Brussels: A confidential Israeli dossier detailing alleged links between Palestinian human rights groups and an internationally designated terrorist organisation contains little concrete evidence and failed to convince European countries to stop funding the groups.
The 74-page document appears to have been prepared by Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service and shared with European governments in May. The Associated Press obtained the document from the online +972 Magazine, which was the first to report on it, along with the Hebrew-language Local Call. Israel may have additional evidence that has not been made public.
Last month, Israel designated six Palestinian civil society organisations as terrorist groups, saying they were tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular, leftist political movement with an armed wing that has carried out deadly attacks against Israelis. Israel and Western countries consider the PFLP a terrorist organisation.
But Israel has yet to take further action against the groups, which operate openly in the occupied West Bank. The defence ministry and the Shin Bet did not respond to requests for comment.
The six groups, some of which have close ties to rights groups in Israel and abroad, deny the allegations. They say the terror designation is aimed at muzzling critics of Israel’s half-century military occupation of territories the Palestinians want for their future state.
The designated groups are the Al-Haq human rights group, the Addameer rights group, Defence for Children International-Palestine, the Bisan Centre for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC).
The dossier relies almost entirely on the interrogation of Said Abedat and Amru Hamudeh, who worked as accountants for the Union of Health Committees (UHC), a separate group that was outlawed in January 2020. Both were reportedly fired in 2019 for embezzling funds and were later detained by the Shin Bet. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment.
In redacted excerpts from their interrogation by Israeli authorities, they allege that the six organisations are PFLP branches but do not provide any evidence beyond naming a handful of alleged PFLP members employed by the groups. They suggest that some of the employees forge receipts to siphon away donor funds, but do not provide proof or say where the money went.
Speaking about the UAWC — one of the six — Abedat is quoted as saying, “as far as I know, this organisation affiliates to the PFLP”. His “estimation” is that the same printing company that helped him forge invoices also helped the other group.
Even when describing his own work in diverting funds to the PFLP, Abedat makes no mention of militant activities. “We funded PFLP activities such as university activities, funding of the injured and sick for the PFLP, funding of families of martyrs and prisoners from the PFLP,” he is quoted as saying.
Israel says the PFLP and other armed groups use such activities to recruit and indoctrinate members, and to provide financial support to militants and their families.
The dossier also details several forged invoices, all from the UHC. In one instance, Abedat says: “I estimate that this money went to PFLP activities.” In the others, it’s either unclear where the money went, or Abedat says it was used to cover the UHC’s debts. AFP
