Activities

• As a member of the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), CARE has been a signatory on numerous statements demonizing Israel.
  • In November 2021, AIDA published a press release condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to AIDA, “The decision is a further erosion of civic and humanitarian space and stands to significantly constrain the work of the six organisations which have worked with the international community, including the UN, for decades, providing essential services to countless Palestinians.”
  • In May 2020, AIDA called for “third states, the EU, and its member states, to devise and publish an exhaustive list of countermeasures to adopt in order to disincentivise Israel’s annexation policies in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
• In July 2016, CARE was a signatory on a petition to “stop this injustice” and “Lift the Gaza Blockade,” as “this blockade is a violation of international law.”
• Signatory to the 2015 Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) “joint agency briefing paper titled, “Charting a New Course: Overcoming the Stalemate in Gaza,” misrepresenting international law and distorting legal terminology to place primary blame for the 2014 Gaza war on Israel. The paper omits Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, as well as terror tunnels running beneath the border into Israel. The paper further encourages contact with Hamas, stating: “Restricted contact can undermine humanitarian access and implementation of humanitarian programmes…”
• In December 2013, CARE was a signatory on a statement denouncing Israeli home demolitions as they “facilitate the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and the destruction of civilian property is a violation of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.”
• Issued a joint statement on November 19, 2012, with 44 other highly politicized organizations, calling on the international community to “apply immediate pressure on the government of Israel” and warning of a “widespread humanitarian disaster in Gaza brought on by a prolonged [Israeli] military occupation.”
• In 2008, released a report, alongside Christian Aid, Amnesty International, Oxfam, Trocaire, Save the Children UK, and Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), titled, “The Gaza Strip: Humanitarian Implosion,” stating, “Israel’s policy affects the civilian population of Gaza indiscriminately and constitutes a collective punishment against ordinary men, women and children. The measures taken are illegal under international humanitarian law.”

Partnership with Terror-Tied NGOs

• CARE has provided funding to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Ma’an Development Center, Health Work Committees (HWC), and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS). All four of these NGOs have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP), a designated terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
• In 2022, CARE received $1,464,600 from UN OCHA for a project with Ma’an Development Center.
  • In May 2018, Ma’an Development Center employee Ahmad Abdallah Aladini was killed during violent clashes on the Gaza border. Aladini was a “comrade” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. According to the PFLP, Aladini was active against the “Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip.”
    • On his Facebook page, Aladini posted PFLP propaganda, including images that glorify violence and terrorists. On May 7, 2018, Aladini posted a PFLP memorial notice for the death of six members of Hamas who were killed during the “crimes of the Zionist enemy.”
• In 2022, CARE received $698,710 from UN OCHA for a project with the Abdel Shafi Community Health Association (ACHA), formerly known as the Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip (RCS4GS).
  • ACHA was founded and is directed by senior members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Other employees have demonstrated support for Palestinian terror groups and their actions. On multiple occasions, ACHA facilities were used by the PFLP to hold events.
• In 2020, CARE received $82,524 for a project with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.
  • In May 2019, Mustafa Barghouti attended a memorial event organized by the PFLP. It centered on PFLP political bureau member Rabah Muhanna, who, according to information posted by the PFLP, “contributed to the establishment” of several PFLP-affiliated NGOs. The hall was decorated with PFLP paraphernalia.
  • In March 2019, Sajed Mizher, a “first aid volunteer” for Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) was killed by the Israeli security forces “during confrontations…in the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem.” Mizher was a “comrade“ of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the S., EU, Canada, and Israel). Mizher’s funeral procession featured many individuals wearing military gear, PFLP paraphernalia, and PFLP banners. Mizher’s body was also adorned in PFLP paraphernalia, as well as a PMRS orange reflective vest.  (For more details, see NGO Monitor’s blog “Palestinian NGO Medic Killed in Bethlehem Clashes Had Ties to PFLP Terror Group.”)
• In 2020, CARE received $668,498 from the UN OCHA occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund for a project with Health Work Committees and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.
  • On June 9, 2015, the Israel defense minister announced that the Jerusalem branch of the Health Work Committee is an unlawful association, designated as a terrorist organization by the Israel High Court of Justice (HCJ 3923/15; emphasis added).
  • Numerous HWC staff members, founders, board members, general assembly members, and senior staff members have ties to the PFLP terror group. For more information on HWC’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Health Work Committees’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
  • In January 2020, HWC was designated by Israel as a terrorist organization.
• In 2016, Canada committed $3 million to CARE International for “humanitarian assistance – emergency livelihoods response to small-scale farmers affected by the Gaza crisis.” The project lists Ma’an Development Center as the NGO “implementing partner” and UAWC as an NGO partner.
  • UAWC is identified by Fatah as an official “affiliate,” and by USAID-engaged audit as the “agricultural arm” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. According to academic scholar Glenn E. Robinson, UAWC was founded in 1986 by “agronomists loosely affiliated with the PFLP.”
    • UAWC staff members, founders, board members, general assembly members, and senior staff members have ties to the PFLP terror group. For more information on UAWC’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Union of Agricultural Work Committees Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
    • Samer Arbid, Union of Agricultural Works Committee’s accountant from 2016until his arrest in 2019, was indicted on 21 counts in Israeli military court. Arbid is on trial for commanding a PFLP terror cell that carried out a bombing, murdering an Israeli civilian, and injuring her father and brother. According to the indictment against him (on file), Arbid prepared and detonated the explosive device. On August 30, 2020, the PFLP referred to Arbid as a “prisoner and commander,” and “one of the heroes of the Bubeen operation” — referring to the August 2019 bombing.
  • In May 2018, Ma’an Development Center employee Ahmad Abdallah Aladini was killed in the violence on the Gaza border. Aladini was a “comrade” of the PFLP. According to the PFLP, Aladini was active against the “Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip.”

Care West Bank Gaza

• CARE had been operating in the West Bank and Gaza since 1948. However on August 5, 2014, following the 2014 Gaza war, CARE WBG “temporarily suspended normal operations in Gaza, and will recommence once the security situation allows.” While CARE WBG has posted job openings on its Facebook page, it has not updated its website since August 2014, and therefore it is unclear to what extent they have resumed activities.
• CARE WBG lists donors as: Australia (AusAid), Canada (CIDA), EU, France, Germany (BMZ), United Kingdom (DFID), United States (USAID), and the Ford Foundation.
• CARE West Bank and Gaza’s various projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are individually profiled and list pro-BDS groups Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee, and Ma’an Development Center as its implementing partners. (See below for list of projects.)
• In June 2012, following demolitions of illegally built structures in the Palestinian village of Susiya, which included a CARE WBG health clinic, CARE issued a press release condemning “the demolition orders that will destroy most of the Palestinian community of Susiya, including an ECHO-funded health clinic run by CARE International in partnership with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. CARE calls on Israel’s Civil Administration to immediately halt the demolition orders in Susiya and on all humanitarian aid projects in the occupied Palestinian territory,” and called on individuals to sign a petition to “stop the forced evictions and occupation.”