advocating for or protecting Palestinian human rights throughout Mandate Palestine. Within Israel, the State has exploited its perpetual ‘state of emergency’ to suspend the rights of its Palestinian citizens and criminalize Palestinian institutions. Such actions have only increased in recent years: the 55 organizations Israel declared ‘terrorist’ or ‘unlawful’ by 2000 grew to 321 by 2015.287 Between November 2015 and March 2016 alone, the Israeli government continued its use of an old emergency act from 1945 to outlaw significant political and religious movements along with 20 NGOs.288 East Jerusalem has also witnessed a concentrated amount of raids and closures. Between 1967 and 2014 there were over 120 permanent closures of Palestinian institutions documented. A large number of other Palestinian institutions are also raided and closed temporarily on a frequent basis.289 In 2008, Israeli authorities extended an order closing 80 Palestinian organizations for the eighth time. As the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem has reported, these authorities “are surely aware that these organizations continue to function in a limited capacity,” and that: …being unable to function officially creates a climate of fear and a reluctance to do anything that might ‘draw attention’ and result in complete closure of the organizations and detention and interrogation of staff… By these means, Palestinian civil society and political activity in East Jerusalem has been largely incapacitated by the permanent threat of closure.290 As a result, many organizations and institutions have been forced to “transfer their operations elsewhere in the West Bank in order to avoid complete shutdown.”291 The creation of a Ramallah-based Palestinian government in the Oslo Accords and the physical separation of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank also had an impact on the operational capacity of 287 Meezaan Organization for Human Rights, Israel’s Perpetual “State of Emergency”, Criminalizing Palestinian Civil Society and Political Dissent, March 2016, page 14. Available at: http://www.meezaan. org/Public/file/draft%203%20-%20final.pdf 288 Ibid. 289 The Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ), The Coalition for Jerusalem and the Society of St. Yves Catholic Center for Human Rights, “De-Palestinian” and Forcible Transfer of Palestinians, A situation of systematic breaches of State obligations under the ICCPR, Joint NGO Report to the Fourth Periodic Report of Israel, UN Human Rights Committee, 9 September 2014, page 28. Available at: http://ccprcentre.org/doc/2014/10/INT_CCPR_CSS_ISR_18169_E1.pdf 290 CCPRJ, Alternative Report on Israel to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 47th session, 14 November – 2 December 2011. Available at: http://www.civiccoalition-jerusalem.org/ uploads/9/3/6/8/93682182/escr_alternative_report_nov_-_dec_2011_47th_session.pdf 291 CCPRJ, The Coalition for Jerusalem and the Society of St. Yves Catholic Center for Human Rights, “DePalestinian” and Forcible Transfer of Palestinians, op. cit., 9 September 2014, page 28 81