39 Facts About Shawan Jabarin

Shawan Jabarin has been barred from entering Jordan on security grounds, and was banned from international travel by Israel between 2006 and 2013.

Shawan Jabarin was born in 1960 in the village of Sa'ir, in the Hebron district.

Shawan Jabarin studied sociology at Birzeit University in the 1980s, where he belonged to a student group associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Shawan Jabarin later studied law in Ireland; he is a graduate of the Irish Centre of Human Rights, NUI Galway, where he completed the LL.

Shawan Jabarin began volunteering with Al-Haq while he was a student at Birzeit University.

Shawan Jabarin joined Al-Haq as a field researcher in 1987.

Shawan Jabarin became its director in 2006; His office is in Ramallah.

In February 2011, Shawan Jabarin was appointed by the Human Rights Watch to its advisory board that oversees reporting on Arab-Israeli affairs.

Robinowitz complained that "Whitson in her written presentation stated that Shawan Jabarin had had no association since PFLP since 1987, thereby ignoring actions against him by Israel and Jordan security authorities in 2005 and 2006, and by the Israeli Supreme Court in 2007,2008, and 2009".

Gerald Steinberg, the president of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, said that Shawan Jabarin's appointment to the HRW board "ends any facade that Human Rights Watch is a moral 'watchdog' organization".

Steinberg accused Shawan Jabarin of using "the language of human rights to lead delegitimization campaigns targeting Israel" and accused HRW of "abusing human rights as a facade for radical ideology".

Shawan Jabarin said that "Human Rights Watch has been working together with Jabarin and Al-Haq in an informal capacity for a long time, but the official appointment is an example of HRW Executive Director Ken Roth's and the group's Middle East and North Africa division's enlistment in the widespread delegitimization campaign being conducted against Israel".

Shawan Jabarin took part in a four-month programme on human-rights advocacy at Columbia University in 2001.

In May 2013, Shawan Jabarin was elected vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, an independent international NGO based in France.

Shawan Jabarin had been elected Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists.

Shawan Jabarin was convicted in 1985 of recruiting for and arranging training for members of the PFLP outside of Israel and served nine months of a 24-month jail sentence.

Shawan Jabarin spent six years in Israeli prison without charge or trial during the 1980s and 1990s.

In late October 1989, the windows on Shawan Jabarin's home were smashed and the front door kicked in.

Shawan Jabarin has been denied exit visas by Israel and Jordan on several occasions due to alleged ties to the PFLP.

Irish human rights organization Front Line Defenders expressed concern about the travel ban, noting that Shawan Jabarin had been allowed to leave the West Bank eight times between 1999 and February 2006, before becoming General Director of Al-Haq.

On March 28,2010, Israeli forces prevented Shawan Jabarin from leaving the Palestinian territories.

Shawan Jabarin had planned to travel to Cairo for a human-rights meeting at the Cairo Centre for Human Rights.

Shawan Jabarin was held at the Allenby Bridge for two hours before being told that he could not leave the territories.

Shawan Jabarin was not permitted to travel to Ireland in November 2010 to collect his award from the Irish Centre or Human Rights.

Shawan Jabarin had been planning to go to Denmark to accept a human-rights prize from the PL Foundation, to New York to attend a Human Rights Watch board meeting, and to Brussels to participate in the EU-NGO Forum on Human Rights.

The Electronic Intifada reported in February 2012 that Shawan Jabarin would be allowed to travel to Geneva to meet Frank La Rue, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression.

In March 2012, Shawan Jabarin was permitted to travel to Geneva to meet Frank La Rue, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression.

Shawan Jabarin was again permitted to travel in 2013, when he went to Ireland.

Israel's ambassador to Italy protested when Shawan Jabarin was invited by Laura Boldrini to testify about human rights violations before the Italian Parliament's Chamber of Deputies in December 2021.

Contrary to claims that Israel is singled out in the UN for condemnation, Shawan Jabarin has argued that the international community treats Israel better than other countries.

Shawan Jabarin said in 2013 that Israeli support for West Bank settlements was a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Shawan Jabarin has compared the situation in Israel to that in apartheid South Africa.

Shawan Jabarin has said that he does not use the word "apartheid" lightly when describing the Israeli-Palestinian situation.

Shawan Jabarin said in December 2012 that it was "a positive sign that some close friends of Israel," including the Netherlands, Germany and Australia, had abstained on a recent vote for Palestinian statehood.

Shawan Jabarin said in a 2013 interview that he had "no hope for the short-term" in regard to Palestinian human rights and sovereignty.

Shawan Jabarin has said that he takes hope from the "genuine change" in European opinion in recent years.

Shawan Jabarin demanded that the French support Palestinian membership in the ICC, or at least not oppose it.

In 1989, Shawan Jabarin was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award, which is presented to young people who have contributed to freedom of expression and human rights.

Shawan Jabarin is a father of four and counts former United States President Jimmy Carter as a friend.