In an interview, Aboudi said he tried to leave the occupied West Bank last week to travel to the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of civil society groups taking place in Mexico this year. But he said he was stopped by Israeli officials from crossing to Jordan.

“I was told I have a travel ban. I asked why I have a travel ban. They said they didn’t want to inform me,” he said. Aboudi, who is a US citizen, said he had traveled to Jordan a month earlier without any problems.

The Bisan Center for Research and Development is a non-profit organization that claims to be committed to promoting a Palestinian society based on “freedom, justice, equality and dignity”. Aboudi has been arrested in the past by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which manages the autonomous areas of the occupied West Bank, for his political activities.

Bisan is one of six Palestinian human rights groups that Israel effectively outlawed last year after designating them as terrorist organizations.

Israel says the groups have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – a small Palestinian faction with an armed wing that has carried out deadly attacks on Israelis. The PFLP is considered a terrorist group by Israel and its Western allies.

But Israel has provided little evidence to support its claims against the six groups. The groups all continue to operate, although the Israeli crackdown has alarmed international donors and led some to cut ties.

Aboudi says he has no ties to the PFLP. The activists have said the Israeli move is an attempt to silence groups that have documented over the years that Palestinians have been treated harshly.

“There is no explanation for what happened to me, other than that this was an attempt to silence the Palestinian voice,” Aboudi said.