Harassment of the Palestinian activist Issa Amro

Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights activist from Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.He is best known for promoting nonviolent resistance against the Israeli occupation and for documenting human rights abuses in Hebron.

He continues to live in Hebron, where his home and neighborhood are frequently targeted by Israeli settlers and military restrictions.

On October 2025, Parts of the area around his home have been declared a “closed military zone”, limiting his movement and activities.

Background and Work

Born in 1980 in Hebron’s Old City. He is the founder and coordinator of Youth Against Settlements (YAS), a grassroots group that organizes nonviolent protests, media tours, and human rights documentation in areas heavily restricted by Israeli forces and settlers. The group’s mission is to end segregation in Hebron, particularly on Shuhada Street, which Palestinians are largely banned from accessing.

Amro frequently speaks to international delegations, journalists, and human rights organizations about the daily realities faced by Palestinians under occupation.

Arrests and Harassment

Amro has been arrested and tried multiple times by Israeli military courts for his activism — charges that human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch describe as politically motivated. He has also faced detention and intimidation from the Palestinian Authority, which has been criticized for repressing dissent.Amnesty International and the United Nations have called for an end to his harassment by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities.

Recognition

Amro has received several international awards and nominations for his commitment to peaceful activism. He has been praised by figures such as Bernie Sanders and Noam Chomsky, and has spoken at the United Nations and universities worldwide about nonviolent resistance.

On September 2025, Issa Amro was included in the Time 100 Next list in the category "Leaders". The Gala toke place on October 31, in New York.

"Thirty miles east of the Gaza Strip stands another cauldron: Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, is inhabited by 200,000 Palestinians, 800 Jewish settlers, some 1,000 Israeli soldiers, and Issa Amro, who exists as a category of his own. A student of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Amro is far from the only Palestinian to embrace nonviolence. Polls show millions share his preference for a peaceful resolution to decades of conflict over Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Gaza. But few have had their conviction tested so sorely. As the founder of Youth Against Settlements, Amro spreads a gospel of resilience, passive resistance, and stubborn presence in one’s home. His philosophy stands in opposition to aggression from both settlers and soldiers, one of whom, right on camera, threw him to the ground and started kicking. Labeled a “provocateur” by the Israeli military, the activist has been honored by organizations from the European Union to the U.N. “See us as human beings,” Amro said, receiving the Right Livelihood Award in Berlin in June. “And see us as a nation.”