raided, ransacked and arbitrarily closed. The UN reported that Israeli forces had closed over 50 charities in Qalqilya and Hebron alone between 2006 and 2008.292 Claiming links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Israel also raided other associations, an example being the raiding and ransacking of Addameer, the Palestinian NGO Network and the Union of "Palestinian Women’s Committees" offices on 11 December 2012. These organizations reported the confiscation of computers, files, hard drives, video equipment and money by military forces during the raid.293 Not even educational institutions are exempt from raids. In 2014 Israeli forces raided five West Bank universities in a single week - Birzeit University, the Arab American University in Jenin, Al-Quds University, the Palestine Ahliya University and the Polytechnic University of Palestine in Hebron.294 Birzeit University in the West Bank, for example, has been closed no less than fifteen times. During the First Intifada it was closed for four and a half years, between 1988 and 1992. The Intifada years saw a particularly egregious violation of Palestinians’ right to education, as Israeli military orders closed Palestinian kindergartens, schools, and universities, effectively making education illegal.295 The closures of these institutions are in direct violation of the fundamental right to education enshrined in international law by numerous declarations and treaties.296 Criminalization of Movements Israel does not restrict itself to the criminalization of organizations but rather extends these prohibitions to entire social and political movements. In 2011, for example, the increasing success and visibility of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement prompted the Knesset to pass an ‘Anti-Boycott’ law that prohibits “the public promotion of academic, economic or cultural boycott by Israeli citizens and organizations against Israeli institutions… or settlements.” It also allows lawsuits to be filed against 292 Sara Roy, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector, 10 November 2013, Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics, page 219. 293 The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC), Joint Statement: The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council Condemns the IOF Raid on the Offices of Three Palestinian NGOs in Ramallah, 12 December 2012. Available at: https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/ C0DE6D46C013495B85257AD20061F043; Noah Browning, Israel raids Palestinian NGO offices, Reuters, 11 December 2012. Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestiniansraids-idUSBRE8BA09F20121211 294 Jadaliyya, Letter Concerning Israeli Raids on Palestinian University Campuses, 6 July 2014. Available at: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/18381/letter-concerning-israeli-raids-on-palestinian-unin 295 Alex Shams, Global Palestinian ‘Right to Education Week’ kicks off at Birzeit, Ma’an, 12 November 2013. Available at: http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=646332 296 See specifically: The UDHR, the ICERD and the ICESRC, among others. 83