whose legitimate work is viewed as an obstacle to the political projects of the attackers. The expansion of lawfare as a tactic to advance a range of political agendas threatens civil society organizations the world over."

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