16/08/2026
๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐น๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ: ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ. ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ถ๐๐ถ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐น๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐น ๐ฆ๐ผ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฒ๐๐
We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the arrest and continuing detention of Palestinian physician Dr. Mazen Rantisi, a 71-year-old doctor widely known as the โdoctor of the poorโ for decades of providing affordable and, at times, free medical care to Palestinians who could not afford treatment.
According to reports, Israeli forces raided Dr. Rantisiโs home in the al-Tireh neighborhood of Ramallah before dawn on June 21, 2026, and arrested him. Reports concerning his detention conditions are deeply alarming. He has reportedly been subjected to deprivation of food, inadequate medical care, and mistreatment, while his access to essential medication has been disrupted despite his chronic illnesses.
Dr. Rantisiโs arrest is particularly disturbing because his life has been devoted to caring for his community. For decades, he provided medical services to Palestinians, including people in villages around Ramallah where access to healthcare was limited. His commitment to serving poor and marginalized communities earned him the enduring reputation of being the โdoctor of the poor.โ
His detention, however, must also be understood within the broader pattern of repression against Palestinian civil society. Dr. Rantisi is reportedly facing charges connected to his role as chair of the board of the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC), a Palestinian health organization that Israel outlawed in 2022 after designating it a โterroristโ organization. Israeli forces subsequently raided the organizationโs office and shut it down.
For us, the criminalization of humanitarian and human rights organizations is a grave assault on the rights of an entire people. The targeting of organizations that provide healthcare, legal assistance, human rights documentation, humanitarian services, and other forms of community support does not merely silence organizationsโit undermines the capacity of communities to survive, organize, and resist oppression.
The experience of Dr. Rantisi is a stark reminder that repression does not stop at those who are openly critical of a government or occupying power. Doctors, health workers, lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders, humanitarian workers, community organizers, and ordinary people who serve their communities can all become targets when an entire population is subjected to systematic repression.
This pattern is painfully familiar to human rights defenders in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, various peopleโs organizations have likewise experienced red-tagging, surveillance, threats, harassment, raids, arbitrary arrests, and the criminalization of legitimate human rights work. This pattern of repression finds a painful parallel in the cases of health workers such as Dr. Ana Marie Rilloraza and Marc Arriane Mendiola, who have been targeted for state-sanctioned persecution. Dr. Rilloraza, a physician who dedicated her life to serving marginalized communities in the Cordillera region, was subjected to fabricated criminal charges for providing humanitarian assistance and documenting human rights abuses in areas where large-scale mining operations are present. Similarly, Marc Arriane Mendiola, a young health worker and community organizer, faced threats, surveillance, and legal persecution because of his work with health worker unions. Human rights defenders have been labeled โterroristsโ or accused of supporting armed groups simply for documenting violations, assisting victims, and defending communities. The weaponization of anti-terrorism and national security laws against civil society has created an environment in which providing assistance to marginalized communities can itself be treated as a criminal act.
The cases of Palestinian civil society organizations also demonstrate the dangers of allowing the blanket designation of organizations as โterroristโ without transparent, independent, and credible evidence. Reports cited by Mondoweiss note that subsequent reviews by European authorities and investigations reported by other sources found no substantiation for some of the allegations used to justify the designation of Palestinian NGOs.
We reject the use of โterrorismโ and national security as a pretext to suppress humanitarian work, human rights advocacy, and legitimate civil society activity.
We stand in solidarity with Dr. Mazen Rantisi, his family, Palestinian health workers, human rights defenders, humanitarian workers, and the broader Palestinian people in their continuing struggle for freedom, dignity, self-determination, and justice.
We call on the Israeli authorities to:
1. Immediately release Dr. Mazen Rantisi and all Palestinian prisoners and detainees who are being held arbitrarily or without due process;
2. Ensure Dr. Rantisiโs immediate access to adequate medical care, medication, food, legal counsel, and humane detention conditions, consistent with international human rights and humanitarian law;
3. End the criminalization and persecution of Palestinian health workers, humanitarian workers, human rights defenders, and civil society organizations;
4. Lift restrictions and prohibitions imposed on legitimate Palestinian civil society organizations and cease raids, closures, and other forms of repression against these organizations;
5. Allow independent international mechanisms to investigate allegations of torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, and other violations committed against Palestinian detainees; and
6. Respect the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people to life, health, dignity, freedom, self-determination, and freedom from occupation and repression.
The arrest of a 71-year-old physician whose lifeโs work has been caring for poor and marginalized Palestinians should outrage the conscience of the international community.
When a doctor who heals the sick becomes a target, when humanitarian organizations are branded as โterrorist,โ and when those who serve their communities are imprisoned, the issue is no longer simply the persecution of individualsโit is an attack on the very fabric of Palestinian society.
We call on human rights defenders, health workers, humanitarian organizations, civil society groups, and peopleโs organizations across the world to amplify the demand:
Free Dr. Mazen Rantisi!
Free All Palestinian Political Prisoners!
Defend Palestinian civil society.
Stop the criminalization of human rights and humanitarian work.
End the occupation and uphold the Palestinian peopleโs right to self-determination.
Justice for Palestine. Freedom for Palestine.
Signed:
1. Karapatan Alliance Philippines Inc.
2. Council for Health and Development
3. Coalition for Peopleโs Right to Health
4. Health Alliance for Democracy
5. Health Action for Human Rights
6. GABRIELA | Alliance of Filipino Women
7. Samahang Operasyong Sagip
8. Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
9. ILPS Commission 6
10. Asian Peasant Coalition
11. IBON Foundation
12. Alliance of Health Workers
13. International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-determination & Liberation
14. ILPS Commission 10
15. Philippines-Palestine Friendship Association
16. Pilgrims for Peace
17. Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
18. Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Development Group
19. Nueva Ecija Community-Based Health Program
20. International League of Peopleโs Struggles Commission 12
21. Philippine Network of Food Security Programmes
22. Peopleโs Health Movement Philippines
23. Filipino Nurses United
24. Philippine Medical Studentsโ Association
25. Philippine Nursing Studentsโ Association
26. Council for Peopleโs Development and Governance (CPDG)
27. Magdalena Barcelon, M.D.
