A NEW United Nations report has accused Israel of delegitimising and silencing civil society by outlawing Palestinian human rights groups and labelling their members terrorists.

The findings came in the annual report by the UN human rights council’s commission of inquiry published on Thursday. 

The commission, led by a three-member team of rights experts, was established in 2021 after the 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas militant group in Gaza. 

Israel accuses the rights council and the commission of being unfairly biased.

Former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, who leads the commission, said: “We were particularly alarmed by the situation of Palestinian human rights defenders, who are routinely subject to a range of punitive measures as part of the occupation regime.”

In 2020 and 2021, Israel designated seven Palestinian rights groups as terrorist groups, effectively outlawing them. It later raided and shut some of their offices.

Israel says the groups are connected to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a left-wing movement with an armed resistance wing that Israel and its Western allies consider a terrorist organisation.

The rights groups deny any connection to the PFLP, and a number of European nations have rejected the Israeli claims.

Thursday’s report said the Israeli crackdown on the groups was “unjustified and violated fundamental human rights, including the rights to freedom of association, expression, opinion, peaceful assembly, privacy and the right to a fair trial.”

The report also took aim at Israel’s deportation of Palestinian human rights activist Salah Hammouri last year from East Jerusalem to France, accusing him of PFLP membership.

Chris Sidoti, a member of the commission, said the deportation constitutes a war crime.

In a statement issued by its UN mission in Geneva, Israel rejected the report’s findings.

It said: “The commission of inquiry against Israel has no legitimacy. It never had,” accusing the commission members of having a pre-existing bias and likening the commission’s hearings to a kangaroo court.

Proponents say the commission is needed to keep tabs on persistent injustices faced by Palestinians under decades of Israeli rule.

Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 war. The international community overwhelmingly considers all three areas to be occupied territory.

There was no immediate reaction from either the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority in the West Bank or Hamas in Gaza.