Issa Amro (; 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 Hebron, A City Hit Hard By Violence, A Palestinian Preaches Nonviolence National Public Radio. January 10, 2016Palestine field post: 'I am not your normal human rights campaigner' The Guardian. 10 March 2015.Author: Issa Amro Huffington Post. 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.UN Experts Urge Israel to Stop Harassment of Human Rights Defender Issa Amro UN News Centre. 13 August 2013. At present, Amro is being indicted by the Israeli military court with 18 charges against him.Israel Indicts Palestinian Gandhi The Electronic Intifada. 6 September 2016.WATCH: 'They want to get rid of the idea of nonviolent resistance' +972 Magazine. September 25, 2016. 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.Top Senators, Including Bernie Sanders, Urge Tillerson to Monitor Case of Palestinian Activist Indicted by IDF Haaretz. August 9, 2017.Congress of the United States Mark Pocan. Washington, DC 20515. June 28, 2017.
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."Palestine: Authorities must drop charges against human rights defender Issa Amro for peaceful criticism, 27 March 2019, Amnesty International
In late September 2017, after being released on bail, Amro met Bernie Sanders and members of Congress in Washington DC.Bernie Sanders Meets With Prominent Palestinian Activist Targeted by Israel and Abbas, Amir Tibon (Washington) Sep 28, 2017, Haaretz
Activism
Early years Amro grew up in the Hebron's Old City near Shuhada Street in an area that is now closed to Palestinians. His father, a school teacher, moved his family into H1 during the First Intifada when Amro was seven years old, as recounted in The Way to the Spring by Ben Ehrenreich.Ehrenreich, 2016, pp. 174–179
Two years after the start of the Second Intifada, the Israeli army declared the Palestine Polytechnic University a closed military zone and sealed off its entrances.Helen Murray, ‘Education is Freedom’, Adalah’s Newsletter, Volume 18, September 2005:’Reminiscent of the first Intifada, Hebron University and the Palestine Polytechnic University were closed down by military order for most of 2003, affecting more than 6,000 students.' Amro, who was then in his last year of an engineering degree, decided to take action against the closures. With the participation of other students of the university, Amro organized actions of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience for half a year. These actions included protests and demonstrations, moving into classrooms, sit-ins, and having lessons in the presence of Israeli soldiers. The campaigning was a success and the university was reopened in June.Occupied Campus: The Israeli Military Closure of Hebron University Right to Education Campaign. Birzeit University, Palestine. 31 December 2003.
Amro describes this victory as his gateway into resistance against the occupation. He took inspiration from known human rights defenders, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. He stated in a piece for The Guardian:
"I became convinced that their non-violent method was the best strategy for community resistance. Furthermore non-violence meant that there was a role for every Palestinian. ... My campaigning, my whole philosophy, everything I do now, is underpinned by these ideas."
Amro became part of B'Tselem and won the One World Media award in 2009 for the "Shooting Back" camera project, which he coordinated in Hebron. The project distributed cameras to Palestinians for the purpose of documenting human rights violations by Israeli soldiers and settlers.Issa Amro – Human Rights Defender in danger European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine. June 3, 2013.B'Tselem’s video camera distribution project wins British One World Media award B'Tselem. June 23, 2009. In 2008, B'Tselem reported an occasion where Amro himself was prevented from documenting Israeli settler disturbances, after which he was then beaten and arrested by Israeli military.Soldiers assault and arrest B'Tselem worker in Hebron B'Tselem. January 20, 2008
Youth Against Settlements
Amro is the coordinator Youth Against Settlements (YAS), which he describes as his major project to involve young Palestinians in nonviolent resistance against the Israeli occupation. He stated that his dream is to see nonviolence used as the methodology for a massive Palestinian resistance against the occupation. He co-founded YAS in 2007 as a group that documents and protests against human rights violations. The group's leading campaign is Open Shuhada Street, which calls for an end to the closures and restrictions enforced on Hebron's main street. The campaign takes place in several countries worldwide.Saving the West Bank's Shuhada Street Al Jazeera. March 8, 2013.Inspired by Gandhi, A Palestinian Resists the Occupation Newsweek. 8/4/2015.
2015—present During the surge of violence throughout the Palestinian territories in autumn 2015, Amro worked to discourage Palestinian youths from carrying out knife attacks: in their place, he advocated a nonviolent approach to resistance. He stated that he felt more worried about being shot by the Israeli army during these times than ever before.Matthew Vickery,'We have martyrs every day in Hebron,' Mondoweiss November 7, 2015.
At the regular session of the UN Human Rights Council in September 2015, Amro said that he was "extremely concerned" with the situation in Palestine during this time and stated that "the erupting violence over the past weeks…can only end when international law is applied." He mentioned the case of 18-year-old Hadil Hashlamoun, who on the 22 September of that year had been shot and killed by Israeli forces, and whose death was reported as "unlawful" by Amnesty International:"Memorandum: Lethal Force and Accountability for Unlawful Killings by Israeli Forces in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Amnesty International. September 28, 2015.Young Palestinian woman shot by Israeli Forces dies Al Jazeera. September 22, 2015.2 Are Killed in West Bank as Jewish and Muslim Holidays Approach The New York Times. September 22, 2015.
"Mr. President, I was present when they took her body away, and saw the settlers and soldiers rejoice at her fate. We urgently need an impartial international investigation into her case," Amro stated.30th Meeting, 30th Regular Session Human Rights Council UN Web TV. 28 September 2015.
Amro wrote an article for the Huffington Post in response to the Hebron shooting incident in March 2016. A video had been published by B'Tselem showing Israeli soldier Elor Azaria shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in the head at point-blank range, while the Palestinian was lying wounded on the ground.Charges Against IDF Soldier Who Shot Subdued Palestinian Downgraded to Manslaughter Haaretz. March 31, 2016. In his article, Amro described being guarded by Azaria for seven hours during an arrest in March, which took place before the shooting incident. Amro did not consider the soldier to be "unusually fanatical or extreme." Instead, he blamed the normalization of anti-Palestinian hatred within the Israeli military, and Benjamin Netanyahu for "pulling verbal triggers of incitement" and denying freedom for Palestinians with his politics.'Hero of Israel' Committed Murder Huffington Post. April 4, 2016.
In October 2024, Amro and YAS were distinguished with the Swedish Right Livelihood Award, "for their steadfast nonviolent resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation, promoting Palestinian civic action through peaceful means." In December 2024, the French and German governments jointly awarded him the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law. Because Israeli soldiers denied the French and German representatives entry into Hebron, he accepted the award on a road outside an Israeli Defense Forces checkpoint.
Issa Amro appeared in Louis Theroux's 2025 documentary The Settlers, where he guided Theroux around the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Amro stated that Israeli soldiers and settlers had raided his home in the aftermath, as part of what he believes was retaliation for his participation in the documentary.
Harassment and arrests In an article written for The Nation, Amro stated, "I have been arrested more times than I can count for nonviolent human-rights work."This Airbnb Cottage Is 'Beautiful' and 'Spacious.' It's Also in an Israeli Settlement The Nation. July 5, 2016.
In 2013, the Israeli army conducted an unannounced 'training exercise' at his home: "15 soldiers suddenly entered the family's yard at about 9pm. Wearing helmets, body armour and carrying weapons, they used a ladder to enter the house from an upstairs window."Palestinian villages subject to Israeli mock raids not told they are exercises, Harriet Sherwood, 12 Nov 2013, The Guardian
In a statement from 2013, the UN Council of Human Rights addressed the issue of ongoing harassment of Amro. Juan E. Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, expressed deep concern for Amro's "life, physical integrity and the psychological toll that [this harassment] is having on his health and family."
Amro was arrested and detained twenty times in 2012 without any charges filed against him, and on a further six occasions in 2013 up to the point that the aforesaid statement was written. It mentions an incident from 8 July 2013, when "Israeli soldiers allegedly beat Mr. Amro, taking photos of him on a stretcher and threatening to shoot him. He was hospitalized more than five hours later and summoned to the same police station the next day." The report also mentioned a recent "number of death threats from settler organizations" against him.
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, described the acts against Amro as an "unacceptable campaign of harassment, intimidation and reprisals." The report also mentioned an Israeli raid undertaken on the Youth Against Settlements media center in July 2013, during which Israeli soldiers allegedly fired at Amro and three other activists. Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, called for the protection of Youth Against Settlements members and for "those responsible for the unacceptable acts against Mr. Amro [to be] held accountable."