Memo to U.S. State Department: Admit Palestinian NGO connections to the terrorist PFLP

Dear Friend of FLAME:

A few weeks ago, Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz identified six Palestinian “rights organizations” as terror groups, sparking a strong backlash from the U.S. State Department and some European Union nations. Their objection generally was that Israel’s “terror” designation lacks proof.

This is despite mountains of evidence detailing the connection of these non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)—provided to the State Department by both the Israeli government and the independent non-profit NGO Monitor.

Perhaps functionaries in the U.S. State Department failed to pass Israel’s evidence up the chain of command. Perhaps this truth simply triggers cognitive dissonance for Arabists in the State Department, whose careers are invested in strengthening ties to the Palestinian Authority. They can’t believe it . . . because they don’t want to believe it.

Mr. Gantz accused the following Palestinian NGOs of having ties to terror: Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Al-Haq, Addameer, Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), and Bisan. Mr. Gantz said they are recognized terror organizations because they are operated by and for the benefit of the PFLP, which is itself designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.

What’s wrong with supporting the PFLP?

The toxic PFLP has been on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations since 1997 because it “Committed numerous international terrorist attacks during the 1970s.” The group was well known for pioneering armed aircraft-hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It has the blood of dozens of Israelis and other nationals on its hands.

More recently, the PFLP helped perpetrate the 2014 murder of five Israeli worshippers at a Jerusalem synagogue and a police officer who responded to the terror attack. Only two years ago, several PFLP officials were arrested and charged with the August 26, 2019 bombing that murdered Israeli 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, and wounded her father and brother.

The PFLP takes a hardline position—does not recognize the State of Israel and opposes any relations with it. It considers both Hamas and Fatah as illegitimate and is against the two-state solution. As a Marxist-Leninist and revolutionary socialist organization, it was originally aligned with the Soviet Union, but now it allies with Syria, Libya and Iran.

Minister Gantz laid out the case against the offending NGOs. “Those organizations were active under the cover of civil society organizations, but in practice belong and constitute an arm of the [PFLP] leadership, the main activity of which is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel,” Gantz’s office said in a statement. According to the Defense Ministry, all six organizations employed senior PFLP members, “including activists involved in terror activity.”

For example, Salah Hamouri was a PLFP operative convicted of plotting to assassinate Israeli Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. He later began working with the NGO Addameer. Khalida Jarrar, former director and then-deputy director of Addameer’s board, pleaded guilty to being a member of PFLP in 2019.

Two PFLP terrorists involved in the murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, including Samer Arbid, were employed by the Union of Agricultural Work Committtees. PFLP operative Shawan Jabarin, general director of the Al-Haq NGO, was described by an Israeli Supreme Court judge as a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” who spent part of his time “conducting a human rights organization that has no qualms regarding murder.”

The named NGOs are well-known Palestinian “civil society” organizations and have received significant European Union and United Nations funding over the years.

“Those funds served the Popular Front for payments to security prisoners’ families and martyrs, wages for activists, enlistment of activists, promotion of terror activity and strengthening, promotion of the Popular Front activity in Jerusalem, and distribution of the organization’s messages and ideology,” said Israel’s Defense Ministry.

Despite the carefully laid out case, including countless reports by NGO Monitor and Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry, the State Department declared itself unaware of the evidence for Israel’s claims against these six NGOs. State Department Spokesman Ned Price claimed the move had not been sufficiently coordinated with his office and they needed further clarification.

In his weak response, Price said: “We believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance.” In other words, we don’t want to believe this. Unfortunately, Price’s statement gave cover for a spate of other condemnations of Gantz’s announcement from around the world.

In fact, Gantz’s office said they had long ago notified relevant actors in the U.S. and even dispatched high-level Israeli officials to show the evidence. Despite all this and a preponderance of proof, the State Department has remained insistent that it does not have all the information.

This is absurd, especially considering all of the published information by NGO Monitor and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on the connection between these six NGOs and the PFLP. They have identified leading officials at these NGOs as PFLP members. According to NGO Monitor, notably, representatives from Al-Haq, UAWC, Addameer, UPWC, and Bisan participated in a May 2019 PFLP memorial rally for a dead terror executive in Ramallah.

This “terror mafia” gathering was attended by dozens of PFLP members—including, according to NGO Monitor, “nine representatives from at least seven NGOs that receive European government funding”—as well as Arbid, Jarrar and NGO officials detained in connection to the August 2019 murder attack.

Question is, is this a case of a misunderstanding between these two allies—the U.S. and Israel? Is it part of the phony “halo effect” that seems to protect “human rights” NGOs, who—regardless of evidence of involvement in terror—are given the benefit of the doubt? Or is it something more sinister from a State Department mission-bound to “make friends” with the politically bankrupt Palestinian Authority? Notably, the White House has largely remained silent on the issue.

However, I hope you’ll make the point to friends, family, colleagues and your elected representatives that whatever the justification for its denial, leadership at the State Department needs to face Israel’s overwhelming evidence. Antony Blinken and his team should retreat from the shaky limb they’ve climbed out on. As long as they remain in denial, anti-Israel forces will simply use this episode as another stick with which to beat the Jewish state—and true U.S. interests in Middle East peace will remain blocked.

I hope you’ll also take a minute, while you have this material front and center, to forward this message to friends, visit FLAME’s lively Facebook page and review the P.S. immediately below. It describes FLAME’s new hasbarah campaign—which exposes “Ben & Jerry’s Bad Taste” and those who support boycotts of the Jewish state.

Best regards,

James Sinkinson
President, Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)