Protecting Human Rights in a Time of War with Noa Sattath
We were delighted to host ACRI’s Noa Sattath, in conversation with Adam Wagner, on Sunday 15th September.
Click here to watch a video of the event.
Noa Sattath became the Executive Director of ACRI in November 2021.
Noa is an ordained Reform Rabbi and was previously the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), where she was responsible for leading the organisation’s public strategy regarding religion and state, gender equality, and the fight against racism. Noa has been a partner in leading social justice struggles, especially the struggle against the exclusion of women and the election of racist candidates running for Knesset.
Prior to IRAC, Noa served as Executive Director of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance, where she aided in the historic move to lead the first Pride March in the city.
Noa also served as Executive Director for MEET, an organisation that uses technology to develop the joint leadership of young Israelis and Palestinians from Israel and the West Bank.
Association for Civil Rights Israel (ACRI) is Israel’s oldest civil and human rights organisation. Since 1972, ACRI has advocated for the civil liberties and rights of all who live in Israel and the West Bank. ACRI was NIF UK’s Human Rights Award Winner in 2020 and 2016, honoured for their outstanding work in the field.
ACRI’s mandate is to ensure Israel’s accountability and respect for human rights. It is committed to promoting and defending the human rights and civil liberties of all, regardless of religion, nationality, gender, ethnicity, political affiliation, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic background.
In recent times, ACRI has been advocating on behalf of those affected by the war. Their work has covered several areas; from extending accommodation for those evacuated from Sderot, to ensuring the shelters in Rishon LeZion are clear for residents to use, to safeguarding the rights to adequate healthcare for those still living in the North and South of Israel.
One of ACRI’s current petitions is for the Israeli government to close the Sde Teiman detention centre for its atrocious conditions for Palestinian prisoners, all taking place under the ‘protective’ shadow of war.
Adam Wagner is a barrister specialising in human rights, International law, public law and public inquiries. He practises from Doughty Street Chambers in London and is a Visiting Professor of Law at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is currently acting for the families of British and British-linked hostages of Hamas in Gaza.
He has appeared in ground-breaking cases and acted in eight major public inquiries, including the Baha Mousa and Al-Sweady Inquiries into allegations of mistreatment and unlawful killing by the British military in Iraq.
During the Covid pandemic, Adam became a leading public voice in explaining the Covid-19 restrictions, and in 2022 he published his debut book Emergency State: How We Lost Our Freedoms in the Pandemic and Why it Matters. He is currently acting in the Covid-19 Public Inquiry.