PFLP to Palestinian NGOs: 'Resist by all means' EU's anti-terror clauses
The PFLP's statement is seen by pro-Israel organizations as indicative of how closely linked the NGOs are with terror groups.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSMEMBERS OF the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) aim their weapons at an effigy depicting US President Donald Trump as they ride a truck during a protest in Gaza City.(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on Monday called on all Palestinian institutions, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to adopt a unified position rejecting the European Union's anti-terror funding conditions.As part of it's efforts to ensure that European taxpayer money does not contribute toward terrorism, the European Union in 2017 passed a directive stipulating that NGOs in receipt of EU funding may not use the resources to fund terror. An article in Annex II of the General Conditions attached to EU grants therefore states that NGOs must ensure that none of their remittances can go to organizations listed by the EU in restrictive measures.Several Palestinian terror groups appear on these lists, including PFLP, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Hamas, among others. Additionally, in December 2019, several NGO officials were arrested in connection with the murder of 17 year old Israeli Rina Schnerb.In a statement released online, the PFLP has called on all NGOs and organizations to refuse the conditions laid down by the EU, to "resist them by all means," and to pressure the EU to cancel the anti-terror stipulation.The PFLP understood the financial pressure faced by Palestinian organizations, the statement said, blaming the coronavirus pandemic and the "Zionist occupation," but said that adhering to the EU's anti-terrorism clause would constitute "submission" to the EU's conditions, which, it said, conflate Palestinian national movements with terrorism.Furthermore, the EU's clause had been prompted by "Zionist measures" designed to impose Israel's preferred solution, the statement added.Therefore, the PFLP "stressed the necessity for institutions to issue a unified national position rejecting these conditions which struck a blow at the foundations of civil institutions expressing the Palestinian national identity, and are not isolated from the struggle of the Palestinian people and their national movement to end the occupation."Some 130 NGOs so far have publicly stated that they will not adhere to the clause, insisting that the stipulation amounts to illegal interference in Palestine's political process by outside bodies as the terror groups in question are "political parties." Among them was the NGO The BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, which earlier this month lost €1.7 million in funding for a three-year project, titled 'Mobilizing for Justice in Jerusalem,' after it refused to adhere to the anti-terror clause.In late December 2019 the NGOs launched the “Palestinian National Campaign to Reject Conditional Funding” to oppose the measure. In a statement posted to Badil's website, the campaign said of the EU's clause: "These conditions have reached an unacceptable level that stipulates the signing of the provisions on preventing terrorism that affect the history and struggle of our people. Undoubtedly, this escalation cannot be separated from all policies and approaches aimed at obliterating Palestinian national rights."In Monday's statement, the PFLP further called upon all institutions active in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza strip to form a unified position on the EU's clause, through which real concrete pressure could be brought to bear upon the EU to drop the measure.Commenting on the statement, the pro-democracy NGO Monitor told The Jerusalem Post that the PFLP's statement was indicative of how closely linked the NGOs are with terror groups such as the PFLP.NGO Monitor Vice President Olga Deutsch said: "this removes any doubt of the relationship between an EU designated terror group, the PFLP, and the NGOs that it sees as an extension of itself – groups that we have long warned European donor governments about. It demonstrates great audacity that a terror group and senior element of Palestinian establishment feels it has standing to call Palestinians to "resist by all means" anti-terror restrictions."
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