Press Releases

In March 2025, the Israeli regime’s government advanced new regulations that impose sweeping registration and reporting requirements on international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Mandatory Palestine. Framed as a measure of “transparency” and “security,” the regulations first serve as a bureaucratic weapon to restrict, monitor, and silence international humanitarian and human rights actors critical of Israeli illegal policies and ongoing crimes, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territory. Second, it is a calculated attempt to further eliminate international presence in Palestine. Finally, these registration regulations are not mere administrative measures; they essentially impose Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), further enabling the Israeli regime to continue its colonial enterprise in the rest of Mandatory Palestine.

The new guidelines requires all international NGOs operating in or engaging with entities under the Israeli regime’s control —including in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza—to register with the Israeli Ministry of Justice. The process is led by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs, which has established an inter-ministerial committee composed of officials from various intelligence and security agencies. As per a recent statement from the Israeli Diaspora Affairs Ministry, the roughly 170 international NGOs registered in Israel — including groups such as Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and the Norwegian Refugee Council — will have six months to reapply under the new system, or have their registration revoked, with only seven days to appeal. At least 55 humanitarian, development, and human rights organizations operating in the region have condemned the measures and denounced them as part of a growing pattern of authoritarian legal repression.

The registration process requires international NGOs to submit detailed disclosures about their staff, funding sources, partnerships, and activities; those that do not comply risk deregistration, denial of entry permits, asset freezes, and criminal liability for international and Palestinian staff and partners. The new rules introduce far-reaching and politicized criteria for INGO registration, including grounds for rejection or de-registration based on:

• Alleged “delegitimization” of the Israeli regime or support for legal accountability mechanisms (e.g., ICC investigations)
• Public support for boycotts by any staff, partner, board member, or founder within the past seven years;
• Denying “Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state”—even if expressed years ago by a staff member, partner, board member, or founder;
• Failure to meet invasive reporting requirements, including full partners and staff lists with contact details and ID numbers.

While nominally applying to all organizations, the regulations clearly target UN agencies, international human rights and humanitarian groups and the Palestinian partners they work with.  Essentially, any international organization that documents Israeli violations, supports legal accountability, and upholds international law, rights, norms and principles for the Palestinian people in whole or in part would risk being deregistered; meaning their presence and operations would become illegal according to the new rules. Furthermore, their incapacity to operate will impact their partnerships with Palestinian organizations, including preventing joint programs and severing international funding.

The Israeli regime claims the measures are to prevent “abuse” of humanitarian cover by actors who “undermine the state.” In reality, the regulations formalize long-standing political efforts to silence humanitarian testimony and obstruct relief efforts in areas where its violations are the most egregious. By tying registration to political alignment, the Israeli regime is forcing INGOs to choose between access and obligation. The registration regulations are the most recent in a plethora of laws and practices devised to eliminate international presence, and indirectly their Palestinian partners. The Israeli regime has indeed historically and repeatedly denied visas to representatives and members of UN Special Procedures (Special Rapporteurs and Commissions of Inquiry) and agencies, demonized and banned UNRWA, moved to replace UN-led humanitarian efforts with a privatized and militarized structure, and tried to impose a tax on foreign funding. 

In line with its “Decisive Plan,” the Israeli regime’s strategic aim is to impose its “sovereignty”, and transform all relevant issues and rights pertaining to the Palestinian people and their entitlement to international protection into Israeli internal affairs, hence further entrenching its colonial domination over more of Mandatory Palestine.

Allowing the Israeli regime to impose its “sovereignty” over the oPt by controlling international organizations’ access and operations, constitutes another way in which States are complicit in Israeli crimes and fail to fulfill their international obligations. Therefore, States must not only publicly denounce the registration regulations and refuse to cooperate with them, but also impose the full range of diplomatic, economic and military sanctions against the Israeli regime.