Isn't it weird that groups with such clear links to terror are defended by the EU and major NGOs? Maybe not.

A few weeks ago, the Washington Free Beacon published the dossier that Israel allegedly shared with the EU and US as proof that the six "civil society organizations" Israel banned were terror groups.

According to reports, the dossier didn't impress the EU countries, and they are not going to stop working with the six groups.

The groups are Al-Haq,  Addameer, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Union of Palestinian Women Committees, and the Bisan Center for Research and Development.

The main evidence in the dossier are the testimonies of Said Abedat and Amru Hamudeh, both of whom worked for another PFLP-linked NGO, the Union of Health Committees. Their evidence about the six NGOs is often secondhand and hearsay, although they identified some PFLP members in the six groups.

EU officials responded by saying that the six NGOs had their books audited by major accounting firms and that Israel's evidence was not strong enough.

I can understand how the other governments would not be convinced by the dossier that the NGOs are fronts for terror, or that they direct funds to terror activities. For those accusations, the evidence that has gone public is not that strong.

But the actual links to the PFLP from these groups is undeniable.

The Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees, as well as the previously banned  Union of Health Committees, were all founded by the PFLP. A 1993 report written for USAID says this explicitly:

As the second largest faction of the PLO, but with perhaps the most disciplined and energetic membership, the PFLP has built a potent institutional foundation throughout the West Bank and Gaza during the past decade. The strength of the PFLP's institutions is its capable, decentralized grassroots presence. Its principal institutions are in the fields of agriculture, health, labor, and the women's movement. 

The PFLP's agricultural extension services are provided by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), based in Bayt Hanina. The UAWC was founded in 1986, and expanded rapidly during the Intifada. ... During 1992 UAWC was involved in about 30 different projects in the West Bank and Gaza, including support for various cooperatives, the building of greenhouses for vegetable production, animal husbandry projects, and land reclamation services. 

The PFLP's health care network is coordinated by the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC).....Of its 38 clinics some, like the Polyclinic in Bayt Sahur, are first rate facilities. Others are more makeshift operations. As a significant provider of health care during the Intifada, the UHWC has an extended network of supporters and volunteers throughout the West Bank. Of all the factionalized health care committees, the UHWC has the greatest presence in the Gaza Strip.

The PFLP's women's committee, the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees (UPWC), is perhaps the weakest of the three leftist women's unions, but is certainly more active than its Fatah counterpart. 

So two of the six NGOs, plus a third that was previously banned, don't just have links to the PFLP - they were started by the PFLP terror group.

The links between the PFLP and the other NGOs are not much less compelling. 

One of the founders of Addameer, Abdul-Latif Ghaith, is a PFLP operative. It's former vice chair, Khalida Jarrar, was the head of the PFLP in the West Bank.

NGO-Monitor lists many more PFLP members who have worked for Addameer. 

Al-Haq's director, Shawan Jabarin, has represented the PFLP in public forums.

Nassar Ibrahim, a previous president of DCI-P, is the former editor of El Hadaf– the PFLP’s weekly publication. Many  more employees at DCI-P have been linked to the PFLP.

Ubai Aboudi, Bisan’s Executive Director, also has links to the PFLP and in 2005 he "was part of a cell that “planned to perpetrate a terrorist attack at the IDF Armored Corps Museum at Latrun, using two suicide terrorists and a car bomb.”

Maybe there isn't enough public proof to find that these NGOs are funding terror directly, but the links between the groups are documented and can be independently verified based on voluminous information that NGO-Monitor has.

There is absolutely no doubt that these groups have ties to the PFLP terror group. 

Also, given that at least some of these groups are considered to be "human rights" organizations, you will never find a statement by them that disagrees with the PFLP's political platform - which includes attacking and killing Jews. ("armed struggle.")

It's one thing to agree with Israel that these organizations are terrorist. But no one can seriously doubt that the organizations themselves are linked to the PFLP on multiple levels.

Can you imagine the EU funding an Al Qaeda hospital? An ISIS women's group? An Islamic Jihad charity? Even if their audits come out clean?

Of course not. If you deal with someone with links to a terror group, you are giving legitimacy to that terror group - even if the person or NGO has no direct ties to terror. 

Why are these EU countries and major international human rights groups so anxious to support these terror linked groups?

Because the PFLP is a socialist organization! The Human Rights Watch/Amnesty/Oxfam crowd are all ideological brothers with the PFLP! I noted that HRW used to regard the PFLP as a terror group, but over the years HRW changed its opinion from a murderous terror group to a respected socialist political party.. 

This might be the reason that the backlash over this story has been so loud. The six Palestinian NGOs share the socialist values of the PFLP, some of the EU and most global NGOs. To much of the Left, they are the "good guys," and their terror history is ignored or - secretly celebrated. 

 

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