Issa Amro

Born

1980-04-13

Birthplace

Hebron, West Bank, Palestine

Biography

Issa Amro (Arabic: عيسى عمرو; born 13 April 1980) is a Palestinian activist based in Hebron, West Bank. He is the co-founder and former coordinator (2007–2018) of the grassroots group Youth Against Settlements. Amro advocates the use of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience to fight the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories. In 2010, he was declared "human rights defender of the year in Palestine" by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council expressed concern for his wellbeing and safety due to numerous accounts of harassment from Israeli soldiers and settlers and a series of arbitrary arrests. Amro was indicted by the Israeli military court with 18 charges against him. In May 2017, Bernie Sanders along with three U.S. senators and 32 congressmen wrote to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to urge Israeli authorities to reconsider the charges against Amro. In September 2017, Amro was arrested by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for using Facebook to criticise the PA for arresting a journalist. In March 2019, Amnesty International demanded that the Palestinian authorities drop all charges against him, adding "It is disgraceful that Issa Amro is facing a prison term simply for expressing his views promoting human rights online." In late September 2017, after being released on bail, Amro met Bernie Sanders and members of Congress in Washington DC. Description above from the Wikipedia article Issa Amro, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.