Israel on Friday designated six Palestinian civil society groups as terrorist organisations and accused them of funnelling donor aid to militants, a move that drew criticism from the United Nations and human rights watchdogs.
Defence Minister Benny Gantz called on governments and organisations around the world “to refrain from contact with organisations and groups that feed the flames of terror”.
‘Political Decision’
The Jewish state said its move was due to the groups’ alleged financing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), after it earlier this year informed European donors of their alleged financial misconduct.
The Israeli defence ministry accused the six groups of working covertly with the PFLP, a leftist group which pioneered plane hijackings in the 1970s to highlight the Palestinian cause and is blacklisted by several Western governments.
According to the ministry, the six groups “constitute a network of organisations active undercover on the international front on behalf of the PFLP to support its activity and further its goals.”
The ministry named the groups as the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), Addameer, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P) and the Union Of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC).
A ministry statement said that while the groups functioned as civil society organisations, they were in fact “controlled by the senior leaders of the PFLP” and employed many of its members, “including activists who participated in terror activity”.
The groups used the humanitarian funding they obtained from European governments and other sources, some of it fraudulently, “as a central source for the financing of the PFLP’s activity,” the ministry alleged.
The Israeli move was met with outrage from the Palestinian government and human rights groups.
The Palestinian foreign ministry “unequivocally condemns and rejects Israel’s unhinged assault on Palestinian civil society and human rights defenders,” it said in a statement.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Palestinian territories said it was “alarmed” by the move, accusing Israel of “a long stigmatising campaign against these and other organisations” that damaged “their ability to deliver on their crucial work.”
