URGENT ACTION: Support for OCHA Employee Khulood Badawi (#Palestine)

Originally posted by the Alternative Information Centre at http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/component/content/article/28-news/4207-support-for-ocha-employee-khulood-badawi-

Support Palestinian UN employee Khulood Badawi, currently under attack for expressing a personal opinion on her own Facebook page.

Khulood Badawi is a field worker with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), documenting  human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. No one has ever questioned the professionalism of Badawi’s work in OCHA.

Khulood Badawi was also a political activist, dedicated to the defense of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, as well as a feminist. Due to her work in OCHA, she has carefully refrained from any public political activity, a choice that definitely was not easy for her.

For several days now, Khulood is the target of an organized campaign aimed at pushing her out of OCHA, as well as delegitimizing all Palestinian employees in the UN agencies. The pretext for this campaign against Khulood Badawi is a blog on Israel’s recent aggression against the Gaza Strip that she published on her private Facebook page.

Needless to say, working within these UN institutions are many Israeli Jews who advocate pro-Israeli political opinions, and no one challenges their right to work there, as long as these opinions are expressed outside the framework of their UN work and in their personal capacity.

Every person for whom freedom of opinion is important must stand by Khulood Badawi and her right to express herself on her personal Facebook page. Every person who cares for human rights must denounce the racist campaign against Khulood Badawi.

Please sent emails in support of Khulood Badawi to the following Jerusalem-based UN officials:

Richard Miron
Chief Public Information Officer
E-mail: mironr@un.org 

M. Ramesh Rajasingham
Head,OCHA - occupied Palestinian territory

E-mail: rajasingham@un.org

Amanda Pitt
OCHA NY

E-mail: pitta@un.org

Hayat Abu Saleh
E-mail : abusaleh@un.org