Shawan Jabarin

Shawan Rateb Abdallah Jabarin (born 1960 in Sayer, West Bank) is the General Director of Al-Haq, the largest, oldest and best known human-rights organization in the West Bank. He is also a high-ranking official of Human Rights Watch.

In addition, according to the Israeli Supreme Court, he is a longtime leader of the Palestinian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the U.S., Israel, the E.U., and many other countries consider a terrorist organization. Jabarin denies belonging to the PFLP, although he acknowledges having been involved with that group in his youth.

Respected as a human-rights champion by HRW, Amnesty International, and various Palestinian human-rights groups, and condemned by many Israeli and other organizations, Jabarin has been described as “an activist to some, a terrorist to others.” While he has won many human-rights awards and contributed to such journals as Foreign Policy, he has been subject since 2006 to an international travel ban by Israel, which considers him a security threat.