Adalah and Partner NGOs Promote Arms Embargo Against Israel

On May 15, 2018, Adalah and seven other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) sent a letter to US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to “Investigate Israel’s Use of Lethal Force in Gaza and Halt Foreign Assistance to Israeli Military Units.” The NGOs demanded “that the U.S. Department of State investigate Israel’s use of lethal force against Palestinian protesters in Gaza since March 30, 2018, and halt any further assistance to all Israeli military units involved in these shootings, in accordance with U.S. law, including the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act” (emphasis added).

The letter adopts a BDS (boycott, divestments, and sanctions) agenda against Israel, in stark contrast to the signatories’ donors’ policies. Donors include the New Israel Fund, European Union, and a number of European governments.  

Adalah’s NGO co-signatories include groups involved in BDS, lawfare, and other political warfare campaigns against Israel. Some co-signatories also have links to the Popular Front Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.

The NGO signatories include:

Adalah

• Adalah is active in lawfare campaigns; accuses Israel “war crimes”; claims that Israel systematically passes “discriminatory laws”; and was among a group of NGOs that provided the basis for the UN Committee of Inquiry (the Schabas/Davis Commission) into the events of the 2014 Gaza war.
• Adalah was involved in creating Movement for Black Lives (MBL) “platform” that supports BDS and calls Israel “an apartheid state committing genocide.” The document originally listed Nadia Ben-Youssef, Director of Adalah’s Justice Project, as a co-author. MBL subsequently removed Youssef’s name, instead listing Adalah as an “organization currently working on policy.”
• Donors in 2012-2018 include: New Israel Fund (NIF); Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (joint funding from Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands), Switzerland, European Union, Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), Bread for the World-EED (Germany), Oxfam-Novib (Netherlands), Christian Aid (UK), UNDP, and Open Society Foundation.

Adalah Justice Project

• The Adalah Justice Project “Began as the US Program of Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel…the two organizations cooperate closely to advance a shared vision of full human rights for all people living in historic Palestine, the end of the occupation, and historical justice for all Palestinians.”
• According to the organization, the project “aims to transform American perception, policy and practice in Palestine/Israel into a human rights approach that guarantees historical justice and equality for all. Through public education, legal partnerships, and intersectional community-based advocacy, AJP seeks to secure the rights of Palestinians and contribute to a growing global justice movement.”
• Director Nadia Ben Yousuf participated in a conference (September 2017) co-sponsored (among others) by American Muslims for Palestine, Students for Justice for Palestine, National Lawyers Guild, and Jewish Voice for Peace. Speakers included representatives from AFSC’s ‘No Way to Treat a Child’ project, Mondowiess, Black Panthers, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the American Indian Movement.
  • The conference aim was to “commemorate the 100-year Palestinian resistance to Israel’s settler-colonial project and explore the similarities in violence used against Palestinians, African Americans, and Native Americans and their methods of resistance.”
• Adalah Justice Project is a fiscally sponsored project of the Tides Center.

Al-Haq

• Al-Haq is a leader of anti-Israel lawfare and BDS.
• Regularly files lawsuits and submits politically motivated reports to the UN Human Rights Council, the ICC, and other international bodies.
• Proposed sabotaging the Israeli court system by “flooding the [Israeli Supreme] Court with petitions in the hope of obstructing its functioning and resources.”
• Al-Haq General Director Shawan Jabarin has reported ties to the PFLP terrorist organization and has been denied exit visas by Israel and Jordan.
• According to information released by donors, from 2014-2017, Al-Haq received funding from the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, Norway,  Ireland. Al-Haq is participating in a German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Civil Peace Service (ZFD) project (2013-2020).

Al Mezan  

• Regularly describes Israel’s policies as “apartheid”; accuses Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “war crimes”; promotes BDS campaigns and a “Nakba” narrative; and refers to Israeli security measures as “collective punishment.”
• Highly active in anti-Israel lawfare campaigns such as lobbying for cases against Israelis at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• According to Al Mezan, “2016 Core Programme Donors” included: Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, Norway, Medico International (Germany), Open Society Foundations, Sigrid Rausing Trust, and Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO-Netherlands). In 2016, “Project Donors” included: European Commission, Diakonia, Norwegian Refugee Council, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and UNDP.

Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P)

• Supports BDS (boycotts, divestments and sanctions) campaigns against Israel and lobbies the UN, EU, and other international bodies and governments. Calls for Israel to “accept historical and legal responsibility for the Nakba, and recognize the principle of the right to return that was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in its Resolution No. 194 in 1948.”
• Several DCI-P board members and employees have ties to the PFLP. Mahmoud Jiddah, reportedly a “PFLP member,” was imprisoned by Israel for 17 years for carrying out “grenade attacks” against Israeli civilians in Jerusalem in 1968. Hassan Abed Aljawad is similarly described as a Bethlehem-based “PFLP activist,” or “leader,” representing the PFLP at public events. Previous board members had demonstrable PFLP ties as well. From 2007 to 2014, Shawan Jabarin – a reported PFLP activist and director of Al-Haq (see above) – was a member of DCI-P’s Board of Directors. PFLP-linked Nassar Ibrahim and  Majed Nassar were also on the Board.
• Hashem Abu Maria, a DCI-P employee, was hailed by the PFLP as a “comrade” and a “leader” after his death in 2014.
• According to its 2014 annual report, supporters and contributors included: Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, ICCO, Kerk in Actie (Netherlands), Bread for the World (Germany), Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), French Consulate, Swiss Interchurch Aid- HEKS, Stichting Kinderpostzegeks Nederlands (Netherlands), ARCI Cultura e Sviluppo (Italy), Mundubat (Spain), Save the Children International, World Vision, UNDP, UNICEF, The United Methodist Church, The United Church of Canada, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Open Society Institute, and others.

Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)

• Leader of lawfare campaigns against Israel.
• Regularly describes Israel’s policies as “apartheid” and accuses Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” “war crimes,” and the “Judaization of Jerusalem.
• Raji Sourani, founder and director of the PCHR, was “prohibited from leaving Palestine (sic) from 1977 to 1990.” According to a 1995 article in the Washington Report, Raji Sourani served “a three-year sentence [1979-1982] imposed by an Israeli court which convicted him of membership in the illegal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…” He was also denied a US entry visa in 2012. Sourani was imprisoned an additional three times “in 1985 and 1986…” and held in administrative detention in 1988. From 1986 to 1987 he was “restricted from legal work for one year by an Israeli military decision issued by the Israeli Military Governor.”
• In February 2014, the PFLP organized a ceremony in Gaza honoring Sourani for winning the “Alternative Noble Prize.” Rabah Muhana, a member of the PFLP Political Bureau, delivered a speech at the prize ceremony.
• According to its 2016 Annual Report, donors include: Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway, European Union, Austria, Oxfam Novib (Netherlands), Open Society Institute, Christian Aid (UK), DanChurchAid
  (Denmark), Grassroots International, Kvinna Till Kvinna (Sweden), Trocaire (Ireland), Medical Aid for Palestinians (UK), Al-Quds Association Malaga (Spain), and CARE International.

Amnesty International USA

• Disproportionately singles out Israel for condemnation, focusing solely on the conflict. Amnesty regularly misrepresents the complexities of the conflict and often ignores more severe human rights violations in the region.
• Amnesty uses apartheid rhetoric, accuses Israel of committing “war crimes,” and is active in BDS related activities.
• Regularly campaigns for and arms embargo against Israel. In April 2018, Amnesty “renewed its call on governments worldwide to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel.” In November 2017, Amnesty International-USA endorsed US Congresswoman McCollum’s proposed legislation “to prevent United States tax dollars from supporting the Israeli military’s ongoing detention and mistreatment of Palestinian children.”

 Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)

• Active in lawfare campaigns against Israel and Israeli officials (including Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Avi Dichter and former Chief of Staff of the IDF/Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon); promotes anti-Israel BDS campaigns; and accuses Israel of  “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.”
• Works closely together with Palestine Legal, an NGO Highly active in BDS campaigns, particularly on college and university campuses throughout the United States.
• CCR received contributions in 2015 from the Ford Foundation ($342,500), Atlantic Philanthropies ($661,393), Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund ($729,450), Bertha Foundation ($1 million), Warsh-Mott Legacy ($345,000), the Open Society Foundation ($495,000), the Oak Foundation ($250,000), and the Tides Foundation ($245,641).