Israel Expose 6 Palestinian Terror NGO’S

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Israel on Friday designated six Palestinian civil society groups as terrorist organizations and accused them of funneling donor aid to militants, a move that drew criticism from the United Nations and human rights watchdogs.

Israel’s defense ministry said the groups had ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP), a left-wing faction with an armed wing that has carried out deadly attacks against Israelis.

The groups include Palestinian human rights organizations Addameer and Al-Haq, which document alleged rights violations by both Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank

 “(The) declared organizations received large sums of money from European countries and international organizations, using a variety of forgery and deceit,” the defense ministry said, alleging that the money had supported PFLP’s activities.

The designations authorize Israeli authorities to close the groups’ offices, seize their assets, and arrest their staff in the West Bank, watchdogs Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement.

Addameer and another of the groups, Defense for Children International – Palestine, rejected the accusations as an “attempt to eliminate Palestinian civil society.”

The United Nations Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories said it was “alarmed” by the announcement.

“Counter-terrorism legislation must not be used to constrain legitimate human rights and humanitarian work,” it said, adding that some of the reasons given appeared vague or irrelevant.

“These designations are the latest development in a long stigmatizing campaign against these and other organizations, damaging their ability to deliver on their crucial work,” it said.

Israel’s ally the United States was not given advance warning of the move and would engage Israel for more information about the basis for the designations, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

“We believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance,” he said.

But Israel’s defense ministry said: “Those organizations present themselves as acting for humanitarian purposes; however, they serve as a cover for the ‘Popular Front’ promotion and financing.”

An official with the PFLP, which is on United States and European Union terrorism blacklists, did not outright reject ties to the six groups but said they maintain relations with civil society organizations across the West Bank and Gaza.

“It is part of the rough battle Israel is launching against the Palestinian people and against civil society groups, in order to exhaust them,” PFLP official Kayed Al-Ghoul said.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said the “decision is an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organizations.”

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EU Awakes Then Goes Back To Sleep

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Gerald Steinberg, founder and president of NGO Monitor, a policy analysis think tank focusing on non-governmental organizations, spoke to participants in a June 8 Middle East Forum webinar (Click on video) about the European Union's funding of Palestinian NGOs affiliated to terrorist organizations.

                                  

The EU grants around two to three billion Euros a year to hundreds of NGOs around the world, of which at least 150 million Euros is allocated for humanitarian aid. NGO Monitor's investigations reveal that over the last seven years at least 25 million Euros have gone to Palestinian groups affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organization designated as a terrorist group by the European Union.

Steinberg highlighted three examples of NGOs funded by both the EU and EU member governments that have ties to the PFLP:

Al-Haq, an NGO ostensibly dedicated to documenting human rights violations, is led by Shawan Jabarin, who was convicted by Israel's High Court in the 1980s of being a member of the PFLP and subsequently was prohibited from traveling abroad based on evidence he was recruiting for the PFLP.

Defense for Children International Palestine (DCI-P), a local branch of the Geneva-based Defense for Children International, is closely associated with the PFLP. At least three figures with alleged ties to PFLP have been employed or appointed as board members by DCI-P.

The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) was identified in a USAID report as the "agricultural arm of the PFLP." UAWC personnel with ties to the PFLP include an accountant who negotiated funding from the European Union and an administrative manager, both of whom are currently under indictment for the August 2019 murder of 17-year-old Israeli Rina Shnerb.

Last year, the EU introduced a provision into its grant agreements designed to ensure that entities on the EU's terrorism blacklist, known as a "restrictive list," don't benefit from EU funds. This caused an uproar among Palestinians. The Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), which represents the above groups and many others with dubious affiliations, "went to the European Union office that's in charge of relations with the Palestinians and said, 'We have totally opposed this. We won't let you. We refuse to allow you to apply this regulation to the funding that we're getting'."

EU officials soon backed down. In March 2020, the EU's representative to the Palestinians, Sven Kȕhn von Burgsdorff, issued a clarification letter saying, "it is understood that a natural person affiliated to, sympathizing with, or supporting any of the groups or entities mentioned in the EU restrictive lists is not excluded from benefiting from EU-funded activities, unless his/her exact name and surname (confirming his/her identity) corresponds to any of the natural persons on the EU restrictive lists."

In plainer English, said Steinberg, this means Shawan Jabarin and other PFLP members who pose as "human rights defenders" are allowed to benefit from EU funding so long as their individual names are not on the EU blacklist, which it so happens does not list any individuals (i.e. "natural persons"). Von Burgsdorff's letter assures Palestinian NGOs that affiliates connected to EU-designated terrorist groups like the PFLP not only can continue to receive EU funding but are now afforded "legitimacy" by Brussels.

The Israeli government contested this dodge and continues to insist that the Europeans end funding "that can be readily siphoned off to the terrorist organizations like the PFLP," explained Steinberg. "The European commissioner in charge of relations with Israel ... said, 'We're going to investigate this.' Now we're going to see if there's going to be an investigation or not. There may. That's why I leave the question, did the European Union go to sleep or not?"

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Improper Use Of EU Funds

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  From Israel Hayom - https://tinyurl.com/y7tzm4pn

Report by Israeli watchdog triggers EU turmoil over funding of NGOs linked to terrorist groups.

NGO Monitor data prompts Brussels to order its envoys in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to investigate if EU funds are reaching organizations affiliated with Palestinian terrorist groups. EU Ambassador to Israel Emanuel Joffre: If there is evidence of improper use of EU funds we will investigate them.

The EU on Tuesday ordered its representatives in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to investigate whether EU funds are reaching organizations affiliated with Palestinian terrorist groups.

The move follows a report by NGO Monitor, a watchdog group that promotes greater transparency among foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations operating in Israel.

The watchdog recently exposed an EU letter to an umbrella organization of 142 leading Palestinian NGOs assuring them that, even if a Palestinian NGO applying for EU grants is an affiliate of EU-designated terrorist groups or employs individuals from these groups, the EU will still provide the organization with funds and legitimacy.

After the information became public, EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi stated that the EU "will have to conduct an in-depth review, and if there is any concern we will act immediately. ... This [funding terrorism] will not be tolerated. And if it happens it will have to be rectified."

The Commission for Neighborhood and Enlargement is in charge of overseeing the accession process of prospective member states and relations with states bordering the European Union. The commission's policy is directed towards candidate states along the EU's eastern border and on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

Following the exposé on how the EU was potentially skirting the ban on financing terrorism, the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem had summoned EU Ambassador to Israel Emanuel Joffre, asking for clarifications on the matter.

Tuesday saw Joffre reiterate that "if there is evidence of improper use of EU funds we will investigate them."

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