On Oct. 22, 2021, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced that Jerusalem was designating six Palestinian nongovernmental organizations as terrorist organizations.

Gantz’s announcement was decried by Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a liberal Democrat, and the usual anti-Israel voices in Congress. It has even been questioned by some Biden administration officials, most notably at the State Department. But the evidence suggests that the designations are justified.

There is a long history of links between shady nonprofit organizations and Palestinian terrorist groups. Gantz asserted that the NGOs in question — Al-Haq, Addameer, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees — have been "active under the cover of civil-society organizations, but in practice belong to and constitute an arm of 'the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).'"

The United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia, and other countries have designated the PFLP as a terrorist organization — and for good reason. The PFLP has been responsible for some of the most heinous terrorist attacks in Israel’s history. Founded in 1967 and gifted with support from the Soviet Union, the PFLP was responsible for numerous plane hijackings in the 1960s and 70s. It remained active long after the fall of its Soviet benefactor. According to the University of Maryland’s terrorism database , from 1998-2012 alone, the PFLP was responsible for no fewer than 72 murders.

In 2011, PFLP affiliates snuck into the home of an Israeli family, the Fogels, and murdered three children and their parents. The youngest victim, a three-month-old infant named Hadas, was decapitated. PFLP operatives have also taken part in recent operations with Hamas, another Gaza-based terrorist group that also calls for Israel’s destruction. The PFLP’s gruesome behavior, however, hasn’t stopped NGOs from closely associating with members of the terrorist group.

On Aug. 23, 2019, a 17-year-old Israeli girl named Rina Shnerb was murdered by a roadside bomb while hiking with her father. The bomb was planted by a PFLP cell whose commander was Samer Arbid, an accountant for UAWC. As the Jerusalem Post reported, UAWC’s finance and administration director, Abdul Razeq Farraj, "was indicted in October 2019 on four counts, including aiding an attempt to death” in a terrorist attack and “holding a position in a terrorist organization." Another UAWC employee, Ubai Aboudi, was sentenced to a year in prison in June 2020 and was responsible for recruiting for terrorist attacks.

UAWC had received funds from the Dutch government, among other sources. And, as the Dutch foreign ministry admitted to parliament in July 2020, "the Netherlands paid part of the salaries of terrorists involved in killing Shnerb."

NGO Monitor, an organization that promotes accountability for nonprofit organizations, has assiduously documented links between certain NGOs and terrorist groups. And NGO Monitor’s research makes it clear that UAWC is far from alone .

An Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs report titled "Terrorists in Suits" has documented these links. The report notes that "Hamas and PFLP operatives have infiltrated and adopted seemingly benign NGOs in the Palestinian Authority, Europe, North America and South Africa, for the purpose of advancing their ideological goal: the elimination of the State of Israel." Further, "it appears that terrorist organizations view NGOs in the West as a convenient means for raising funds."

Organizations like my own, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, have also spent years writing about such links. As CAMERA noted in the Washington Examiner in 2018, the secretary of DCI-P’s board, Fatima Daana, is the widow of the commander of the PFLP’s Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades. One DCI-P employee, Hashem Abu Maria, was celebrated by the PFLP as a "commander" of the terrorist group after his 2014 death.

Although State Department spokesman Ned Price has called on Israel to provide "more information regarding the basis" for the recent designations, evidence long in the public domain shows the disturbing ties between Palestinian terrorist groups and some NGOs.

Picture:  Rashida Tlaib - Reuters