The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday upheld a deportation order against Human Rights Watch's local director and gave him two weeks to leave the country.
The court rejected an appeal by Omar Shakir to remain in the country. The New York-based watchdog has cast his case as a bid to suppress global criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
Israel enacted a law in 2017 barring entry to any foreigner who "knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel." Tuesday's ruling was the first time the law was applied to someone already residing in the country.
Shakir, a U.S. citizen, has worked as the New York-based group's Israel and Palestine director since October 2016.
Israel's interior minister ordered Shakir's deportation in May 2018, calling him a "boycott activist."
The court said that Shakir "continues his actions publicly to advance a boycott against Israel, but it's not on the stages at conferences or in university panels, rather through disseminating his calls to advance boycott primarily through his Twitter account and by other means."
"The appellant continues to call publicly for a boycott of Israel, or parts of it, while at the same time asking [Israel] to open its doors to him," said the ruling distributed by the Justice Ministry.
It cited Shakir's support on Twitter for AirBnb's decision to remove listings from Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria as an example. AirBnb later backtracked on that decision.
The court gave him until May 1 to leave the country.
Human Rights Watch said neither the organization nor Shakir promotes Israel boycotts, but has called for companies to cease operations in West Bank settlements because they "inherently benefit from and contribute to serious violations of international humanitarian law."
Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestinians seek these territories for a future state. Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal.
The court upheld the law applying to boycotts of "areas under [Israel's] control," namely Judea and Samaria.
Human Rights Watch said the court's ruling "threatens the ability of all Human Rights Watch staff members to access both Israel and the West Bank."
It called the ruling "a new and dangerous interpretation of the law", and said it would appeal to Israel's Supreme Court and seek an injunction to let Shakir stay in Israel until any appeal was heard.
"The decision sends the chilling message that those who criticize the involvement of businesses in serious abuses in Israeli settlements risk being barred from Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank," said Tom Porteous, deputy program director at Human Rights Watch.
The court gave Shakir until May 1 to leave the country. The group said it would appeal the decision and seek an injunction blocking the deportation while legal proceedings continue.
Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, whose ministry leads anti-boycott efforts, praised the ruling. "Boycott activists need to understand that what was will no longer be," he said.
"We will not allow the promotion of boycotts under the disguise of 'human rights activists' as Shakir did," he wrote on Twitter.
